Ever since the antitrust suit against NASCAR was settled, I have had people who formerly worked in the sport ask me who won, and I have responded, they both won.<\/p>\n
Immediately, I receive the question, \u201cHow so?\u201d I think it\u2019s hard to conceive both sides winning in a federal court settlement, but that\u2019s what happened.<\/p>\n
Related Story<\/p>\n
The NASCAR Cup teams received:<\/p>\n
A form of \u201cevergreen\u201d or permanent Charter, which they desperately wanted. The revenue will be periodically negotiated amidst new media rights deals.A say in decisions NASCAR makes that will affect their costs. The three-strike rule that existed in the 2016 Charter agreement was reinstated as a five-strike rule.A share of NASCAR\u2019s international revenue.A third of revenue from intellectual property rights. <\/p>\n
On NASCAR\u2019s side:<\/p>\n
The France family retained ownership of the sanctioning body that it has possessed since Bill France Sr. incorporated NASCAR in February 1948.The sanctioning body retained governance of the nation\u2019s premier stock car racing series.It didn\u2019t have to sell any of its tracks.It retains ownership of IMSA, ARCA, American Flat Track motorcycle racing, and Historic Sportscar Racing. It avoided the nation\u2019s premier stock car racing series being ripped apart as open-wheel racing was in 1980 and again in the mid-1990s. <\/p>\n
If the settlement hadn\u2019t been reached at the beginning of the federal trial\u2019s ninth day and it had gone to the six-man, three-woman jury, it could have been detrimental to all of racing in the United States. That\u2019s because every racing series is privately owned, most have spec engines or parts, and the series owners govern their series via the rulebook. A loss by NASCAR would have affected all of those issues. <\/p>\n
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James Gilbert\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
US District Court Judge Kenneth Bell made it clear to NASCAR, 23XI Racing, and Front Row Motorsports that they were \u201cburning down the house from the inside.\u201d He continuously encouraged them to settle, telling them if it went to the jury and the plaintiffs won, he could dismantle the Charter system and force NASCAR to sell tracks that it owned.<\/p>\n
Everyone knew whichever side lost, the other side would appeal to the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and from there to the US Supreme Court. Instead of putting the sport back together, the continued litigation would have ripped it apart.<\/p>\n
Throughout the legal proceedings, ugly emails and text messages that became public have left a burning trail of hurt feelings and destroyed relationships. People can say it\u2019s just business, but that doesn\u2019t always repair the damage, especially with racers who never forget.<\/p>\n
Instead of putting the sport back together, the continued litigation would have ripped it apart.<\/p>\n
Often the antitrust suit filed by NBA Hall of Fame member Michael Jordan\u2019s and NASCAR Cup driver Denny Hamlin\u2019s 23XI Racing and Bob Jenkins\u2019 Front Row Motorsports was characterized as a battle of billionaires and millionaires. However, when former driver and veteran NASCAR championship team owner Richard Childress testified, he showed that it was so much more. During Childress\u2019 50-minute testimony, he said that before the Cup teams were given Charters by NASCAR, his team was worth 10 cents on the dollar. Recently, a Cup Charter sold for more than $40 million. <\/p>\n
The Charters provide the team owners with something they can sell that amount to more than race car parts and a building if they chose to leave the sport. Before the antitrust suit. the owners felt they had no financial choice but to sign the Charter agreement NASCAR gave them even if they disagreed with it. If they didn\u2019t sign a Charter agreement, they lost their Charter and any financial benefit they might have received from it. Jenkins continuously testified during his nearly four hours of questioning over two days that he felt he \u201chad a gun to his head\u201d when it came time to sign or not-sign the 2025 Charter agreement.<\/p>\n
Related Story<\/p>\n
Now that\u2019s all changed and let\u2019s face it, Jordan was the only team owner that could afford to sue NASCAR. Even though he\u2019s been a NASCAR fan since childhood, he didn\u2019t need NASCAR financially. Instead, he took the course he felt the teams needed to be financially sustainable. <\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the first time NASCAR has been sued, and it probably won\u2019t be the last, but for now, it appears the waters have been calmed in a way that benefits both parties. <\/p>\n
![\"Lettermark\"](\"https:\/\/www.autoweek.com\/_assets\/design-tokens\/autoweek\/static\/images\/logos\/lettermark.de67f45.svg?primary=%2523000\")
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A North Carolina native, Deb Williams is an award-winning motorsports journalist who is in her fourth decade covering auto racing. In addition to covering the sport for United Press International, she has written motorsports articles for several newspapers, magazines and websites including espnW.com<\/a>, USA Today, and The Charlotte Observer. Her awards include the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence, two-time National Motorsports Press Association writer of the year, and two-time recipient of the Russ Catlin award. She also has won an award in the North Carolina Press Association\u2019s sports feature category.\u00a0 During her career, Deb has been managing editor of GT Motorsports magazine and was with Winston Cup Scene and NASCAR Winston Cup Scene for 18 years, serving as the publication\u2019s editor for 10 years. In 2024 she was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ever since the antitrust suit against NASCAR was settled, I have had people who formerly worked in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,782,163967,784,1642,634,163966,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-385697","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-content-type-news","11":"tag-contentid-d0c06353-ef0a-4ca7-933c-59d0a2dd4f32","12":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","13":"tag-locale-us","14":"tag-nascar","15":"tag-shorttitle-why-nascar-antitrust-settlement-benefits-everyone","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}