"We want a court victory": NASCAR President Steve Phelps disapproves settlement as he breaks silence on Michael Jordan's lawsuit 'distraction'
NASCAR President Steve Phelps has broken silence on the ongoing charter lawsuit involving NASCAR, its CEO Jim France, Michael Jordan's 23XI Racing, and Bob Jenkins' Front Row Motorsports. Both teams sued the league on October 2, for their alleged involvement in antitrust and monopolistic activities.
After two years of negotiation, NASCAR shared the 2025-2031 charter proposal and pressured teams to sign the deal by September 6 midnight, two days before the playoff opener began at the Atlanta Motor Speedway on September 8. The teams who failed/refused to sign their approval by the deadline were at risk of losing their existing charters.
Still, 23XI and FRM refrained from approving the proposal, and a month later, dragged the organization to the federal courtroom, accusing them of malpractices. While the proceeding is taking its due course, President Steve Phelps remained tight-lipped on the matter.
However, during his recent conversation with veteran sports insider John Ourand of Puck Sports, Phelps spoke in detail for the first time. When asked about whether the matter should end with a settlement, the official replied.
"Obviously, we want a court victory. I can’t get into the lawsuit, and I can’t speak to why Michael and Denny Hamlin decided to take this action. We negotiated in good faith for over two years. We had the majority of the teams—13 of 15, representing 32 charters—extend with us," Phelps said.
"Do I like that he’s taking this course of action? I don’t. Would I like to put it behind us? Yes, I would. I’m hopeful it can be somewhat speedy. But for us, it’s going to be business as usual. We’ve got races to run. We’re looking to grow. We’ve got new media partners. There’s lots of momentum. I just want to make sure that this is not a distraction," the NASCAR President added.
The teams asked for more revenue share, a lifetime guarantee of the charters, a say in governing matters, and a big chunk of sponsorship money earned through teams and their driver's efforts.
23XI Racing and FRM fire back at NASCAR's preliminary injunction argument
Until the matter concludes, the Cup Series teams expressed the need to let them race as chartered teams in 2025. They cited several reasons such as loss of goodwill, losing out on a bigger share of revenue reserved for chartered teams, and potential backing off of the sponsors as the charters guarantee entry into every points-paying race.
NASCAR filed against the motion and said that it would disturb the status quo as they had planned for the 32 chartered teams. They went further and argued that accusers wanted to extract more money from the sport's purse and that the teams could compete without the charters. They also expressed that the courts can restore the monetary loss, provided the teams win out.
However, the teams' counsel, Jeffrey Kessler fired back at NASCAR's reasonings.
Kessler pointed out that fielding an 'open' entry in the Cup Series will require 23XI and FRM to release their antitrust claims against the sport's governing body, the teams will lose their goodwill which cannot be quantified and can cause irrecoverable harm, and the defendants didn't disprove the 'exclusionary acts' claim made by the accuser, to name a few.