Michael Jordan — ‘Someone had to step forward and challenge’ NASCAR

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Retired NBA great Michael Jordan took the stand in NASCAR’s landmark antitrust case and testified Friday that he was a fan of the stock car series since he was a child but felt he had no choice but to sue to force changes to a business model he sees as aggrieved teams and drivers risking their lives to keep the sport going.

Jordan testified before a packed courtroom for an hour. His celebrity drew jokes from the judge and even a defense attorney when he explained why the team he co-owns, 23XI, joined Front Row Motorsports in filing a lawsuit against the top auto racing series in the United States.

“Someone had to step forward and challenge the entity,” Jordan told the soft-spoken jury. “I was in these meetings with longtime owners who had been intimidated for so many years trying to make changes. I was a new person, I wasn’t afraid. I felt like I could challenge NASCAR as a whole. I felt like when it came to the sport, you had to look at it from a different perspective.”

Jordan’s highly anticipated appearance follows dramatic testimony from Heather Gibbs, the daughter-in-law of race team owner Joe Gibbs, about the chaotic six-hour period in which teams had to sign an extension or forfeit charters that guarantee week-to-week revenue throughout NASCAR’s 38-race season.

“The document was something you would never sign in the business world,” said Heather Gibbs, who is also a licensed real estate agent. “It was like a gun to your head: if you don’t sign, you get nothing.”

Charters are the equivalent of the franchise model used in other sports, and NASCAR guarantees every rented car a spot in every race, along with a set payout from the series. The system was created in 2016, and during two years of tough negotiations over an extension, teams requested that the renewable charters be made permanent to ensure revenue stability.

When NASCAR refused to make them permanent and gave teams six hours in September 2024 to sign the 112-page extension, 23XI and Front Row Motorsports were the only two organizations out of 15 to refuse. They filed an antitrust suit instead, and the trial opened Monday to hear their claims that NASCAR is a monopolistic tyrant. 23XI is co-owned by Jordan and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, and Front Row is owned by fast-food franchiser Bob Jenkins.

Jordan testified that 23XI purchased a third charter in late 2024 for $28 million, even with all the uncertainty.

“I’m pretty sure they know I like to win,” the six-time NBA champion said. “Denny convinced me that having a third driver improved our chances of winning, so I dove in.”

Like other witnesses this week, Jordan described a NASCAR that has refused to discuss options or potential changes to the charter system, which he supports. He was asked why 23XI didn’t sign extensions last fall.

“First, I didn’t think it was economically viable. Second, he was saying you couldn’t sue NASCAR; it was a violation of antitrust laws, in my opinion. Third, they gave us an ultimatum that I didn’t think was fair to 23XI,” Jordan said, adding, “I wanted a partnership, and permanent charters weren’t even a consideration. The pillars that the teams wanted, no one on the NASCAR side even negotiated or compromised. They weren’t even open-minded to welcoming these conversations, so that’s where we ended up.

Jordan referenced the NBA’s business model, which shares about half of its revenue with players, far more than NASCAR.

“The revenue distribution was much lower than any company I’ve worked at. We didn’t think we’d ever get to what basketball was getting, but we wanted to move in that direction,” he said. “What I see in NASCAR that I think is missing is a shared responsibility for growth as well as loss.”

Jordan said he owns 60% of 23XI and has invested between $35 million and $40 million in the team. Jenkins testified earlier this week that he has never made a profit since launching his NASCAR team in the early 2000s and estimates he lost $100 million even while winning the Daytona 500 in 2021.

Heather Gibbs earlier told the jury how she became part-owner of Joe Gibbs Racing the day after her husband, Coy, died unexpectedly in his sleep the same night their son Ty won NASCAR’s second-tier Xfinity Series championship in 2022. Coy Gibbs had moved into a leadership role at JGR after the death of his older brother, JD, in 2019.

Because Joe Gibbs had lost both of his sons and had built the team as a legacy for his family, his daughter-in-law took an active role in the organization and personally participated in negotiations for charter extensions. When NASCAR made its final offer on a Friday at 6 p.m., with only hours remaining to sign it, the agreement did not include a permanent charter. Gibbs testified that the Gibbs organization was devastated.

“Everything was happening so fast, Coy’s legacy, JD’s legacy, everyone at JGR was very upset,” she told the jury. She said her father-in-law called NASCAR President Jim France to advocate for a resolution.

“Joe said, ‘Jim, you can’t do that,’” she said. “And Jim was done with this conversation.”

Heather Gibbs said she had to leave to take her son to a baseball game in Chapel Hill and was worried about her father-in-law, who was 84 at the time.

“I left him sitting in the dark, listening to his glucometers go off,” she testified. “We decided we had to sign. We can’t lose everything. I don’t think it’s a fair deal for the teams.”

Joe Gibbs is an NFL Hall of Fame coach as well as a NASCAR Hall of Fame owner. He led the Washington Football Team to three Super Bowl titles and JGR won five Cup Series championships. JGR has 450 employees, charters four Cup cars and relies solely on outside sponsors and investors to keep the team afloat. The team will mark its 35th season next year and Heather Gibbs told the jury that JGR needs permanent charters to protect its investment in NASCAR.

“This is the most important point, a permanent place in their history books,” she testified. “It is absolutely vital for the teams that we know that we have security, that it cannot be taken away from us, that what we have invested in belongs to us.”