Three years ago, Jeff Gordon, vice chairman of the most successful organization in NASCAR’s history, forecast a frightening future for every team — and every fan — in the sport.
Sitting in a conference room a few blocks from NASCAR’s Charlotte, North Carolina, offices, the four-time champion sat alongside three other team executives. They told select media members in October 2022 that the sport had a “broken” business model.
Gordon said in that meeting that Hendrick Motorsports, which had won Cup championships in 2020 and 2021, would not make a profit in 2022. In fact, Gordon said, it had been “awhile” since the organization had done so.
“Where we’re currently at, it is not sustainable,” he said.
If the sport’s top team might not be able to survive in the future, how could any team? What would happen to the sport so many fans enjoyed? How close were teams to a breaking point?
Fourteen months after two teams — including one co-owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin — filed a lawsuit against NASCAR and nine days into a trial that saw NASCAR CEO and Chairman Jim France, NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps, car owner Richard Childress, Jordan and Hamlin, among others, take the stand, the two sides announced a settlement.
The trial is over. Consider this the sport’s gift to fans two weeks ahead of Christmas.
“We can get back to focusing on what we really love and that’s racing,” France told reporters as he stood next to Jordan on the steps of the federal courthouse Thursday in Charlotte, North Carolina. “We’ve spent a lot of time not really focused on that so much as we need to be. I feel like we’ve made a very good decision here together and we have a big opportunity to continue growing the sport. … We need to focus on what we all love.”
It took someone like Jordan to help lead the sport to this path. Jordan didn’t enter NASCAR merely as a businessman with only passing interest in the sport. He’s been a long-time fan, a passion handed down from his father.
“He used to work on engines for years,” Jordan said of his father James in an exclusive interview with NBC Sports and Fox in September 2020, shortly after it was announced that Jordan was entering the sport as a car owner.
“He became a big stock-car fan and he bred us to do the same. Went to Darlington, Rockingham, Charlotte, Talladega. (Long-time NASCAR car owner) Hoss Ellington used to be from Wilmington (North Carolina) and he used to work on cars with Hoss Ellington way back in the day. I’ve been involved in car racing for a long period of time as a fan.”
That Jordan partnered with Hamlin started as something of a joke. Hamlin was a season ticket holder of the Charlotte Hornets when Jordan owned the NBA team and had gotten to know him. When reports linked those two as possible owners of a NASCAR team, Hamlin sent the story to Jordan along with a note.
“Looks like we’re owners together, ha, ha. Congratulations.”
Jordan responded: “Fake news, but if you want to make it real news, let me know.”
That led to the birth of 23XI Racing, which debuted in 2021. The team expanded to two teams in 2022 and three teams this past season.
Even with such growth, there remained concerns about finances for teams. Two years of negotiations between the teams and NASCAR did not achieve what Jordan, Hamlin, and Front Row Motorsports owner Bob Jenkins hoped. 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports did not sign the charter agreement in September 2024.
The other 13 team owners signed the charter agreement, but as Childress said in court this past week, he did so because he couldn’t afford to lose his charters. The charter system is similar to the franchise model in other sports (with at least one big exception, until this settlement). A charter guarantees a team a starting spot in every race and certain financial terms.
Having not signed the charter agreement, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports filed an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR and France on Oct. 2, 2024.
“Someone had to step forward and challenge the entity,” Jordan told the jury on December 5, the fifth day of the trial. “I sat in those meetings with longtime owners who were brow-beaten for so many years trying to make change. I was a new person, I wasn’t afraid. I felt I could challenge NASCAR as a whole. I felt as far as the sport, it needed to be looked at from a different view.”
While NASCAR teams have had charters since 2016, they had to be renewed. Thursday’s settlement makes them permanent. 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, which had lost each of their three charters for the final 16 races of this past season, will get them back.
Thursday’s deal was something Judge Kenneth D. Bell had encouraged both sides to do repeatedly in the last year. During a hearing in August, Bell warned NASCAR that if 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports “prevail, NASCAR is going to look very different.” He also warned both sides in that same hearing, “if either of you feels certain you’re going to win, you’re wrong.”
Details have yet to emerge about the agreement but there is one winner for certain. The fans. They get their sport back.
“I wish we could’ve done this a few months ago,” Bell said in court, according to media reports, after reading the settlement. “I believe this is great for NASCAR. Great for the future of NASCAR. Great for the entity of NASCAR. Great for the teams and ultimately great for the fans.”
Car owner Rick Hendrick, who was on NASCAR’s list to testify this week, rejoiced in the news of the deal, stating: “I’m incredibly optimistic about what’s ahead. When our industry is united, there’s no limit to how far we can go or how much we can grow the sport we love.”
Eventually, Jordan said on the courthouse steps, it came to “level heads” fostering an agreement.
“I’ve said this from day one, the only way this sport is going to grow is we have to find some synergy between the two entities,” he said Thursday of the teams and NASCAR. “I think we’ve gotten to that point. Unfortunately, it took 16 months to get here, but I think level heads have got us to this point to where we can actually work together and grow this sport up.”
As one of the attorneys said ending the media session outside the courthouse: “Let’s go race.”
It is only 66 days — and counting — until the Daytona 500.
Advertisement
Editor’s Note: After more than a decade covering NASCAR for NBC Sports, Dustin Long will be transitioning to a new role at USA Sports in 2026. We are incredibly thankful for his years of diligent and impactful journalism and for his consummate professionalism and teamwork. The team at NBC Sports wishes Dustin all the very best in his new venture.
