Overview
- Front Row Motorsports owner Bob Jenkins finished emotional testimony, describing a six-hour, 112-page 'take-it-or-leave-it' charter deadline and estimating roughly $6.8 million in annual losses and about $100 million lost since becoming an owner.
- Jenkins and 23XI’s Denny Hamlin said a competitive Cup entry costs about $20 million per car per season, contrasting with the new charter guarantee of $12.5 million per car that NASCAR says it increased from $9 million.
- NASCAR President Steve O’Donnell testified that teams sought a new model in early 2022 and said chairman Jim France opposed it, as internal messages shown to jurors referenced 'zero wins for the teams' and debates over governance.
- Evidence and questioning highlighted NASCAR’s anti-breakaway planning, including exclusivity clauses with tracks, concerns over SRX, and options O’Donnell floated such as locking down venues, dissolving charters, or partnering directly with drivers.
- NASCAR maintains the system did not restrain trade, noting original charters were issued for free and created about $1.5 billion in equity, while Judge Kenneth Bell pressed both sides to speed the trial that still has Michael Jordan, Rick Hendrick and Roger Penske slated to testify, with 23XI and Front Row competing as open entries.