The basketball icon, introducing himself formally in a federal courtroom on Friday, stated that his drive to win and novelty within the sport emboldened his push for 23XI Racing to confront Nascar over alleged violations of antitrust rules.
Jordan shared financial and corporate details of his racing venture, saying he invested $40m of his personal wealth into the Nascar Cup series team launched with business partner Curtis Polk and driver Hamlin.
“It fell to someone to act,” Jordan said during testimony. “I was a new person, I wasn’t afraid. I believed I could take on Nascar as a whole. From my perspective, the sport it needed to be looked at through a new lens.”
The heart of the case involves the end of a 2016 agreement where Nascar granted each team a franchise. The concept is similar to other professional sports with separately owned franchises, such as the Charlotte Hornets or the NFL’s Panthers. The agreement was set to expire in 2024 when Nascar demanded charter membership renewals.
Jordan was on the witness stand for an hour and left the court to pandemonium, with fans and media vying for a view or a photo of the global icon.
23XI Racing is at the forefront of the push along with another racing team for Nascar to overhaul a business model Jordan contended is unlawful to keep two hands on the wheel.
For Jordan and and a fellow team representative, who testified before Jordan, are details from last September. She recounted a hectic and tense six hours where the sanctioning body told teams they must sign a charter agreement extension. This agreement consists of over a hundred pages detailing team compensation and a guaranteed spot in Nascar-sponsored races.
Jordan explained that his team and its ally concluded their sole viable path was to refuse a signature that 112-page package and litigate the matter. The other 13 organizations agreed to the terms.
The team owners reached out to Nascar about possible changes or extension options. Nascar wasn’t talking, Jordan said.
But in the end, the resistance against what he saw as a financially unsustainable model was mostly about the usual bottom line for Jordan: Success.
“Denny convinced me adding a third car improved our chances to win,” he testified, sharing that he bought a third charter late in 2024 for $28 million amid the legal dispute. “So I took the plunge.”
Gibbs described her push for indefinite franchises, which she said a formal letter to Nascar. She testified the pressure of the signature deadline didn’t sit well.
According to her, the team founder first tried to call and persuade Nascar against forcing signatures, but Nascar’s leader refused the appeal.
“Don’t do this to us,” Heather Gibbs said Joe Gibbs told Nascar’s executives. The response was, “If I wake up and I have 20 charters, that’s what I have. If there are 30, that’s the number.”
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