CHARLOTTE, N.C. — For nine straight chilly mornings, the black SUVs would roll up to a federal courthouse in uptown Charlotte and a GOAT would emerge.
Michael Jordan, often sporting a plaid suit and carrying a tan coffee cup, would saunter through the unseasonably cold air of his home state toward the courthouse steps — occasionally lobbing some light-hearted banter at media members along the way.
Once inside, Jordan would not leave for more than eight hours.
Each day, the NBA legend sat in the same spot on a wooden bench in a historic 1930s courtroom, glued to the trial revolving around the antitrust lawsuit his race team and one other had brought against NASCAR, accusing the stock car series of illegal monopolistic conduct.
Let’s not kid ourselves: As much as other key players were involved, such as Jordan’s 23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin and Front Row Motorsports owner Bob Jenkins, this trial was so much about Jordan vs. NASCAR.
Without his deep pockets to fund massive legal fees, without his willingness to engage NASCAR’s founding France family in legal combat as no one had done before, and without his insatiable appetite for winning, this lawsuit would have never happened.
All along, Jordan insisted he was here to strengthen NASCAR and form a partnership, not tear it apart. Jordan wanted change, he said, and he was willing to do whatever it took to achieve it — even if it meant risking his race team’s existence.
After Thursday, that mission has been accomplished. NASCAR will never be the same after settlement terms were reached that give teams permanent charters — similar to franchises in other major league sports.
While there’s no question Jordan will always be most known for the impact he had on basketball, he can now add NASCAR to the list of sports for which he will be regarded as a historic figure.
The victory he achieved Thursday was that significant for stock car racing.
Previously, team owners paid tens of millions of dollars for licenses — the charters — that would allow cars to participate in every NASCAR Cup Series race and were accompanied by guaranteed payouts (approximately $12.5 million per year). Except the charters would expire after a certain number of years if the teams did not agree to new financial terms with NASCAR, a monopoly, as the judge in this case ruled, which could essentially dictate take-it-or-leave-it offers.
When such an offer did occur in September 2024, 13 of NASCAR’s 15 charter team owners felt pressured into signing the deal — some agonizing over what felt like a “gun to the head” moment, testimony showed. They felt their only choice was to sign the agreement or go out of business, and many had decades of family investment into their teams.
But 23XI and Front Row held out and brought a lawsuit to challenge what they saw as NASCAR’s anticompetitive conduct, instead of signing the deal. The trial tore NASCAR apart over the last two weeks and revealed damaging communications from executives, as well as the previously secret finances of the France family, while destabilizing NASCAR’s leadership structure.
While it should come as no surprise that Jordan ultimately prevailed — he knows a thing or two about winning, after all — the settlement didn’t only benefit 23XI and Front Row. As of Thursday, all teams will receive those same charter agreement terms, meaning Jordan, Hamlin and Jenkins just handed permanent franchises to the entire Cup Series garage.
You can guess what will happen now. With non-expiring charters, investors will line up to buy into assets that are currently undervalued based on their previously uncertain lifespans. There’s no reason charter values shouldn’t double (or more) in the next few years, with the promise they won’t expire.
There are other financial benefits headed the teams’ way as well, rewards that can be traced back to Jordan’s determination to fight for what he believed in.
What do you get as a thank-you gift for the GOAT who has everything? Perhaps some acknowledgment would be nice. The other team owners should be blowing up Jordan’s phone to express gratitude for what he’s done, as they sat on the sidelines and watched the two sides publicly brawl for more than a year.
There’s no question the teams were winning the case as of Thursday morning. Jordan could have pushed further if he wanted to, perhaps to the point where NASCAR was dismantled, and a new series emerged from the ashes.
But that was never his intention. Even as he testified during the trial, Jordan spoke about creating “more of a partnership” between NASCAR and the teams.
“If that’s the case, it becomes a more valuable business,” he said. “If you can ever compromise on the things that matter, you can grow your business.”
Now we’ll see that put into practice, and perhaps an even bigger opportunity for NASCAR could emerge: Publicly embracing Jordan in a way the company could not before.
After all, Jordan is a lifelong NASCAR fan who watches every race and bought into the sport against the advice of his own business manager. The projected annual profits that made him sign up in 2021? Only $900,000 per year.
Jordan isn’t in NASCAR for the money. He’s in it because he actually, genuinely loves racing. And yet, because of the bitter charter negotiations and then the lawsuit, NASCAR has completely missed the chance to link arms with him and help promote the sport during his time as a team owner.
That has the chance to change now. As Jordan spoke to reporters on the courthouse steps after the lawsuit was settled, he stood shoulder-to-shoulder (OK, maybe elbow-to-shoulder) with NASCAR chairman and CEO Jim France.
“I’ve said this from Day 1: Only way this sport is going to grow is we have to find some synergy between the two entities, and I think we’ve gotten to that point,” he said. “Unfortunately, it took 16 months to get here, but I think level heads (have) gotten us to this point to where we can actually work together and grow this sport.
“I’m very proud about that. And I think Jim (France) feels the same.”
