As the legal fight between NASCAR and Michael Jordan’s team continues, a court hearing gave a rare glimpse into private communications on both sides.
The messages, made public in discovery, were displayed in an injunction hearing Thursday and reviewed by Front Office Sports.
Jordan’s 23XI Racing Team and Front Row Motorsports sued NASCAR in October calling the racing body “monopolistic bullies” that hoard revenue and push teams around in negotiations. The lawsuit came after both teams refused to sign a new charter agreement in September that the racing body offered.
Charters guarantee racing teams’ entry to Cup Series races and access to the league’s revenues. Thirteen racing teams signed charters in the fall, with some teams contending they had no leverage regarding the terms.
“Teams are going to regret not joining us,” Jordan wrote in a text message to Curtis Polk, his business manager who owns 23XI Racing with him along with former Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin. Jordan also called Joe Gibbs and other racing owners “fuckers” and “pussies” for agreeing to charter terms.
The two sides came to court on Thursday to see if Judge Kenneth Bell would grant the plaintiffs their motion to deny NASCAR the transfer of a charter to an unknown party. Bell said he will next week.
NASCAR was founded by Bill France, whose family owns the racing league. Bill’s son Jim is the league’s current chairman. In a message obtained in discovery, Steve Lauletta, 23XI’s president wrote “Jim dying is probably the answer” for teams to get better charter terms,” according to The Associated Press.
“My despise for the France family runs deep,” Hamlin added. “… (but) please let’s not sabotage our own business.”
“My lawyers said don’t tweet,” Hamlin said on social media Friday. “So this is me not doing that. Hope everyone had a great day!”
Bubba Wallace, who races for 23XI and is preparing for the NASCAR playoffs, deflected when asked about the lawsuit during a recent appearance on FOS Today.
The litigation is “above my pay grade,” said Wallace, who recently became the first Black driver to win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“They just tell me to go out and win races. And look what we did at Indy in the midst of it all,” he said.
Jordan joked about his penchant for gambling in texts with Polk in a conversation that appears to talk about the price of charters.“I’m not selling even if they were for sale,” Jordan said in a partially redacted exchange. “What would we do?”
“This is just a hobby!!!” Polk replied.
“Only can play but so much golf,” Jordan said in response. “I have lost that in a casino. Lets do it.” (The amount Jordan was referring to was not clear.)
NASCAR executives also had private messages revealed in court. They were reviewed by Front Office Sports.
Commissioner Steve Phelps wrote in an email that talks weren’t progressing after an early charter proposal to teams and said “zero wins for the teams” and told his co-workers in another message that racing teams can “pick a date and can either sign or lose their charters. It is that simple.”
He also recognized the situation for the racing teams in another email that charters “must reflect a middle position or we are dead in the water — they will sign them but we are fucked moving forward.”
NASCAR president Steve O’Donnell also wasn’t a fan of an early charter proposal in May 2024 because he thought the Frances were pushing through a deal that would make the sport look bad.
“Fuck the teams, dictatorship, motorsport, redneck, southern, tiny sport,” he wrote, worried about how the offer would be perceived.
NASCAR executive vice president and chief strategy officer Scott Prime wrote to his fellow executives, “we have all the leverage and the teams will almost have to sign whatever terms we put in front of them.”
Jordan’s attorney Jeffrey Kessler argued the emails show NASCAR’s illegal monopoly over stock car racing.
“I think NASCAR’s own documents speak for themselves,” Kessler said to reporters after court Thursday. “I think you finally got to see them, and you can see what this case is about.”
Bell will rule on the injunction next week after the first week of NASCAR’s playoffs. He has previously urged both sides to settle. “It scares me to death to think about what all this is costing,” he said in June.
Jordan said outside the courthouse that he is open to settling the case, but is also fine seeing it go to trial.
“When we first started this whole process I’ve always said I want to fight for the betterment of the sport,” Jordan said to reporters Thursday. “The point is that the sport itself needs to continually change for the fans as well as for the teams. As well as for NASCAR, too, if they understand that. “I feel like we made a good statement today about that and I look forward to going down with fire. If I have to fight this to the end, for the betterment of the sport, I will do that.”
