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12/05/25 12:36:00
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12/05 12:34 CST Heather Gibbs testifies NASCAR offer was 'like a gun to the
head,' Michael Jordan takes stand
Heather Gibbs testifies NASCAR offer was 'like a gun to the head,' Michael
Jordan takes stand
By JENNA FRYER
AP Auto Racing Writer
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) --- The daughter-in-law of race team owner Joe Gibbs gave
emotional testimony Friday in the federal antitrust case against NASCAR about
the chaotic six-hour period in which teams had to sign an extension on a new
revenue model or forfeit their charters.
"The document was something in business you would never sign," said Heather
Gibbs, who is also a licensed real estate agent. "It was like a gun to your
head: if you don't sign, you have nothing."
Charters are the equivalent of the franchise model used in other sports and in
NASCAR it guarantees every chartered car a spot in all 38 races, plus a defined
payout from the stock car series. The system was created in 2016, and during
the two-plus years of bitter negotiations on an extension teams begged for the
renewable charters to be made permanent for revenue stability.
When NASCAR refused to make them permanent and gave the teams six hours in
September 2024 to sign the 112-page extension, 23XI and Front Row Motorsports
were the only two organizations out of 15 to refuse. They instead filed the
antitrust suit that opened this week.
23XI is owned by retired NBA great Michael Jordan and three-time Daytona 500
winner Denny Hamlin, and Front Row is owned by fast food franchiser Bob
Jenkins. They allege the top motorsports series in the United States is a
monopolistic bully.
Jordan was called to the witness stand Friday afternoon with U.S. District
Judge Kenneth Bell wryly noting the courtroom and an overflow room nearby with
a video feed were packed.
Heather Gibbs became co-owner of Joe Gibbs Racing the day after her husband,
Coy, unexpectedly died in his sleep the same night their son, Ty, won NASCAR's
second-tier Xfinity Series championship in 2022. Coy Gibbs had moved into a
leadership role with JGR following the death of his older brother, J.D., in
2019.
Because Gibbs had lost both his sons and had built the team as a legacy for his
family, his daughter-in-law took an active role in the organization and
personally participated in negotiations for the 2025 charter extensions. She
expressed her dissatisfaction with NASCAR's refusal to make the charters
permanent in a letter she sent to NASCAR leadership in May 2024.
When NASCAR made its final offer at 6 p.m. on a Friday night with just hours to
sign, the agreement did not include permanent charters. Gibbs testified the
organization was devastated.
"Everything was going so fast, the legacy of Coy, the legacy of J.D., everyone
at JGR was very upset," she told the jury. She said her father-in-law called
NASCAR chairman Jim France pleading for a resolution.
"Joe said, ?Jim, you can't do this,'" she said. "And Jim was done with the
conversation."
Heather Gibbs said she had to leave to take her son to a baseball game in
Chapel Hill and left worried about her father-in-law, who was 84 at the time.
"I left him sitting in the dark, listening to his blood sugar monitors going
off," she testified. "We decided we had to sign. We can't lose everything. I
did not think it was a fair deal to the teams."
Joe Gibbs is both a Hall of Fame NASCAR owner and NFL Hall of Fame coach. He
led the Washington football team to three Super Bowl titles and JGR has won
five Cup Series championships; Heather Gibbs joked it should be six but Hamlin
let one slip away in November. Hamlin drives for JGR but is co-owner of 23XI.
JGR has 450 employees, charters for four Cup cars and relies solely on outside
sponsorship and investors to keep the team afloat. The team will mark its 35th
season next year and Gibbs told the jury that JGR needs permanent charters to
protect its investment in NASCAR.
"It's the most important point, a permanent place in their history books," she
testified. "It is absolutely vital to the teams for us to know we have
security, it can't be taken away, to know what we've invested in is ours."
Heather Gibbs also testified about the letter she sent NASCAR executives
earlier in 2024 following a meeting with them in which she said commissioner
Steve Phelps offended her by saying JGR spent recklessly on its race team. The
letter was introduced into evidence Thursday.
"We've put 32 years into investing and building a dream, building careers,
building families, and building NASCAR. If the financial model made sense, we
would not have had to work with an outside investor," she wrote. "If our teams
were financially healthy and did not solely rely on sponsorship, I would sleep
better at night, not worrying about when the torch is passed on.
"We have invested not only our time but our family in this sport. We have
raised champions and buried their leaders, all while continuing to embrace the
historical roots of NASCAR," she added. "So, with all due respect, please
understand that when you tell us it doesn't make sense to partner with us after
7 years is dejecting and truly disappointing."
NASCAR president Steve O'Donnell, who testified this week, was asked about a
text message he sent to Ben Kennedy, nephew of Jim France that read: "Jim is
now reading Heather's letter out loud and swearing every other sentence."
Pressed by plaintiffs attorney Jeffrey Kessler as to what France was saying as
he read the letter, O'Donnell instead said the chairman never swore.
"That's what I wrote, but he was not doing that," O'Donnell testified. "We were
all taken aback by the letter. I think Jim was frustrated, as we all were."
___
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
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