They tell us all the time: Be careful with those text messages.
Some of them, if uncovered, could lead to extreme embarrassment, perhaps even shame.
In the right environment, some could even have legal ramifications.
In this particular case, you have it all.
Man oh man, talk about a “discovery” …
The antitrust case against NASCAR — brought by race teams 23XI and Front Row Motorsports — begins this coming Monday (Dec. 1) in Charlotte, N.C., barring a very-last-minute settlement. A settlement would eliminate the possibility of each side’s worst-case scenarios, but it wouldn’t erase the damage that’s already been done.
Michael Jordan, Denny Hamlin and even Long John Silver (in a way) are part of NASCAR lawsuit
A quick “tale of the tape,” as the boxing folks call it …
23XI Racing: The team is co-owned by basketball legend Michael Jordan, Jordan’s longtime business partner Curtis Polk and longtime NASCAR star Denny Hamlin, who still races for a different team — Joe Gibbs Racing.
The 23XI team fields three Toyotas in the Cup Series. They’re driven by Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace and Riley Herbst.
Front Row Motorsports: The team is owned by Bob Jenkins, who owns some 250 restaurant franchises — KFC, Taco Bell and Long John Silver’s among them. The team fields three Cup Series Fords for drivers Noah Gragson, Todd Gilliland and Zane Smith.
NASCAR: The organization was founded in late-1947 by a group of racers brought together by Bill France, who was selected to lead the organization at those December meetings in Daytona Beach, where the headquarters remain today.
In 1972, France passed along control of NASCAR to his oldest son, Bill Jr., who passed away in 2007. Bill Jr.’s son Brian followed his father as head of NASCAR but took an “indefinite leave of absence” in 2018 after a DUI arrest in Sag Harbor, N.Y.
Brian’s uncle Jim, Bill France Jr.’s younger brother (and only sibling), was brought in to steady the organization and today remains CEO and Chairman of NASCAR. He’s now 81 and has a racing background involving both cars and motorcycles, and has always been considered to enjoy wide popularity throughout the sport, from boardrooms to the garages.
Jim’s niece, Lesa France Kennedy, is NASCAR’s executive vice president. Her son, Ben, is also an executive vice president and serves as the organization’s chief venue and racing innovations officer. His public role has increased in recent years, and he’s served as front-man for various scheduling moves to new locations.
An overview of NASCAR teams’ claims
It’s complicated, as they say, but the plaintiffs are hoping to prove to a jury that NASCAR doesn’t play fair with the 15 team owners who, combined, own the 36 “franchises” (they call them charters) that race in the Cup Series.
The race teams, plaintiffs say, could be much more profitable if not for the alleged monopolistic practices of the sanctioning body.
NASCAR has responded accordingly, saying they run the operation in a manner that benefits all of the participating parties. They point to the fact that 13 of the 15 team owners agreed to the newest charter agreement, which coincided with the beginning of the newest media contract with TV networks Fox and NBC, along with TNT and Amazon Prime.
As happens in such cases, there was a “discovery” phase, allowing the sides to discover information deemed essential to proving their point. Early in the long proceedings, things took an ugly turn when some of Hamlin’s text messages — deemed pertinent to the process — detailed his personal animosities toward NASCAR’s hierarchy.
“My despise of the France family runs deep,” one of his texts read.
More recent texts, uncovered by Hamlin’s legal team, appear to hit even harder and could have long-lasting effects.
A wide range of texting among NASCAR higher-ups — including Commissioner Steve Phelps and President Steve O’Donnell — have become major headlines in the days leading up to trial. That’s partly due to the potential legal implications they may have at trial, but for the general fan base, they’re explosive for entirely personal reasons.
As for the potentially legal ramifications, some texts show the officials’ negative feelings toward a three-year made-for-TV series called the Superstar Racing Experience (SRX), which ran six summertime races in 2021, 2022 and 2023 before folding. The first two years were broadcast on CBS, the third on ESPN — neither of those networks currently broadcast NASCAR races, a fact not lost on the NASCAR leaders, particularly when some of NASCAR’s star drivers moonlighted in SRX events.
In one text chain, Phelps expressed NASCAR’s need “to put a knife in this trash series.” But a group text involving a few other officials, it seems NASCAR feared SRX would soon announce plans to race at two former NASCAR speedway staples: North Wilkesboro and Bowman Gray Stadium, both in North Carolina.
Soon thereafter, NASCAR announced returns to North Wilkesboro (midseason All-Star Race) and Bowman Gray (preseason “Clash”).
Along with texts about SRX, the legal discovery took a personal turn in 2023 when texting chatter turned to team owner Richard Childress, who during a national radio interview expressed frustration with the ongoing high cost of fielding race teams.
In a text attributed to Phelps, Childress was alternately called a dinosaur, idiot, stupid redneck and ass-clown “who owes his entire fortune to NASCAR.” On top of that, it was suggested the team owner needed “to be taken out back and flogged.”
If you ever need an Exhibit A as to why opposing groups often settle before getting too deep into the legal proceedings, this is it.
The fallout has included a less-than-forgiving reply from the Childress camp.
Richard Childress takes on texting shrapnel
Richard Childress Racing, a NASCAR competitor since 1969, owns two Cup Series charters and fields Chevrolets for drivers Austin Dillon (the owner’s grandson) and Kyle Busch.
The team’s namesake served as the team’s lone driver for 285 Cup races through 1981, when Childress, who’d never won a NASCAR race behind the wheel, changed his career path. In short order, he became a Victory Lane fixture when he left the cockpit and eventually handed the keys to Dale Earnhardt.
Of Earnhardt’s 76 career victories, 67 came in RCR’s black No. 3 Chevy, which became a truly iconic vehicle that Earnhardt also wheeled to six of his seven career championships.
Childress, who turned 80 in September, has been in NASCAR since before the “modern era” arrived in 1972. Along with the highly successful driver-owner partnership with Earnhardt, the two became close friends over the years, and that connection helped build much of the popularity the owner has maintained through the decades.
Childress grew up in Winston-Salem, N.C., and not on the right side of the tracks. He took odd jobs just to buy school lunches. He sold refreshments in the grandstands of historic racetrack Bowman Gray Stadium. In his teen years, he unloaded the trunks of moonshiners and took the hootch on the journey’s final leg — to the illegal beer halls and gin joints around Winston-Salem.
He witnessed horrible altercations at times, and says he quit the gig after seeing a man blow another to bits with a shotgun.
He’s a throwback, and a proud one, and didn’t take kindly to the publicized text messages from NASCAR’s corner offices. There obviously wouldn’t have been NASCAR millions for Richard Childress Racing without a NASCAR, but he feels the gratitude should cut both ways, and certainly found no gratitude flowing from Phelps’ texting fingers.
His team issued a press release Monday saying as much.
“RCR and Richard Childress are equally disappointed for the NASCAR fans, with whom Mr. Childress closely identifies given his humble and hard-working background. Mr. Childress and the organization will issue no further statements regarding these or other defamatory text messages that have recently surfaced, as legal action is being contemplated and discussed with legal counsel.”
And to think, the trial hasn’t even started yet.
∎ Email Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Richard Childress an unfortunate new co-star as NASCAR trial nears
Reporting by Ken Willis, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
