What happened in Day 2 of NASCAR’s antitrust trial

What happened in Day 2 of NASCAR’s antitrust trialStory byMotorsport photoMatt WeaverWed, December 3, 2025 at 5:43 AM UTC·6 min read

On the second day of the 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsport versus NASCAR antitrust case trial, the Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer of the Sanctioning Body was called to the witness stand.

It was a frequently uncomfortable afternoon for Scott Prime, who was called upon to explain what appeared to be internal strife within NASCAR leadership over the charter terms CEO Jim France seemed committed to imposing on teams.

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There have been numerous private emails and texts unsealed as part of the discovery process that seemed to suggest that the likes of Prime, then-COO Steve O’Donnell and then-president Steve Phelps all believed the Cup Series race teams deserved more than what their boss pushed for.

In one email, Prime suggested to his fellow leadership executives that team owners ‘have a point’ in their negotiation points because he learned that Formula 1 teams earn 50 percent of overall revenue, while Cup organizations get 20 to 25 percent.

“We at NASCAR have all the leverage and the teams will almost have to sign whatever we put in front of them,” Prime said in an email used as an exhibit during his questioning by the lead attorney representing the teams, Jeffrey Kessler.

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Prime also had to answer for a text message thread involving the aforementioned NASCAR leaders from May 21, 2024:

O'Donnell: Lesa called. "Spoke to Gary (Crotty, NASCAR legal), Mike (Helton, president ) and Jim (France). They all thought meeting was productive and that we just need to keep trying to move the needle. Teams won't get everything they want and hopefully we can just meet in the middle. I just listened as she didn't want to hear any opinions but I of course didn't hold back. I just asked for someone in the mtg to point out how any of our positions are going to grow the sport and position us for a big rights renewal in the future.

Phelps: Productive? Insanity. Look at the Amanda (Oliver, Chief Legal Officer) chart - zero wins for the teams.

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Phelps: The draft must reflect a middle position of we are dead in the water - they will sign them but we are fucked moving forward. I feel better now. Thanks for that.

Prime: The approach of 'here is a bit more money, fuck off everywhere else' is a bold strategy

O'Donnell: And one that Lesa said both Mike and Gary thought is getting us close. Close to a comfortable 1996, fuck the teams, dictatorship, motorsport, redneck, southern, tiny sport.

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Kessler asked Prime if this was indeed a sentiment of frustration that they couldn’t get through to the NASCAR patriarch. He said was frustrated from the meeting with team owners and regretted his language.

But Prime also argued to Kessler that the NASCAR board of directors listened to the feedback and included some additional asks for the teams, something 23XI and Front Row characterize as getting ‘two or three’ of the thousands of line items asked.

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Thus, Kessler asked what was given to teams and Prime said ‘significant protections, and the response from the 23XI and Front Row legal counsel is that NASCAR still didn’t offer charter permanency, additional monies or a figurative seat at the decision-making table.

“You kept all the power,” Kessler said.

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Kessler also spent a majority of his time questioning Prime trying to get paint him as someone that was aware of the potential of a breakaway competitor series who efforted strategies for NASCAR to fend it off.

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As early as 2020, Prime expressed email conviction that a breakaway series 'could demonstrate to team owners and drivers that there are alternatives' and that NASCAR should 'want to avoid a CART/IRL scenario.' The reference there is the open wheel split that destroyed the mainstream viability of North American Open Wheel Racing in the 1990s.

Kessler said, through emails produced in discovery, that Prime and his fellow leadership team then started discussing more extensive track exclusivity agreements with Speedway Motorsports venues as to prevent those tracks from welcoming a competitor.

For example, NASCAR prevented SRX from racing at SMI tracks, whom wanted to series to help pay off debt.

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When asked about one email, one in which he thanked Amanda Oliver for the help putting together track exclusivity details for the group, Prime said he didn’t know much about the agreement nor does he communicate with tracks. In fact, Prime says his job was just to gather information and data from multiple sources for the larger NASCAR leadership group and present them in powerpoint slides.

He was the vice president of strategy and innovation, and professed to not understand track or exclusivity clauses, which Kessler jumped on.

Kessler: “How much do you make?”Prime: “Then, $200,000-$250,000.”Kessler: “Now?”Prime: “$400,000.”Kessler: "That's a lot for someone that just puts slides together for someone else."Prime: "That's your opinion.”

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NASCAR wanted 'knife' put into 'trash' SRX amidst charter negotiations

Eventually, NASCAR instituted two-year exclusivity agreements that extended four years after the life of that particular contract. Before that, Prime said in an email that that the old single year track agreements 'leaves Speedway Motorsports vulnerable to outside offers.'

And by outside offers, Prime means a series launched by the Cup Series teams or something like SRX.

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For his part, Prime says this was just a matter of protecting tracks that matter to NASCAR and the teams that race on them. And that, giving the tracks money in exchange for that exclusivity prevents other buyers like Amazon or Google from turning the properties into data centers or wear houses.

Kessler also grilled Prime on Project Gold Codes, one of the plans NASCAR had mocked up in the case that multiple charter holding teams boycotted races and/or didn’t sign the charter agreement in time for the 2025 Daytona 500.

Prime simply called that a ‘contingency plan.’

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NASCAR contigency plans to run Cup races in house revealed in legal filing

Before the day ended, it was revealed that 23XI and Front Row do plan to put Richard Childress on the witness stand, notable since has threatened legal action over texts produced in discovery that suggested Phelps wanted him 'taken out back and flogged,' while calling him a 'stupid redneck' who owes his entire fortune to NASCAR.

Also, Judge Kenneth D. Bell said there has been an email from a non-party team owner who wanted to protect the exact nature of their financials while testifying. Specifically, that party asked Judge Bell to seal the court and prevent the public and media from listening to that testimony.

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Judge Bell said he is not in favor of that, and that closing the court to the public risks a retrial, so instead he has asked both parties legal representatives to speak as generally as possible to protect financial records that have not been very specifically deposed or produced in discovery.

The witness list includes Childress, Heather Gibbs, Rick Hendrick, Cal Wells and Roger Penske as such owners or executives who could have made that ask. The individual was someone characterized as someone who likes the charter system but has lost a lot of money under the current system.

Court picks back up on Wednesday morning with the cross-examination of Prime by NASCAR’s legal representation.

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Richard Childress exploring legal action over NASCAR executives' texts

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