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Hamlin, NASCAR share terse exchanges in court as antitrust case continues

NASCAR used Denny Hamlin’s own words against him Tuesday to paint the picture that what he has stated about the sport doesn’t match what he’s accusing them of in the ongoing antitrust lawsuit.

Hamlin began the day on the witness stand to pick up where he left off Monday during the opening day of the 23XI Racing, Front Row Motorsports versus NASCAR battle. It took less than half an hour for Hamlin to finish answering questions from one of the team’s attorneys, during which he pointed out financial numbers, including the team’s NASCAR expenses of $703,000 for entry fees, licenses, testing, internet, and data.

“We get charged for the WIFI at the racetrack,” Hamlin quipped.

It was during this part of Hamlin’s testimony that he explained NASCAR Cup Series teams had been telling NASCAR for years they were struggling. Hamlin, however, was given the impression that the 2025 charter agreement would be better, which would help the teams. He also strongly rebuked the second seven-year extension in the charter agreement because it does not include a negotiation opportunity, and teams could be in a position to not receive any additional revenue from NASCAR.

“Yes,” Hamlin admitted when asked if it was hard not to sign the 2025 charter agreement. It felt like a “death certificate for the future.”

The rest of the morning featured Hamlin under cross-examination from one of NASCAR’s attorneys, Lawrence Buterman. It was during these questions that Hamlin, multiple times, got terse on the stand as he took exception to NASCAR’s questions and inferences.

It started when Hamlin’s pitch deck for Michael Jordan to launch 23XI Racing was dissected. Buterman pointed out that Hamlin listed multiple positive points for Jordan about getting into the sport, including Bubba Wallace having over $17 million in sponsorship, the Next Gen car, and the charter system.

In the lawsuit, however, Buterman pointed out that Hamlin is using the same examples to harm his race team. Hamlin accused Buterman of twisting words. He further said that he was repeating what NASCAR had told the industry about what the car would do for costs, which turned out not to be true.

Buterman spent quite a bit of time bringing up previous comments Hamlin has made, both publicly and privately, about the sport, all of which have been positive and contradict what the lawsuit alleges.

Hamlin took clear exception to this line of questioning. In addition to saying his public comments are taken out of context because he’s doing NASCAR a favor by being positive, he claimed that if he doesn’t do that, he gets in trouble. And then Hamlin refuted the notion that his comments can’t be trusted.

The positive comments in public are “talking points” and to make the fans happy.

Buterman moved on to positive comments had made privately. One example was a text message exchange with a reporter from The Athletic in which Hamlin praised NASCAR/ISC for reinvesting money into the sport with its repave projects that are well done, while then criticizing Speedway Motorsports for the botched jobs they do and taking the money and running.

Hamlin said in those messages that Speedway Motorsports is “miles behind” ISC in promotion, attendance, and facilities.

Other private messages used as examples included Hamlin talking with fellow executives from 23XI Racing about meeting financial goals for the race team. There were also emails where Hamlin expressed that he wouldn’t build a team to lose money, and they haven’t. Again, Hamlin said he is being a cheerleader and saying pos itive things because he doesn’t want his partners to get ill will toward NASCAR and leave.

There were also multiple financial figures that came out during Hamlin’s testimony:

·      It took nearly $100 million to build and run 23XI Racing, but Hamlin says that doesn’t account for the $40 – 60 million that it takes to go racing.

·      23XI Racing is paying $1 million in rent to Hamlin and Jordan, who own the Airspeed building.

·      Hamlin makes approximately $14 million as a driver for Joe Gibbs Racing.

·      Hamlin stated he invested $45 million into 23XI Racing, but Hamlin’s lawyer told NASCAR that as of Aug. 2024, he had only put in $10 million. Hamlin owes the remaining amount on loans.

·      23XI Racing was estimated to be worth $160.2 million as of the end of 2024.

·      Hamlin said COVID-related inflation made the cost of Airspeed exceed projections, which were about $10 million. It ultimately was $35 million, and Hamlin said the initial projection also didn’t include anything past the four walls.

Hamlin was later asked if he was aware that his 23XI Racing partners had expressed in their own private communications that he was a “terrible businessman.” After acknowledging that he was, Hamlin not only disagreed with those statements, but said that it’s the job of others to disagree and keep things in line when it comes to finances.

In further expressing how there can be disagreements between partners, Hamlin said it was the reason why there were communications about him telling 23XI Racing to find someone to buy him out of the team as early as 2023. Hamlin said that was looking for attention and just kicking and screaming over how to run the team the way he wanted. A compromise was eventually met, according to Hamlin.

Buterman used it as a pushback to Hamlin’s claims about being in the sport for the long haul – the same case he made when pointing out to Hamlin that he had communicated in 2024 about getting a third charter, building up its worth, and then selling a portion of it. But Hamlin said that was about getting some money back.

The rest of the afternoon saw NASCAR executive vice president Scott Prime on the witness stand. Prime was grilled by the team’s lead counsel, Jeffrey Kessler, over emails and pitch decks that had been previously released but were now being seen and heard by the jury for the first time. Among them were NASCAR’s contingency plans if none of the teams signed the charter agreement, as well as internal messages expressing frustration with the negotiation process.

Prime is expected to return to the stand on Wednesday.