AllRacing

NASCAR’s O’Donnell admits to concerns over SRX Series as antitrust case continues

Advertisement

NASCAR president Steve O’Donnell acknowledged to the court Thursday afternoon that there was concern within his organization over what the Superstar Racing Experience (SRX) was turning into.

O’Donnell, testifying in the antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR that was brought by 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, admitted as much when he was specifically asked about the series because of text messages that had come to light before the trial started. The chain of messages featured NASCAR executives discussing their displeasure with their drivers and team owners competing in the series. One message from NASCAR commissioner Steve Phelps expressed that NASCAR needed to put a knife through “this trash series.”

SRX (main image) only lasted three seasons after debuting in 2021. It was shuttered before its fourth season for what were described as market reasons. 

“I recall we all became concerned at the look and feel of the series,” O’Donnell said under questioning from the team’s lead counsel, Jeffrey Kessler.

SRX was founded by Tony Stewart and Ray Evernham. Stewart was a NASCAR team owner at the time, and Kessler honed in on the fact that meant he was a charter holder with Stewart-Haas Racing. This was significant in that NASCAR had clauses in its agreement with the teams expressing that they could not compete or invest in other series.

At the heart of the lawsuit is 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, who are not only arguing that NASCAR’s business model is broken, but that it is anticompetitive. Meaning as a monopoly, which Judge Kenneth Bell has already ruled they are, NASCAR wields its power to keep drivers and teams from competing elsewhere.

As such, Kessler wanted to know how Stewart circumvented that clause. O’Donnell explained that he looked into it and found that, as former Stewart-Haas executive Brett Frood told him, the initial pitch for SRX was a series featuring retired and/or inactive drivers. It was not to be a competition for NASCAR. The series was often compared to IROC (International Race of Champions), which ran from 1973 through 2006, because it featured some of the greatest drivers from across motorsports in similarly prepared race cars.

In its first season, SRX featured Stewart, Tony Kanaan, Bobby Labonte, Helio Castroneves, Ernie Francis Jr., Paul Tracy, Bill Elliott, Willy T. Ribbs, Michael Waltrip, and Marco Andretti. But one active NASCAR Cup Series driver also competed that season: Chase Elliott.

 

SRX would feature more active NASCAR drivers and owners in its following two years. Denny Hamlin, who co-owns 23XI Racing, was among them, and Justin Marks was another. Kyle Busch, Daniel Suarez, Kevin Harvick, Ryan Blaney, Chase Briscoe, Brad Keselowski, Austin Dillon, and Ryan Preece all competed in the series before it folded.

“I thought this looked more and more like NASCAR,” O’Donnell testified. 

Kessler drilled on the message about O’Donnell wanting NASCAR’s legal team to look at SRX. But O’Donnell would only admit that he wanted the legal team to see if they agreed with his stance. Included among the exhibits of text messages on the subject was a screenshot Phelps had shared of a fan comment on an SRX social media page, in which the fan noted that it was starting to resemble NASCAR, the way LIV Golf resembled the PGA Tour.

LIV Golf was founded in 2022 and, with significant funding from Saudi Arabia, signed some of the world’s top golfers. It was a concept that O’Donnell feared seeing repeated in NASCAR.

“I was concerned with what was happening on the racetrack,” O’Donnell testified about SRX.

O’Donnell also admitted that part of his frustration was that the race teams had stated the need to lock hands and be all together as the media rights deal was being put together and charter negotiations were underway, but then they were “out racing in another series.”

NASCAR invoked its exclusivity clause with Speedway Motorsports to keep SRX from racing at one of those facilities. O’Donnell said it was done because “we were in a major negotiation” for the new media rights deal and were focused on retaining the revenue for the teams.

O’Donnell will be back on the witness stand Friday to continue under cross-examination from NASCAR’s lead counsel Christopher Yates.