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The basketball icon, introducing himself formally in a federal courtroom on Friday, admitted that his drive to win and novelty within the sport emboldened his effort with 23XI Racing to confront Nascar over alleged violations of antitrust rules.

Team Investment and a Competitive Drive

Jordan shared financial and corporate details of his 23XI team, saying he invested $40m of his own funds into the Nascar Cup series team launched with partner Polk and longtime driver Denny Hamlin.

“It fell to someone to act,” Jordan said during testimony. “I was a new person, I wasn’t afraid. I believed I could take on Nascar as a whole. From my perspective, the sport required examination through a new lens.”

Central Issue: Charter Agreements and Renewal Demands

At issue is the end of a 2016 deal where Nascar provided each team a franchise. The concept is similar to other professional sports with separately owned franchises, such as the NBA’s Hornets or the NFL’s Panthers. This deal was due to end in 2024 when Nascar demanded charter membership renewals.

Jordan was on the witness stand for about sixty minutes and exited the courthouse to a media frenzy, with onlookers and reporters clamoring for a glimpse or a picture of the sports legend.

Spearheading the Fight

23XI Racing is leading the full-court press along with another racing team for Nascar to overhaul a operating model Jordan said is breaking the law to maintain excessive control.

For Jordan and and a fellow team representative, who preceded Jordan, are events from September 2024. Gibbs described a frantic and emotional six hours where the sanctioning body informed teams they must sign a contract extension. This agreement spanned 112 pages detailing team compensation and a guaranteed spot in every race.

Choosing Litigation

Jordan explained that his team and its ally concluded their sole viable path was to decline to sign that 112-page package and litigate the matter. All other teams signed the agreement.

The team owners approached Nascar about potential amendments or negotiations. Nascar wasn’t talking, Jordan said.

The Ultimate Motivation: Victory

But in the end, the resistance against what he saw as a unsustainable system was mostly about the usual bottom line for Jordan: Success.

“Hamlin persuaded me getting a third driver boosted our odds of winning,” he said, sharing that he purchased another franchise last year for $28 million despite the uncertainty. “So I took the plunge.”

Account from the Gibbs Family

Gibbs described her push for indefinite franchises, submitted in a formal letter to Nascar. She said the timing of the signature deadline was problematic.

She said, the team founder first attempted to call and talk Nascar out of forcing signatures, but Nascar’s leader refused the appeal.

“Don’t do this to us,” Gibbs recounted Joe Gibbs told Nascar’s leadership. The response was, “If I wake up and I have 20 charters, that’s what I have. If there are 30, I have 30.”