NASCAR Says Team Oversight Would Have Stalled GrowthSean Gardner – Getty ImagesIn an antitrust suit filed against NASCAR, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports maintain the teams should have a say in decisions made by the sanctioning body that affect team costs, but NASCAR President Steve O’Donnell said they tried it and it adversely affected the sport. When the Charter system for NASCAR Cup teams was adopted in 2016, it included a three-strike rule. The rule, which was in the initial Charter agreement that ran 2016-19 and then in the 2020-24 extension, was to keep NASCAR from making more than three rule changes, except for safety, that would be costly for the teams. If NASCAR did more than three, then the exclusivity clause would be invalid, and the teams could compete somewhere else. O’Donnell said NASCAR CEO Jim France didn’t want the three-strike rule in the 2025 Charter agreement because he believed it would adversely affect the growth of the sport. “The new broadcast agreement would probably have disappeared,” O’Donnell testified Thursday during questioning by the teams’ attorney Jeffrey Kessler. “They could have used the three-strike rule to keep us from going to new venues. We probably would have never gone to the Chicago street race or the LA Coliseum (for the Clash, an exhibition event). If the teams had a vote, we would not have been in Mexico City and the (new) TV partners wouldn’t have paid the money they paid.”Chris Graythen – Getty Images NASCAR’s new seven-year media rights deal that began this year and goes through 2031 is worth $7.7 billion, which averages out to about $1.1 billion annually. Each Chartered team receives $12.5 million from the TV deal, but in the federal suit the teams maintain they need $20 million annually to compete. Receiving that amount, they claim, would lessen their dependency on sponsors. The teams also wanted a third of NASCAR’s new revenues. However, O’Donnell said NASCAR lost:$13 million when they built the track in the L.A. Coliseum.$55 million on the three years of the Chicago street race.$6 million on this year’s Mexico City event. O’Donnell said that even though NASCAR lost money on those events, they believed they were worth it because they provided them with the opportunity to expose the sport to new fans, and their initiatives showed their television partners that NASCAR was willing to do new things. He said 90% of the media rights deal was for NASCAR’s Cup or premier series, while the other 10% was for the Xfinity and Craftsman Truck series. The federal trial is now four days old and O’Donnell is just the fourth witness to have been called to testify. Kessler said he expected the teams to complete presentation of their case either next Tuesday or Wednesday. After the jury left the courtroom Thursday afternoon, US District Judge Kenneth Bell sternly told the attorneys he wasn’t happy with the pace the trial was progressing. He considered much of the questioning redundant.“The jury is looking at a lot of trees and not much forest,” Bell said. “This case has got to be done in less than three weeks.”