That 2025 Cup Series championship race in Phoenix on Sunday may have been center stage, but NASCAR’s big court bubble continues to bubble away in the background.

While Kyle Larson was pipping Denny Hamlin to win it all on the track, the battle to ‘win it all’ away from the oval continues to rage.

NASCAR of course is currently involved in a very public and very messy court battle with 23XI Racing (co-owned by basketball legend Michael Jordan and Hamlin) and Front Row Racing.

Those two teams refused to sign charter agreements for 2025 and beyond and later brought an antitrust suit against the sport’s owners. That case now appears to be heading for trial later this year and it is a battle which will define the very future of the sport.

As the battle reaches a pivotal moment, NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps refused to take questions about it during the weekend’s ‘state of the NASCAR nation’ press conference in Phoenix. But he did read out a carefully crafted statement.

Steve Phelps NASCAR statement in full

The statement touched on all areas of the court case, and it is worth reading in full:

Phelps said: “In each of the past two years, I’ve sat here and told you the same thing. Healthy race teams are critical to our sport and we’ve been true to our word.

“From the outset we’ve been clear, this is not an antitrust case. The 2025 charter agreement is an improvement on the 2016 framework with enhancements that reflect real progress for teams and the sport:

“Including over $3billion in guaranteed payments to the teams. Enterprise value that is roughly $1.5billion now to the race teams.

“Guaranteed starting positions each week that allow teams to sell sponsorship on the best billboards in sports - the Next Gen car.

“And charters guaranteed for at least 14 years to 2039, plus an obligation to negotiate in good faith beyond that. The bottom line here is that NASCAR is committed to charters.”

About the France family

“I also want to be clear. The France family started NASCAR in 1948 using their own resources, grit and ingenuity. They have taken countless personal and financial risks, investing billions of dollars and untold hours into growing this sport to create the opportunity for teams to race in front of fans for nearly eight decades.

“We are proud of what we built for fans together with the race teams, especially since the charters were introduced. As you saw in the race team declarations, the charter system is a critical part of the sport and something we created with and for the teams and will continue to defend and preserve it. Make no mistake, the lawsuit puts this at risk.

“We remain committed to doing what is best for the sport of stock car racing, for the race teams we partner with, the many stakeholders who engage with it, the people throughout the garage that depend on it, and of course the millions of fans that love it like we do, and just want to see more of the best racing in our history.

“Although we’d prefer this lawsuit was never brought to us, we remain confident in our case before a jury and if necessary at the Fourth Circuit. We remain optimistic that we can continue to work towards a resolution to this litigation that allows us to return our focus to racing, which is what we all want.

“The financials of this sport have been unsealed and made available to the court. It may sound counterintuitive, but that's not something we at NASCAR are hiding from. In fact, I encourage you to really think about what you're seeing and how it comes to life each weekend for fans, partners, and race teams.

“Our goal has always been to create the best fan and partner experience in sports. And we invest in that every year through our people, our tracks, the racing product, and how we run the business. It's been a guiding principle for almost 80 years and four generations of France family stewardship.

Phelps on NASCAR court case

“With that in mind, I'd like to highlight a few fundamental points about this litigation:

“The business of NASCAR. NASCAR is more than just the Cup Series. Our business includes other national series, and we support both regional and international series. Our sport is built on families, relationships and trust that we earn every day.

“We depend on each other as partners, promoters and fan ambassadors for motorsports, and some of them accepted less to accommodate the new charter agreement. Families like the Smith family who run Speedway Motorsports, the Mattioli family at Pocono, and Roger Penske at International Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“NASCAR's balance sheet has more than 1.2 billion dollars in invested capital, meaning the vast majority of what we make is invested back into the sport, our race teams and our people. It's the core principle of how we operate and a recognition of our importance in motorsports broadly.

“Between track operations, new races, safety administration of the sport, charter payments, and taxes across our multi-state operations, our role as the sanctioning body requires tremendous and often unpredictable expenses. Ensuring we have adequate funds to cover unforeseen circumstances or opportunistic expansion is critical and responsible business.

“We have significant debt payments from the IC merger that transformed our business and our schedule as well as other business critical liabilities that ensure we can operate the sport year-to-year. We aren't like other sports in this regard. We have unique commitments.

“Teams receive about $1.1 billion per year from their sponsors and from NASCAR combined. In the charter negotiation, we'd hope to better align our collective futures around a model that facilitates mutual growth through three main ideas:

“Increase revenues for the teams, which has happened.

“Agreed upon cost structure. Cost of materials for building their cars is down about 40%. And we work with teams on a cost structure, but haven't yet come up with a formula that we agree upon.

“And then the driver ambassador program in sending driver participation to join us in growing the sport.

NASCAR claims charters are 'fair and equitable'

“We believe our charters are fair and equitable. We did our best to support the race teams without destabilizing our sport and compromising our ability to deliver for fans well into the future.

“NASCAR is fully aligned with our race team partners who've submitted declarations hoping to end this litigation. We are trying our hardest, I'm trying my hardest as both a fan as well as the commissioner of this sport that I've loved since I was five years old.

“While two of the 15 teams may not share that view and seem set on unfortunate court battle, I hope that we can all agree that our racing is as good as it has ever been.

“And we care a great deal about how we serve our fans, especially as we look forward to capping off our season by celebrating new champions across all of our national series.”

So there you have it - the gospel according to NASCAR in 2025. We have our own views on what was said here, there is much to unpack.

And as ever we are always interested to get a take from you, the fans.

We will (probably) see you all in court…