Jordan Bianchi Talks NASCAR's Ongoing Legal Battle

Jordan Bianchi, motorsports writer for The Athletic joins the show as he gives you all the insight into NASCAR's legal battle against Michael Jordan 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jordan, Bianki joins us, Jordan, we appreciate it. Did you
ever think you would be a court reporter like Doug
Leuwllen from the People's Court.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Well, I mean, listen, I tell people the time you
cover sports, you're going to cover law. And I've covered
many of the cases over the years, but I will
say this, walking into a courtroom to cover a federal
case involving NASCAR versus essentially you know, Michael Jordan's race
team that was never on my Bengo car to whatsoever,
and that is it has a very surreal feel. Last Monday,
when this all began, you walked in, You're like, is
this really really happening? Seriously? And then you'd see jurors

(00:30):
walking out of the courtroom after they were recused, like
pointing fingers at mj and like giving them winks and
nads and all excited to be in his presence and everything.
And then Friday when Michael Jordan took the witness stand,
which is crazy to think about Michael Jordan's testifying in
a federal probably you're like, wow, okay, this is this
is real, Like this is crazy. So yes, covering a trial, no,
actually covering a trial involving Michael Jordan's sewing NASCAR. That

(00:53):
was not something I ever foresaw.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
I think that's the point too, Like it's just it's
mj It's these big entities. How did the Jordan testimony go?
Was it seen as as really good? Do you think
for one side or the other? On Friday?

Speaker 2 (01:08):
You know, I didn't know what to expect going in,
Like you didn't know if you're going to get angry
defiant Michael, and this is why we're suing, and you know,
you know what I'm talking about. But what we saw
was somebody who walked to the witness stand and as
he is named at call, theers like this just quiet
throughout the courtroom, like oh wow, okay, here's Michael Jordan,
and everybody's just kind of watching him, obviously. And he
gets the witness stand and he makes a joke about

(01:29):
how the seat on the seat the chair in the
witness stand is too small and he's a little taller,
and then he you know, they asked him his name,
and he gives his name, and you know, and I
will say that the plaintiffs lawyer did a really good
job of you know, you kind of guy asked background
questions and like, well you play sports at all? And
he's like, I played a little basketball, and then they're
like did you play in the NBA's like, yeah, I
played for the Chicago Bulls. And she's like, well did

(01:50):
you play for any other team? And she go and
he goes, I like to forget about that team. And
so he did a really he did a really good
job of kind of just diffusing his situation, and he
made a couple jokes, but he was very passionate. He
explained that he's been a long time NASCAR fan since
he was a kid. His dad used to take the
family to races. It means a lot to him. This
is not a vanity project for him, and essentially is

(02:12):
that when he came into the sport, he came in
under certain financial terms that he didn't agree upon necessarily
because it was an old agreement. But as the new
agreement was coming up, he felt like he was in
a position to kind of shape and mold things going forward.
And you know, he looked around the room, basically these
other team owners who had been in this for a
long time, and they, you know, they for what they

(02:32):
are reasons they they maybe couldn't push Nascar as hard
as they wanted to, and MJ being MJ's like, I
didn't feel like I was in that position. I felt
like I could just push and post basically, and I
didn't like what was happening, and somebody needed to stand up,
and so he did. So it was an hour testimony.
It was really nothing, no bombshells, nothing sillacious, nothing on that.
It was really matter of fact. And it was really

(02:53):
weird because even NASCAR's lawyer was kind of in a
like basically fan bulling them. You know, he's making a
couple of jokes about it is a great basketball player.
And at the end, the lawyer goes, I just want
to thank you because my nine year old son is
going to think I'm really cool today because I talked
to you. And it's like, that's a really weird thing. Yeah,
that's a really weird thing for like a defense lawyer
to say to somebody that they're you know, being sufied. Yeah, exactly.

(03:18):
So it was just a it was an interesting situation
on Friday, but it just kind of is like I said,
it kind of sets the overall scope of this case
where it's something that nobody ever foresaw happening.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
Jordan, did I see last week or did I read
it right where a person in the process, the jury
selection process got kicked out because he was complaining about
where NASCAR is as a sport. That did that happen?

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah, there was a couple of fans who are not
happy about, you know, NASCAR's direction everything, and they got recused.
But they could help themselves. You know. I was waiting
for someone to take a shot like the playoff format
or something like that, and no one did. But it
was interesting and they came up. They found nine jurors
any background of NASCAR really, so it was it was interesting.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
Hey, Jordan, this thing has gotten nasty too, Like you're
kind of showing us some of the lighter sides right
that involve MJ and stuff. There was there was to
do with the boombox playing the old Alison Alan Parsons
project song that the Bulls used to come out to
in intros while Michael was walking in. So there is
a lot of like levity in this. But I think
it was your article last week in The Athletic that

(04:25):
talked about how just nasty some of this has gotten.
It got a bit contentious with Denny Hamlin and the
NASCAR attorneys, and then the stuff the text messages that
showed basically basically the commissioner NASCAR, Steve Phelps, and some
of the stuff he was saying in text message about
Richard Childress. You know, there's like basically basically calling him

(04:47):
names and stuff like how much damage is this doing
to the sport? I can't help to read that stuff,
and wonder, man, why couldn't the two sides come to
agreement so all this nastiness could have you know what
I mean, Like this is is hurting the sport.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
No, it's one hundred percent hurting the sport. I mean,
And you're looking at this, and you're looking all the
money spent on legal fees and everything else, and you're like,
we couldn't have just pulled back from this and tried
to figure out a way to settle this and everybody
could have walked away with enough piece of the pie
and be happy. And I will say this, and I'm
not trying to find NASCAR in this instance, but NASCAR
tried really really hard to get a settlement to the
finish line, and there was a couple of moments where

(05:23):
they felt like they were close for various reasons they
couldn't do that. NASCAR tried really really hard to do that.
I will say this is something that could have been
nipped in the BUZ three years ago, two years ago,
as these negotiations were ongoing, if NASCAR would have made
it's offer basically for permanent charters and given the team's
permanent charters three years ago when negotiations started, or two
years ago when negotiations really heaved up, or a year

(05:45):
ago when this was getting finalized, this we wouldn't be
here today. And then to ask you your question about
kind of the health of the sport and it is
helping or hurting, This is hurting. I don't know how
you don't think this is hurting When you're you know,
you're in the headline sports, in the headlines for being
sued by Michael Jordan's federal port. That's not a good thing.
And then I look at the spectra of the twenty

(06:06):
twenty five NASCAR season and it was like this big
black cloud in the background that just kind of hung
over the sport. It didn't matter what was going on
on the racetrack or everything like that, everyone was always
just talking about lawsuit. This lawsuit that and even when
there was good things that were happening, you've still in
your back of your mind you're like, oh, we got
that lossuit coming up, and so there's always questions about it.
There's filings, there's motions, there's texts, there's emails coming out,

(06:29):
all of these things. It's not a good thing to
have this black cloud hanging over it. And I'll take
it even further, is whatever the outcome of this is,
let's say NASCAR loses this trial, they're going to appeal
and so this isn't going anywhere. This is going to
continue to hang over the sport for the foreseeable future.
I just don't see how that's a good thing for
anybody involved.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yeah, so real quick, we got I want to get
you out of here on this, but just real quick,
give us a quick thought, like, if NASCAR ends up
winning this, like does Jordan and annym on twenty three eleven,
do they like pack up shop? Like do you think
they just leave the sport? And then if on the
flip side, what's the result and the repercussions If twenty

(07:10):
three eleven in front Row beat NASCAR in this.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
It's bad either way. And so We'll start with the
first part of it. If NASCAR wins this lawsuit, I
can confidently say front Row Motorsports and twenty three eleven
are out of the sport. They don't have their charters.
They need those charters to compete on a reasonable financial level,
and so they have effectively said if we don't have
those charters, we can't raise. If they lose this lawsuit,
they're not going to have charters, and you connect the dots,

(07:33):
that means they're done. That's a big blow for NASCAR.
Say what you will about this lawsuit. Whatever. Michael Jordan's
come into the sport. For the last five years, he's
invested heavily into his race team twent three eleven. He's
built a competitive, consistently competitive race team. They nearly won
the championship in twenty twenty four. If you will have
somebody like that in your sport, regardless of it's Michael Jordan,
you want to keep them. And then add in the

(07:54):
fact that it's Michael Jordan, you certainly want to keep
him here in the sport. It's good for business anversally.
If NASCAR loses, NASCAR fundamentally will likely shift depending on
the damages. The judge could award up to three hundred
and plus million dollars in damages. He could also order
NASCAR to sells tracks. There's all sorts of other stuff
that he could issue as well. The likelihood is that
there's going to be some penalty that's going to be

(08:17):
felt on NASCAR, not even beyond just financially and what
they're paying on lawyercies and everything else, that will significantly
alter the shape of the sport that's operated in a
very certain way for seventy seven years, and you start
changing that fundamentally, how you go forward is going to
be very very different. And so however this ends up
the NASCAR that we know a hearing today now is

(08:38):
going to be different.

Speaker 1 (08:39):
Yeah, that's great stuff, Jordan, and your articles are great,
Jordan Bianki. If you because we have people kind of
asking questions about this, this is the ultimate like fans
need you guys as and gals as reporters in there
to kind of let us know what's going on. Read
Jordan Bianki's coverage of the trial, which is continuing this
week here in Charlotte at Dathletic dot com. Thank you

(09:00):
yourgd appreciate you man.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
Thank you. Guys appreciate you.