Heather Gibbs, the co-owner of Joe Gibbs Racing, gave some of the strongest and most emotional testimony yet in the NASCAR antitrust trial. According to Jenna Fryer of AP News, teams were given only six hours to review and sign a 112-page charter extension in September 2024. She said the terms and the deadline were nothing like what a normal business would face.
“The document was something in business you would never sign,” Gibbs said. “It was like a gun to your head: if you don’t sign, you have nothing.”
Pressure inside Joe Gibbs Racing
Gibbs told the court the rushed deadline shook the entire company. “Everything was going so fast, the legacy of Coy, the legacy of J.D., everyone at JGR was very upset, she said.”
Both Coy Gibbs and J.D. Gibbs had held major leadership roles at the team before their deaths years apart. Coy died in his sleep in 2022, hours after his son Ty won the Xfinity Series title.
She said Joe Gibbs personally called NASCAR chairman Jim France to ask for more time to review the document. “Joe said, ‘Jim, you can’t do this she testified.” “And Jim was done with the conversation.”
The Athletic added another detail from her testimony. According to Jordan Bianchi and Jeff Gluck, France’s stance was direct: “If I wake up and I have 20 charters, I have 20. If I have 30, I have 30.”
Gibbs described the stress of that night, saying she left Joe Gibbs “sitting in the dark, listening to his blood sugar monitors going off” while the team worked to respond. In the end, she said the team felt it had no real choice. “We decided we had to sign. We can’t lose everything,” she told the jury. “I did not think it was a fair deal to the teams.”
Why permanent charters matter
Much of her testimony focused on why teams wanted stronger and permanent rights tied to charters. “It’s the most important point, a permanent place in their history books,” Gibbs said. “It is absolutely vital to the teams for us to know we have security… to know what we’ve invested in is ours.”
The court also reviewed a letter she wrote to NASCAR leaders in May 2024. In that letter, entered into evidence, she pushed back on NASCAR’s financial model and pointed to the team’s long history in the sport. “We’ve put 32 years into investing and building a dream, building careers, building families, and building NASCAR she wrote.” “We have raised champions and buried their leaders…”
That letter drew sharp reactions inside the sanctioning body. Jenna Fryer of AP News reported that Steve O’Donnell was questioned about a text he sent to Ben Kennedy describing France’s reaction: “Jim is now reading Heather’s letter out loud and swearing every other sentence.”
Wider NASCAR antitrust trial issues emerge
O’Donnell spent the morning under cross-examination. He described his past talks with 23XI Racing investor Curtis Polk as “the most difficult meetings I’ve had with an individual in my 30 years in NASCAR,” according to The Athletic. O’Donnell also said he had concerns about SRX, the series cofounded by Tony Stewart, especially after Chase Elliott raced there in a car that appeared close to a NASCAR-style stock car.
Gibbs’ testimony tied into the larger case about how much control teams have in the sport. Joe Gibbs Racing has about 450 employees and operates four charters, with each car costing more than $20 million per season, mostly covered by sponsorship.
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