Judge rules in favor of non-party NASCAR teams in discovery dispite

As largely telegraphed, Judge Kenneth D. Bell of the Western District of North Carolina has ruled that Cup Series teams not party to the 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports v. NASCAR antitrust lawsuit need only to turn over a narrow set of financial documents as part of the fact discovery process.

Read more: Why two Cup teams and NASCAR are suing each other

NASCAR asked Bell to rule in their favor for an extremely broad swath of documents that the non-party teams felt was irrelevant to their suit and countersuit with the two teams that did not sign the charter extension document.

The Sanctioning Body wanted driver salaries, manufacturer agreements, pit crew rental agreements, additional competition costs that included non-Cup Series activities and sponsorship agreement particulars.

After hearing oral arguments on Tuesday, Judge Bell ruled in favor of the non-party teams who had offered a compromise solution comprised under the following terms:

• Each team would separately provide its annual top-line financial data (total revenue, total costs, and net profits/losses) on an anonymized, average per-car basis for each year dating to 2014.
• The financial information would be limited to operations associated with fielding full-time cars in the Cup Series (i.e., not revenue or expenses tied to ancillary business lines like engine programs or non-Cup Series racing activities).
• The average per-car information from each team would be provided by the teams to an acceptable neutral accountant, who would produce to NASCAR’s trial counsel one spreadsheet displaying the per-car annual averages for each team but without identifying the team associated with each set of numbers.

This is more or less what Judge Bell ruled those teams to provide in his Wednesday order.

1. On or before Noon on June 27, 2025, NASCAR and the Teams shall jointly select an independent accounting firm to serve as a neutral party to facilitate the production of anonymized information. In the event the Parties are unable to select an accounting firm, they should each suggest one name to the Court by that deadline.
2. As soon as reasonably practicable (as the Teams committed to do at oral argument), each of the Non-Party Racing Teams must separately provide to the chosen accountant its annual top-line financial data (total revenue, total costs, and net profits/losses) on an anonymized, average per-car basis for each year dating back to 2014. Sponsorship income must be included by the Teams as part of total revenue.
3. To avoid the production of irrelevant information, the Teams are required to make a good faith effort to limit the financial information produced to operations associated with fielding full-time cars in the Cup Series (for example, revenue or expenses tied to ancillary business lines or non-Cup Series racing activities should not be produced).
4. The Accountant should be directed to confidentially produce to NASCAR – but not to the Non-Party Teams – a spreadsheet listing the per-car annual averages for each team without identifying the team associated with each set of numbers. The document must include a Highly Confidential Attorneys Eyes Only designation that also permits use by NASCAR’s and Plaintiffs’ experts.
5. The cost of the Accountant shall be borne by NASCAR. Otherwise, all parties must bear their own expenses, including attorneys’ fees.