France Family’s Enormous $397 Million NASCAR Payout Exposed in Court

The expert witness for the teams have revealed in the court how much NASCAR owners, the France family, is getting paid for their shares in the sport.

France Family’s Enormous $397 Million NASCAR Payout Exposed in Court

Rick Hendrick and Rick France (Via autoweek.com)

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The NASCAR charter lawsuit trail is getting ugly every day with new revelations coming out and the most recent one of them was about the financials about the sport. Michael Jordan and Bob Jenkins’ expert witness has made some huge revelation on the second week of the court proceedings, complicating the whole legal drama.

Edward Snyder, the former Dean at Yale, University of Chicago, and University of Virginia business schools, was called to the stand to give his professional opinion on whether NASCAR is a monopoly by23XI/FRM. One of his revelations was about how much the series is paying from its pocket to the France family that own and operate the business.

He claimed that NASCAR earned around $250 million a year from their $5 billion worth series. From 2021 France family received $397 million in shareholder distributions, which includes $140 million in dividends. With the new TV deal that earn $1.1 billion a year, these payouts are only going to increase for the owners.

These revelations were made on court to prove that NASCAR is capable to paying the $365 Million compensations the teams are asking. Of the demanded compensation, 23XI will get the bigger share, $215.8 million, and FRM will receive $148.9 million. This difference is due to the significant difference in market value depreciation the teams experienced.

The court revelation also revealed questionable payout structure regarding the tracks from NASCAR. The series owns around 47% tracks they race in, including the big venues like Daytona. But despite this they are paid around $311 million to the tracks in 2024. Of which, $181 million were given to tracks they owns.

These payments are done to keep the venues exclusive for NASCAR races, but the fact that they have full control of these tracks and control their operations raises eyebrows. They are paying more revenue share to themselves, which seems questionable. It’s something the sport wishes to keep behind the curtain it seems.

NASCAR teams are interested in buying the series

One another major revelation that was made in the court was the fact that some big NASCAR teams were willing to buy the series if the France family wanted to sell it. This will create an IndyCar like situation, as the series is owned by Roger Penske, who was and is still a team owner with Team Penske Racing.

Joe Gibbs and Rick Hendrick
Joe Gibbs and Rick Hendrick (Via IMAGO)

Jonathan Marshel, the executive director of the Race Team Alliance that was made during the negotiations for the new charter deal, revealed this in the court. He revealed that some big teams were ready to join hands to buy the sport and SBJ confirmed this claims in the recent report, showing some big teams’ interest in investing.

At least some NASCAR Cup Series teams would be interested in bidding to buy [NASCAR] should the property ever be put up for sale.

Adam Stern reported on X.

If the court found NASCAR is a monopoly and order a potential sale or disinvestment, the teams buying the shares are the best thing that can happen to the sport.  A consortium of teams owning the series will generate more opportunities for everyone involved to develop the series in the long-run.

Also Read: Michael Jordan and Bob Jenkins Want a Massive $365 Million Compensation From NASCAR