One day after a nearly two-hour hearing in the Western District of North Carolina, United States District Judge Kenneth D. Bell has issued a ruling regarding NASCAR subpoenas for teams' financial data.
According to the Wednesday ruling, 12 of the teams not involved in an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR must partially comply with subpoenas calling for 11 years of financial data. However, they do not have to provide NASCAR with as much data. Instead, these teams must follow a specific list of guidelines, which they said on Tuesday that they would be willing to do.
MORE: Full ruling on financial data
1. "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."
2. "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)." This line item eliminates the need for teams to produce information about Xfinity, IMSA, or IndyCar teams, if applicable.
3. "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."
Additionally, NASCAR and the teams will select an independent accounting firm no later than noon on June 27. NASCAR will pay the fees for this accounting firm, which will handle the production of anonymized information.
"This Order is intended to allow NASCAR to have much of the arguably relevant substance of the requested information, while protecting the legitimate interests of the non-party Teams," Judge Bell wrote.
This order, while it provides information for NASCAR's legal team as it prepares for trial with 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, is more of a win for the teams not involved in the lawsuit. They made it clear during Tuesday's hearing that they are in competition with each other and NASCAR.
They don't want to share how much they are paying certain drivers, crew chiefs, engineers, or other employees. They also don't want to share how much money they receive from specific sponsors or OEM partners in Chevrolet, Ford, or Toyota.
These teams also don't want to share any of this data with NASCAR, especially after the sanctioning body attempted to field an entry in the Cup Series race at Sonoma Raceway.
NASCAR's legal team said during the Tuesday that it needed specific financial data instead of anonymized information. Attorney David Johnson mentioned that driver contracts and sponsorship data go into the overall operating costs, which 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports said could be $18 million per car, per season. Johnson also indicated that this data could show that some teams are "spending in excess."