Michael Jordan testifies in NASCAR antitrust trial, says he had no choice but to sue 'the entity'

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Retired NBA great Michael Jordan took the stand at the landmark NASCAR antitrust case Friday and testified that he has been a fan of the stock car series since he was a child but felt he had little choice but to sue to force changes in a business model he sees shortchanging teams and drivers risking their lives to keep the sport going.

Jordan testified before a packed courtroom for an hour. His celebrity drew quips from the judge and even a defense attorney as he outlined why the team he co-owns, 23XI, had joined Front Row Motorsports in going to court against the top auto racing series in the United States.

“Someone had to step forward and challenge the entity,” the soft-spoken Jordan told the jury. “I sat in those meetings with longtime owners who were brow-beaten for so many years trying to make change. I was a new person, I wasn’t afraid. I felt I could challenge NASCAR as a whole. I felt as far as the sport, it needed to be looked at from a different view.”

Jordan's highy anticipated appearance followed dramatic testimony from Heather Gibbs, the daughter-in-law of race team owner Joe Gibbs, about the chaotic six-hour period in which teams had to sign an extension or forfeit the charters that guarantee revenue week to week throughout NASCAR's 38-race season.

“The document was something in business you would never sign,” said Heather Gibbs, who is also a licensed real estate agent. “It was like a gun to your head: if you don't sign, you have nothing.”

Charters are the equivalent of the franchise model used in other sports and in NASCAR it guarantees every chartered car a spot in every race, plus a defined payout from the series. The system was created in 2016, and during the two-plus years of bitter negotiations on an extension teams begged for the renewable charters to be made permanent for revenue stability.

When NASCAR refused to make them permanent and gave the teams six hours in September 2024 to sign the 112-page extension, 23XI and Front Row were the only two organizations out of 15 to refuse. They instead filed the antitrust suit and the trial opened Monday to hear their allegations that NASCAR is a monopolistic bully. 23XI is co-owned by Jordan and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, and Front Row is owned by fast food franchiser Bob Jenkins.

Jordan testified that 23XI bought a third charter late in 2024 for $28 million even with all the uncertainty.

“I’m pretty sure they know I love to win," the six-time NBA champion said. "Denny convinced me getting a third driver improved our chances to win, so I dove in.”

Like other witnesses this week, Jordan described a NASCAR that refused to discuss options or potential changes to the charter system, which he supports. He was asked why 23XI didn't sign the extensions last fall.

“One, I didn’t think it was economically viable. Two, it said you could not sue NASCAR, that was an antitrust violation, I felt. Three, they gave us an ultimatum I didn’t think was fair to 23XI," Jordan said, adding: “I wanted a partnership and permanent charters wasn’t even a consideration. The pillars that the teams wanted, no one on the NASCAR side even negotiated or compromised. They were not even open-minded to welcome those conversations, so this is where we ended up.”

Jordan referred to the NBA business model, which shares approximately half its revenue with players, far more than NASCAR.

“The revenue split was far less than any business I’ve ever been a part of. We didn’t think we’d ever get to what basketball was getting but we wanted to move in that direction," he said. “The thing I see in NASCAR that I think is absent is a shared responsibility of growth as well as loss.”

Jordan said he owns 60% of 23XI and has invested $35 million to $40 million in the team, which first fielded cars in 2021. Jenkins testified earlier this week that he has not turned a profit since launching his team in the early 2000s and estimates he has lost $100 million.

Heather Gibbs earlier told the jury how she became co-owner of Joe Gibbs Racing the day after her husband, Coy, unexpectedly died in his sleep the same night their son, Ty, won NASCAR's second-tier Xfinity Series championship in 2022. Coy Gibbs had moved into a leadership role with JGR following the death of his older brother, J.D., in 2019.

Because Joe Gibbs had lost both his sons and had built the team as a legacy for his family, his daughter-in-law took an active role in the organization and participated in negotiations for the charter extensions. When NASCAR made its final offer at 6 p.m. on a Friday night without permanent charters, she said her team was devastated. She said her father-in-law called NASCAR chairman Jim France pleading for a resolution.

“Joe said, ‘Jim, you can’t do this,'” she said. “And Jim was done with the conversation.”

Heather Gibbs said she had to leave to take her son to a baseball game in Chapel Hill and left worried about her father-in-law, who was 84 at the time.

“I left him sitting in the dark, listening to his blood sugar monitors going off,” she testified. “We decided we had to sign. We can't lose everything. I did not think it was a fair deal to the teams.”

Joe Gibbs is both a Hall of Fame NASCAR owner and NFL Hall of Fame coach. He led the Washington football team to three Super Bowl titles and JGR has won five Cup Series championships. JGR has 450 employees, charters for four Cup cars and relies solely on outside sponsorship and investors to stay afloat. The team will mark its 35th season next year and Gibbs told the jury that JGR needs permanent charters to protect its investment.

“It’s the most important point, a permanent place in their history books,” she testified. “It is absolutely vital to the teams for us to know we have security, it can’t be taken away, to know what we’ve invested in is ours.”

23XI and Front Row likewise have said they will likely go out of business without charters after racing this season without them.

Jordan praised France but also singled him out.

“I’m not discrediting the things NASCAR has done for the sport but I’m pushing them to be better,” Jordan testified. “The risk is to the drivers and the teams. The credit is not being given to the drivers who risk their lives every week without an insurance policy or union. There is nothing to benefit them.”

“I never saw Jim France drive a car. I never saw Jim France risk his life,” he added. “I’d like to give a little more credit to those who do.”

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Michael Jordan arriving to federal courthouse to testify in NASCAR antitrust case on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025 in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo)

FILE - Front Row Motorsports owner Bob Jenkins, left, and 23XI co-owner Denny Hamlin arrive in the Western District of North Carolina on Monday Dec 1, 2025 in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Jenna Fryer, File)

NASCAR chairman Jim France enters federal court in Charlotte, N.C., on Wednesday Dec 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jenna Fryer)

FILE - Michael Jordan, co-owner of 23XI Racing, sits in his pit box during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Talladega Superspeedway, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024, in Talladega, Ala. (AP Photo/ Butch Dill, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — A former high-level agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and an associate have been charged with conspiring to launder millions of dollars and obtain military-grade firearms and explosives for a Mexican drug cartel, according to an indictment unsealed Friday in New York City.

Paul Campo, 61, of Oakton, Virginia, who retired from the DEA in 2016 after a 25-year career, and Robert Sensi, 75, of Boca Raton, Florida, were allegedly caught in a sting operation that involved their dealings with a confidential source who posed as a member of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, but really was being directed by law enforcement officials.

The cartel, also know as CJNG, was designated as a foreign terrorist organization by Secretary of State Marco Rubio in February.

Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Campo betrayed his DEA career.

“As alleged, Paul Campo and Robert Sensi conspired to assist CJNG, one of the most notorious Mexican cartels that is responsible for countless deaths through violence and drug trafficking in the United States and Mexico,” Clayton said in a statement.

Lawyers for Campo and Sensi entered not guilty pleas on their behalf during appearances in federal court in Manhattan on Friday afternoon.

“Certainly the charges here are quite alarming,” Magistrate Judge Robert W. Lehrburger said during Sensi's appearance.

Over the past year, Campo and Sensi allegedly agreed to launder about $12 million in drug proceeds for the cartel and converted about $750,000 in cash to cryptocurrency, thinking it was going to the group when it really went to the federal government, the indictment says. They also provided a payment for about 220 kilograms of cocaine that they were told would be distributed and sold in the U.S. for about $5 million, and they would get a cut of the proceeds, according to the allegations.

They also said they would look into procuring commercial drones, AR-15 semiautomatic rifles, M4 carbines, grenade launchers and rocket-propelled grenades for the cartel, the indictment alleges. Campo's lawyer disputed the allegation in the indictment that the two men “agreed to explore” obtaining weapons for the cartel, saying it's a cop-out for a lack of evidence.

Campo also boasted about his prior law enforcement experience during conversations with the confidential source and offered to be a “strategist” for the cartel, authorities said. He began his career as a DEA agent in New York and rose to become deputy chief of financial operations for the agency, the indictment said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Varun Gumaste said in court Friday that Campo and Sensi’s alleged conduct was “quite egregious and concerning.” He said the evidence includes hours of recordings of the two men talking with the source, as well as cellphone location data, emails and surveillance images.

Gumaste said both men had international ties and were flight risks.

Campo's lawyer, Mark Gombiner, called the indictment a “somewhat sensationalized and somewhat incoherent document.” Some of the allegations in it are contradictory, he argued.

Both men were ordered detained with out bail, and their next court hearings were set for Dec. 19.

Sensi's attorney, Amanda Kramer, argued that Sensi is not a flight risk and has multiple health problems, including injuries from a fall two months ago, early-stage dementia and type II diabetes.

Campo and Sensi are both charged with four conspiracy counts related to alleged narcoterrorism, terrorism, narcotics distribution and money laundering.

Gumaste said evidence shows that Sensi also was engaged in a scheme to procure military-grade helicopters for a Middle East country. He said Sensi has three convictions from the late 1980s and early 1990s involving charges of mail fraud, defrauding the government and stealing $2.5 million.

Campo has no criminal record, Gombiner said.

DEA Administrator Terrance Cole said in a statement that while Campo is no longer employed by the DEA, the allegations undermine trust in law enforcement.

The DEA has been roiled in recent years by several embarrassing instances of misconduct in its ranks. The Associated Press has tallied at least 16 agents over the past decade brought up on federal charges ranging from child pornography and drug trafficking to leaking intelligence to defense attorneys and selling firearms to cartel associates, revealing gaping holes in the agency’s supervision.

Starting in 2021, the agency placed new controls on how DEA funds can be used in money laundering stings, and warned agents they can now be fired for a first offense of misconduct if serious enough, a departure from prior administrations.

Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut. Associated Press writer Joshua Goodman in Miami contributed to this report.

FILE - Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton talks on a phone as he exits court in New York, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)