Despite retiring from the sport as a driver and stepping back from his role as a team owner, Tony Stewart has remained a popular figure in NASCAR. Though Smoke is often remembered for his skill and bold personality, lately, the NASCAR champion has been in the spotlight for a different reason.
With NASCAR’s antitrust trial against 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports underway, one of the hot topics in the NASCAR community is the fate of Stewart’s SRX series. Recently, in the courtroom, NASCAR President Steve O’Donnell gave his testimony, revealing some shocking details about the SRX series.
Steve O’Donnell On NASCAR’s Stance With Tony Stewart’s SRX Series
After major testimonies from Denny Hamlin and others, it was time for NASCAR to present its side of the story. In recent legal proceedings, the NASCAR president came forward to speak out against accusations of the governing body’s alleged monopolistic nature.
In his courtroom questioning with Jeffrey Kessler, which lasted over two hours, O’Donnell addressed NASCAR’s stance as the SRX series grew in popularity. According to the courtroom data revealed by Matt Weaver of Motorsport, the NASCAR president admitted that several bosses, including himself, were worried about the rise of the Stewarts’ product in their second and third years of operation.
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O’Donnell highlighted the reason behind this as SRX’s growing similarity with NASCAR as a product. “It started to look more and more like NASCAR,” the NASCAR president quoted.
Although in their initial talks with Stewart, the NASCAR Hall of Famer and his team had assured that SRX would not end up similar to NASCAR, it eventually ended up resembling it. O’Donnell further stated that SRX’s “look and feel” got pretty close to NASCAR, which led the governing body to deny SMI the right to host SRX events.
When asked about the reason behind NASCAR’s call, O’Donnell said, “We wanted to gain as much TV revenue for the teams and tracks.”
Why NASCAR Chose To Run The Chicago Street Race
Kessler then referred to the time when Cup veteran Hamlin agreed to run in the SRX series. Hamlin’s decision prompted NASCAR’s legal team to review whether such a move was permissible under the sport’s rules.
Following this, Kessler also argued that the non-compete clauses, especially in NASCAR’s tier two and tier three series, have been quite detrimental to other racing leagues.
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This also led to the question of why NASCAR chose to greenlight the Chicago Street Race. O’Donnell responded to this by stating that approving the Chicago contest was one of the key factors that helped the sport secure a billion-dollar deal with Amazon Prime Video. He said:
“We were able to get 1 billion because we had the Chicago Street Race and Mexico City.”
With O’Donnell’s revelation about Stewart’s SRX series, it has unlocked a whole new perspective on how NASCAR views competition, regardless of whether they truly are in the same league or not.
