Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / The NASCAR Lawsuit Is Not As Big A Deal As You Think | Charlie Marlow Show

Transcript

The NASCAR Lawsuit Is Not As Big A Deal As You Think | Charlie Marlow Show · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:00
  What's up, everybody, Charlie Marlowe here.
• 0:02
  Yesterday, Kenny Wallace said he wasn't going to do a coffee with
• 0:05
  Kenny this morning because he was in Fort Lauderdale getting
• 0:08
  ready to get on the cruise. So I'm going to do one for him.
• 0:12
  We'll call it coffee with Charlie.
• 0:14
  OK, so here we go. Here's my take on the NASCAR
• 0:19
  lawsuit. And I think I have a different
• 0:22
  take than a lot of people. I don't have the same fatalistic
• 0:27
  outlook on the NASCAR lawsuit as a lot of people that I've seen
• 0:32
  recently. And by the way, these are people
• 0:34
  that I really truly respect, have met in some cases I'll call
• 0:41
  friends. So Rick Mass had a great video
• 0:43
  the other day just wondering about where will the sport be
• 0:47
  after all this? Mark Martin tweeted about if the
• 0:50
  sport can survive after this lawsuit.
• 0:53
  And I just don't have that same, that same approach or thought to
• 0:58
  this lawsuit. I think NASCAR absolutely will
• 1:01
  survive this. It's, it's a bad look right now.
• 1:04
  It's it's very, very embarrassing.
• 1:07
  But let's be real to me, this is NASCAR's first real legitimate
• 1:14
  labor issue. Every sport goes through this.
• 1:18
  Kenny and I talked about this the other day.
• 1:21
  I've covered NASCAR a ton the last four years.
• 1:24
  I covered it a lot when I was working in Michigan in 2006,
• 1:28
  2007. But my background is, is more
• 1:31
  stick and ball sports as a lot of you guys call it.
• 1:34
  And I've covered multiple NHL labor issues, strike, lockout,
• 1:39
  whatever you want to call it. One in the in the NFL 1012 years
• 1:43
  ago. Obviously I grew up with the the
• 1:46
  baseball strike in 94. But then you had the lockout
• 1:50
  after the COVID year in baseball entering 2021.
• 1:54
  I mean, and the NBA has had this.
• 1:56
  They had the 50 game season going back whenever that was, I
• 2:00
  think it was the late 90s. So my point is all those sports
• 2:04
  survived. NASCAR will survive as well, in
• 2:07
  my opinion. Now, I know race fans will kind
• 2:10
  of look to the IndyCar split back in the day and I and I
• 2:14
  think that's an interesting comparison and I understand that
• 2:16
  could potentially happen. And you, you read a lot of these
• 2:19
  texts from the NASCAR execs. They were clearly scared by the
• 2:24
  Liv Golf split from the PGA saying, hey, we're vulnerable
• 2:28
  here too. You also saw those those
• 2:31
  messages where they were concerned about SRX when they're
• 2:35
  trying to negotiate their TV deal that you go on a rival
• 2:39
  network that's a competitor and you have some of the big name
• 2:42
  current drivers going over there.
• 2:44
  Denny Hamlin, you had some of the owners, you had Justin Marks
• 2:48
  trying to race there as well. But but my thing is this, I
• 2:53
  don't think Michael Jordan, 2311, Denny Hamlin, I don't
• 2:57
  think they want to destroy NASCAR.
• 2:59
  I really don't. I don't think they want NASCAR
• 3:02
  to split. I don't think any of these
• 3:04
  owners want NASCAR to split up. Do you think Rick Hendrick, Joe
• 3:08
  Gibbs, Richard Childress, they they might be mad, they might
• 3:13
  want some more money, but do you think they want to destroy
• 3:16
  NASCAR? I don't think that's the case
• 3:18
  whatsoever. I don't even think they want to
• 3:20
  embarrass NASCAR. That's why all the the owners
• 3:24
  when they made those declarations a month or so ago,
• 3:27
  Hendrick Gibbs and all that, they wanted a settlement.
• 3:30
  They they don't want to go and have to have to to testify at
• 3:35
  any type of trial. To me, this is just about about
• 3:38
  money, just it's about a percentage of the pie.
• 3:43
  Look at Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan did his testimony
• 3:46
  on Friday. I wasn't there, but it seemed
• 3:49
  very respectful. He gave respect to NASCAR, but
• 3:53
  he said, hey, we want a, we want a fair deal.
• 3:56
  This is a labor issue. I just, I just don't think it's
• 3:59
  the end of the world. I don't think it's the end of
• 4:01
  the sport. Think about it also from Michael
• 4:03
  Jordan's perspective, and I try to look at it from everybody's
• 4:07
  perspective. Michael Jordan is is a brand, a
• 4:12
  branding genius. Is there any more important,
• 4:17
  significant brand than the Michael Jordan Jumpman brand?
• 4:21
  Right. It's iconic.
• 4:23
  The dude's a billionaire, not just because of basketball, but
• 4:26
  more so obviously because of of the shoes.
• 4:29
  Michael Jordan understands branding.
• 4:32
  Michael Jordan knows that NASCAR is a very strong and and
• 4:36
  valuable brand. You think Michael Jordan wants
• 4:39
  to start his own racing league? You think Michael Jordan wants
• 4:45
  to start his own stock car series?
• 4:47
  Really. No, of course not.
• 4:50
  He just wants more money. That's that's all that this is
• 4:54
  about to me is just a a typical labor dispute.
• 4:59
  Again, maybe it's because NASCAR hasn't had one of these like the
• 5:03
  other sports. They haven't had the multiple.
• 5:05
  And I know people talk about Talladega back in the day where
• 5:08
  they ran the Bush series instead and that was stomped out.
• 5:12
  You know, this is different. This is significant.
• 5:14
  They're in court. I'm just saying, like, I don't
• 5:17
  look at it in terms of will the sport ever survive?
• 5:21
  Are the fans pissed off? Is it embarrassing?
• 5:23
  Sure. To me, I think, I think one of
• 5:26
  the reasons there's this fatalistic approach to NASCAR is
• 5:30
  that NASCAR has so many issues going on at the same time,
• 5:34
  right? Right now, we're all focused on
• 5:37
  the trial. And I get that.
• 5:38
  And it's very interesting. It's very salacious.
• 5:40
  I mean, it's the best thing that ever happened to content
• 5:42
  creators. I'm not going to lie to you, but
• 5:45
  it's also it's amongst a year where everything NASCAR does is
• 5:51
  being legitimately questioned by the fans.
• 5:54
  And I think it's totally fair. It's not just the the share of
• 5:57
  the pie money wise between NASCAR and the tracks and the
• 6:00
  teams. It's the point system.
• 6:03
  It's the legitimacy of of the playoffs, right?
• 6:07
  It's the Next Gen. car. It's the raceability of the car.
• 6:12
  People want to see passing. People want to see good short
• 6:15
  track racing. We know the Next Gen. car is
• 6:18
  fantastic on intermediates. Should there be so much pressure
• 6:22
  on Goodyear to just get it perfect every race to bail out
• 6:27
  the car? OK, so think about that.
• 6:30
  I just mentioned three things. And another part is the
• 6:32
  schedule. The schedule is where I actually
• 6:34
  give NASCAR a lot of credit. I think NASCAR has been very
• 6:37
  good about bringing back the old tracks.
• 6:38
  Now, I will say this, I think a lot of people when they saw the
• 6:42
  text messages where NASCAR was threatened by SRX and one of the
• 6:47
  messages basically said, well, what do you think's going to
• 6:49
  happen when Dale Junior goes back to North Wilkesboro and
• 6:53
  Bowman Gray? It did make me think, OK, is the
• 6:56
  only reason NASCAR went to those old school tracks because they
• 6:59
  were threatened by SRXI? Don't really think that's the
• 7:02
  case, but I do think that was part of the equation.
• 7:05
  Either way, NASCAR in my opinion, deserves credit for the
• 7:08
  schedule going back to the old tracks, trying new things.
• 7:12
  I think the Chicago St. course race was cool.
• 7:15
  Trying Mexico's cool. You don't have to go back there
• 7:17
  every year. I'm looking forward to San Diego
• 7:19
  St. course. I think that will be cool.
• 7:21
  But again, I've mentioned four things.
• 7:24
  The schedule is a a big discussion point.
• 7:27
  The point system is a big discussion point.
• 7:29
  The Next Gen. car is a big discussion point.
• 7:32
  And now the the labor issue, the money between teams and NASCAR
• 7:37
  in the tracks is a big point of contention.
• 7:40
  I mean, that's an obvious statement.
• 7:41
  They're literally in court right now.
• 7:43
  But that's four major things going on at the same time.
• 7:47
  So like everything that actually matters in NASCAR is being
• 7:51
  legitimately debated right now. So that's why I think it just
• 7:54
  feels even bigger than what it actually is because everything
• 7:58
  that NASCAR is about is being questioned, has been questioned
• 8:03
  in 2024 and 2025. And we're seeing the labor part
• 8:07
  being played out in the trial. But reading the the Heather
• 8:12
  Gibbs testimony, they felt like they had a gun to their head to
• 8:16
  to sign the charter agreement. Listen, all all these owners are
• 8:20
  in are in agreement. They they, let's be real, they
• 8:22
  all want 2311 in front row Motorsports to win this this
• 8:26
  deal. They all want to be healthier
• 8:28
  business wise. They all want a better chance of
• 8:30
  turning an operating profit year in year out.
• 8:34
  To me, this comes down to permanent charters.
• 8:36
  I, I feel like if, if the teams got permanent charters, if they
• 8:41
  were able to settle on that, I think and, and there's probably
• 8:44
  a couple things, a couple dollars, a couple percentage
• 8:46
  points here or there they can argue about, but I think if the
• 8:48
  teams got permanent charters, this would all go away.
• 8:51
  That's what this comes down to for me.
• 8:54
  So that's why I want to say, look, there's going to be a
• 8:56
  Daytona 500. NASCAR is going to go on the
• 8:59
  France family, give them all the credit in the world.
• 9:01
  Now, maybe down the road, it's not just the France family that
• 9:04
  owns NASCAR. Maybe there's a governing body
• 9:06
  like a league, like some of these other sports.
• 9:08
  Maybe that's the case. But I don't think this is the
• 9:10
  end of the world for NASCAR. I don't have that same
• 9:13
  fatalistic approach. So there you go.
• 9:16
  My hand is shaking. It's Saint Louis here.
• 9:18
  I think it's like 43°. I woke up early.
• 9:22
  My daughter had a 7:15 in the morning indoor soccer game.
• 9:26
  I got my coffee, we're at about 9 1/2 minutes there, so I'll say
• 9:29
  goodbye. Wanted to do a video, give you
• 9:31
  my opinion because Kenny said he was going to take today off.
• 9:34
  We got tons of content on the channel.
• 9:37
  Kenny Wallace and Ken Trader had a great Herman Trader on this.
• 9:42
  I clipped off the part on the lawsuit.
• 9:43
  That was great. Rick Mast had a great take.
• 9:46
  We've been clipping off. Kenny and I talking from the
• 9:48
  other day. So much to dive into if you're
• 9:50
  looking for content on the NASCAR lawsuit.
• 9:52
  So there you go. It's not the end of the world.
• 9:54
  NASCAR will go on. They're fighting over money.
• 9:57
  It is what it is, folks. Have a great Sunday.
• 10:00
  Love you all.