NASCAR Lawsuit: Judge Says No “Special Treatment” for Hendrick and Penske

What’s Happening?

Judge Kenneth D Bell has once again sided with 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports in their motion to depose NASCAR team owners Rick Hendrick and Roger Penske.

Update: The judge denied Hendrick and Penske’s motion to not be asked about certain topics and said unless NASCAR committed not to call them as witnesses, then they had to be deposed without the “special treatment” they were asking for. https://t.co/FkteR7oWoH

— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) November 11, 2025

Tuesday afternoon, Judge Bell denied a motion filed last week by the two NASCAR team owners to limit the range of questions that could be asked during a deposition requested by the teams last Wednesday. In this filing, the judge notably said:

“As the Court has repeatedly said, the trial of this matter will be publicly and fairly contested under the relevant rules and law, without regard to the notoriety of the companies and individuals involved. No company or individual will be accorded special.”

After the two teams filed their motion to depose Hendrick and Gibbs, which would see them give sworn testimony prior to the team’s upcoming trial against NASCAR, Judge Bell was quick to grant the motion late last Wednesday.

But, this wasn’t without push back from the two legendary NASCAR owners, who claimed in a filing that this motion came to them “quickly and without much warning.“

That filing also claims that if required by a dually served subpoena, they had agreed to give testimony during the trial due in part to their relationship with NASCAR CEO Jim France. However, they claim that this testimony would be “limited scope.“

“Neither man wants to play any role in this lawsuit whatsoever and have made clear that they will not ‘take sides’ in this case. However, in view of their decades-long relationship with Mr. France, they agreed to provide the requested limited scope of testimony if required by a duly served subpoena.”

Although the team owners made it clear in that filing that they are not choosing sides and that they believe this dispute should have been settled prior to the trial date, which is still a possibility, 23XI and FRM have already raised concerns about what that “limited scope” trial testimony could look like.

In a filing Monday afternoon, the two teams expressed fears of a “sanitized trial testimony“ and specifically cited past claims about Hendrick Motorsport’s financial status from HMS Chairman Jeff Gordon as a reason for the value of deposing Rick Hendrick.

With this ruling from Judge Bell, the teams will not be limited in their questioning of Hendrick and Penske, perhaps providing them with valuable information ahead of their December 1 antitrust trial with NASCAR.

We have covered all aspects of this lawsuit via the timeline linked below.

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