UPDATE: Jim France wanted to fund a car for an upcoming Cup Series race because of his love of the sport, and further demonstrate that elite drivers from other racing series can be competitive on a NASCAR road course.
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RACER has since learned, amid the speculation as to his reason, that the venture was driven by France’s love of racing. France, praised for his “racer” mentality, has been chairman and CEO of NASCAR since 2018. His father, Bill France Sr, founded the sport.
The revelation that France wanted to fund an entry was not new; he had entertained the idea in the past, but a deal never materialized. Additionally, while the garage viewed it as a conflict of interest, the plans changed in this case because it was seen as bad timing. Sources with knowledge of the situation did not elaborate as to the nature of the bad timing, but pushed back against the speculation of it being tied to the ongoing antitrust lawsuit between NASCAR and two of its teams, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, or because of the backlash from the garage that The Athletic reported.
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There is no telling if France will look to enter a race in the future, but it is presumptuous to say it would be off the table.
— Racer —
ORIGINAL POST 5-29-2025: Jim France, NASCAR’s co-owner and CEO, was near a deal to fund a car in an upcoming race in the league’s top-tier Cup Series before backlash in the garage over the perception of another high-profile conflict of interest in motorsports ownership led him to scrap the plans, The Athletic has learned.
France was set to financially support an entry to be operated by Spire Motorsports, a team that has been competing in various NASCAR series since 2019, for the Cup road-course race in July at Sonoma Raceway in California. Jack Aitken, a 29-year-old road-course specialist who drives for a France-owned team, Action Express Racing, in the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) sports car series, was tabbed to be the driver.
But the deal, which was close to completion, fell apart shortly after The Athletic began asking questions about the arrangement last week.
Spire co-owner Jeff Dickerson confirmed the plans but insisted the car would not have been fielded by France’s team directly; it was intended to be a Spire entry staffed by Spire personnel, he said.
Dickerson emphasized France did not get a “good guy deal” and was going to pay the same price anyone else would for having Spire run an extra car, which can stretch resources and cause distractions to the full-time entries.
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