‘If Coca-Cola Made a New Formula...’: Probst Pushes Back Hard in NASCAR Trial

23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports claim NASCAR’s exclusivity agreement regarding the use of its current Cup car exists to keep another series from entering the premier stock car racing series market, but NASCAR executive John Probst says it’s because NASCAR has invested $14 million in developing the car and owns intellectual property rights on it.

“If Coca-Cola developed a new formula, would they give it to Pepsi?” Probst, a mechanical engineer who is NASCAR’s chief racing development officer, asked during a contentious exchange with plaintiffs’ attorney Jeffrey Kessler.

Wednesday morning Probst said NASCAR possesses patents on the Next Gen or Gen 7 car’s underwing, the diffuser flap on the rear wing, and the car’s outer body. He said the OEMs also possess intellectual property on the character lines that identify it as a Chevrolet, Ford, or Toyota. He testified the primary reason for developing the car was to help the teams reduce their costs, not to discourage competition.

“We had to cut operation costs for the teams, and we had to do it expeditiously,” Probst said, noting that 15 teams that possessed 30 Charters endorsed the project. “Cutting operation costs by 50% was the objective. NASCAR didn’t create the Next Gen car to prevent competition from another series.”

Prior to the current Cup car, Probst said the teams were manufacturing factories, designing, and producing their own parts. An engineer for Ford Motor Company and technical director for two NASCAR Cup teams before joining NASCAR, Probst said it was a never-ending cycle of developing and making new parts in an effort to gain an advantage. He said it was like an arms race. Probst equated NASCAR’s attempt to help the teams reduce costs before implementation of the Next Gen car to playing whack-a-mole.

Even though NASCAR possesses the IP on the Next Gen car, Probst said NASCAR doesn’t make any money on the single-sourced parts.

“Any time a supplier raises their price more than 3%, they must justify why,” Probst said. “Tariffs are a big point. We have actually looked at power bills of places building the parts.”

Probst said NASCAR doesn’t require a team to purchase seven cars, but that is the maximum number each can possess. He also said NASCAR can track the amount of money each team spends on parts. Probst noted that in 2024, 23XI Racing spent $2.23 million on parts, which was the third highest, and they had fewer than 10 victories that season. He said Front Row Motorsports spent $1.7 million in 2024 on Next Gen parts.

During three hours of testimony, Probst said the Next Gen car had made the series attractive to new team owners such as Justin Marks and Jimmie Johnson, and a new OEM was expected in the Cup Series in 2027.

Probst said the teams can sell their Next Gen car parts, they can sell their Charters, and the vendors that sell the Next Gen parts aren’t prohibited from selling parts to other racing series.

In addition to purchasing the Next Gen car and parts, Probst said a team running the entire season—36 point races and two exhibition events—would pay a $134,000 entry fee to NASCAR, and the team’s driver’s license was $6,000.

Prior to NASCAR calling Probst as its first witness, NASCAR Chairman Jim France testified for a little more than an hour before the plaintiffs rested their case at 9:45 a.m. on Wednesday.

France said NASCAR wasn’t structured like stick-and-ball sports leagues. He said for that reason, coupled with his decades of experience in motorsports, that he didn’t know how to design a permanent contract that accounted for the future evolution of the sport and business.

“I don’t think you can do anything permanent in this changing world,” the 81-year-old France said.