The Charlotte courtroom was already humming when Denny Hamlin took the stand. Everyone expected a few hours of charter talk and lawyer-speak. Instead, they got fireworks, sarcasm, and one bombshell text message that had jaws dropping.

By the time NASCAR’s attorney dropped line after line of tough questions, the room felt more like a Sunday showdown at Bristol than a federal antitrust trial.

Denny Hamlin goes scorched earth on NASCAR

NASCAR’s lawyer Lawrence Buterman came out swinging, throwing everything from driver contracts to revenue splits at Hamlin. Every time Buterman tried to paint 23XI as hypocritical for having its own exclusivity rules, Denny Hamlin fired right back with one sentence.

“We’re not a monopoly, you are.”

He said it so many times it almost became the chorus of

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