23XI, Front Row Motorsports release statement on latest step in lawsuit vs. NASCAR
23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports have filed a preliminary injunction asking to be recognized as chartered teams for the 2025 Cup Series season amid their antitrust lawsuit filed against NASCAR last Wednesday, per Jenna Fryer of The Associated Press.
23XI and Front Row released a joint statement Wednesday on their latest procedural filing in the federal court case.
“The 23XI and Front Row Motorsports teams are fully committed to competing in next year’s Cup Series,” the statement read. “Today’s procedural filing is the next step in advancing our case against NASCAR and their monopolistic practices, while protecting our drivers, race teams, and sponsors by establishing our legal right to run in 2025.”
23XI, co-owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin, alongside Front Row, owned by Bob Jenkins, sued NASCAR and CEO Jim France in federal court in North Carolina alleging “unlawful monopolization of premier stock car racing in order to enrich themselves at the expense of the premier stock car racing teams.”
“The France family and NASCAR are monopolistic bullies,” the lawsuit states. “And bullies will continue to impose their will to hurt others until their targets stand up and refuse to be victims. That moment has now arrived.”
Why are 23XI, Front Row suing NASCAR?
The lawsuit stems from 23XI and Front Row opting not to sign NASCAR’s final charter proposal at Atlanta Motor Speedway last month. Teams had been negotiating an extension of the original 2016 charter agreement for the last two years ahead of its expiration on Dec. 31. Teams made demands such as making charters permanent, which NASCAR refused to include in its proposals.
Under the current model, charters are not permanent franchises like the setup in other professional sporting leagues. Teams can lose their charters due to poor performance on the racetrack or failing to field their cars week in and week out. As a result, most race teams lose money on a yearly basis.
The final proposal came in at 6 p.m. ET on Friday, Sept. 6. NASCAR gave teams a six-hour deadline to sign, threatening to “eliminate the charter system altogether for 2025 and beyond” if they did not. 23XI and Front Row were the two holdouts among the 15 Cup Series teams.
“The take-it-or-leave-it offer from NASCAR included numerous one-sided, monopolistic economic terms that were far less than the teams would receive in a competitive market,” the lawsuit states. “It did not provide a fair split of revenues so that the teams would have a chance to earn a reasonable return on their investment. It seized control over team intellectual property rights, to be used for NASCAR’s benefit.
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“Did not provide permanent charters so that the teams could realize value through permanent charter appreciation. It did not give teams the ability to resist unilateral NASCAR rules that increased team costs. And it did not give the teams any meaningful role in governance of the sport. It also imposed terms that would undermine the relationship between teams and drivers.”
23XI, Front Row attorney Jeffrey Kessler speaks out on lawsuit against NASCAR
Attorney Jeffrey Kessler is representing 23XI and Front Row in litigation. Kessler has previously scored court victories which have led to the creation of NFL free agency, implementation of name, image and likeness (NIL) in collegiate athletics and equal pay for the United States women’s national soccer team.
Kessler told The Associated Press that “the two teams would sign the 2025 agreements if they receive a court order that would release them from a clause that prohibits teams from suing NASCAR.”
“A court order will prevent [NASCAR] from enforcing that release term, and that way we can compete with the charters while we litigate against you going forward,” Kessler said. “We would sign them if they cannot enforce the antitrust release. If we don’t win the motion, then [the teams] will have to compete open.”
Jenkins said that 23XI and Front Row stand to miss out on $45 million in combined revenue if they compete as un-chartered teams in 2025. Jenkins is willing to take the risk as he believes the case is winnable.
“We’re pretty confident about this lawsuit or we wouldn’t be doing it,” Jenkins said. “There’s a lot of money out there. I’m hoping NASCAR won’t fight the injunction and we can move forward.”