Anonymous NASCAR team owner offers surprising take on potential outcome of 23XI, Front Row lawsuit

The reaction continues to pour in from NASCAR team owners following 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports’ decision to file an antitrust lawsuit against the sanctioning body and CEO Jim France in federal court in North Carolina.

The lawsuit, which stems from 23XI and Front Row opting not to sign NASCAR’s final charter proposal at Atlanta Motor Speedway last month, accuses France and NASCAR of “unlawful monopolization of premier stock car racing in order to enrich themselves at the expense of the premier stock car racing teams.”

Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic spoke with several team owners to get their perspective on the lawsuit. One team owner told Bianchi that they view it as a win-win situation.

“[If] 23XI wins, we’re all going to get a better deal,” one team owner said. “And if 23XI loses, we’re not out anything nor is NASCAR pissed off at us [for going against them]. Either way, we don’t lose.”

Teams have 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.

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.

NASCAR headed to court vs. 23XI Racing, Front Row Motorsports

It doesn’t sound like any of the 13 teams who signed are coming to aid 23XI and Front Row in their legal battle against NASCAR.

“I don’t think so,” one team executive said. “Even though it wasn’t a great deal, we took the deal because it is getting us more revenue. They all can duke it out, we’ll just focus on us.”

23XI and Front Row are well-equipped in this fight with Michael Jordan, deep pockets and an attorney with several historic antitrust lawsuit victories on their side. That attorney is Jeffrey Kessler, who 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 made it clear Wednesday that 23XI and Front Row didn’t arrive at this juncture to settle for a deal. They came to win.

“We filed this case, and we expect to win this case,” Kessler said. “One way or another, stock car racing is going to change in this country for the better.”