Denny Hamlin trolls NASCAR in response to Joey Logano championship post

Joey Logano got quite the payday for winning this past Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series championship race at Phoenix, thus capturing his third title since 2018. NASCAR made an Instagram post about it Wednesday, and one detail in the image jumped out to Denny Hamlin.

NASCAR captioned the post, “The best part about winning a championship? The big payday.” The image NASCAR used showed Logano on a private plane holding three fingers up on his left hand with Monopoly money in his right. Hamlin commented on the post, “Monopoly cards. Perfect.”

That, of course, is significant in that 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports are currently involved in an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR, accusing the stock car racing series and its CEO Jim France of “unlawful monopolization of premier stock car racing in order to enrich themselves at the expense of the premier stock car racing teams.” Hamlin co-owns 23XI alongside NBA legend Michael Jordan.

Notice the use of the word “monopolization.” Did NASCAR know exactly what it was doing posting a photo of Logano holding up Monopoly money? Perhaps, though it could all be in jest. But what Hamlin and his fellow plaintiffs won’t find amusing is the lawsuit itself, which is set to continue on through the offseason.

23XI Racing, Front Row Motorsports to appeal injunction denial in federal court

The latest from the lawsuit concerns 23XI and Front Row’s preliminary injunction request. 23XI and Front Row filed the preliminary injunction with the hopes of it allowing both teams to continue as chartered entities next season while pursuing their current lawsuit. Both the teams and NASCAR made their arguments in writing, as well in federal court in North Carolina last Monday.

Frank D. Whitney, the United States District Judge in the case, denied the preliminary injunction for 23XI and Front Row to run as chartered teams in 2025 while pursuing their lawsuit. Whitney said that 23XI and Front Row “have not met their burden as required for a preliminary injunction. Should circumstances change, Plaintiffs may file a renewed motion for preliminary injunction. Therefore, the Court denies Plaintiffs’ motion without prejudice.”

The teams filed a formal notice in U.S. District Court to appeal the denial of a preliminary injunction to the U.S. Court of Appeals.