Kevin Harvick: 23XI, Front Row suing NASCAR 'was definitely the biggest story' of the 2024 season

Kevin Harvick believes that 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports suing NASCAR was the biggest thing that happened to the sport this year. On Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour Harvick explained why he chose the lawsuit as the biggest story of the 2024 season.

“When you look at the 23XI and Front Row Motorsports NASCAR lawsuit, I mean it’s happening today and it’s going to be a story as we go through the offseason into the winter,” Harvick said. “Doesn’t look like there’s a lot of momentum on the team’s side. It looks to me like they’re going to keep battling down this road. They’re going to wind up racing as open teams, which is going to create a story for a scenario where one of their cars could possibly miss the Daytona 500 or any race throughout the year if you have enough open cars.

“Taking this stance with Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan and his team and the Front Row team, does that move the needle to make anything better for anything else? It’s such a bold move that we have never seen it to this magnitude in the sport. I think that those two teams feel like that they’re fighting for something that could change the path of what they believe the sport should look like as a team owner.”

Harvick added: “There’s so many things and so many directions that this story could go. To me, it was definitely the biggest thing that happened.”

How the 23XI Front Row lawsuit against NASCAR began

23XI and Front Row filed a lawsuit against NASCAR on Oct. 2, claiming NASCAR’s actions violate antitrust laws. The lawsuit revolves around NASCAR’s charter agreements that 23XI and Front Row refused to sign, citing unfair terms. As Harvick mentioned, 23XI and Front Row will compete as “open teams” next season since the lawsuit will continue through 2025.

“It’s actually pretty simple in my opinion,” Hamlin, who co-owns 23XI Racing with Jordan, said at the time, per Newsweek. “When I look around, I see that the best and most competitive sports in the world understand that when teams thrive, fans benefit, and that everyone who invests in making the sport a success should share fairly in that success. With the right changes, we can certainly make that a reality in racing.”