NASCAR alleges 23XI's Curtis Polk threatened, coerced team owners amid media rights negotiations

NASCAR filed a motion Monday to dismiss 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports’ antitrust lawsuit against them and in it, made allegations involving 23XI investor Curtis Polk and his conduct during media rights negotiations.

According to Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports, the sanctioning body alleges that Polk helped devise strategies [that] included “boycotts and potential boycotts of NASCAR events, negative media campaign to affect the media rights negotiations and threats/coercion to other team owners to ‘not break ranks.'”

Prior to 23XI and Front Row filing the lawsuit in early October, Polk openly expressed his frustrations with NASCAR. Polk made a statement ahead of the Southern 500 at Darlington, pinning a piece of paper on the back of his shirt which read, “Please don’t ask me about my Charter. I don’t want to disparage NASCAR and lose it.”

Polk later made waves when we claimed teams get about 13% of the overall revenue of the sport, “and he estimated the drivers average $3 million so he estimates $100 million total to drivers in a sport that generates $3 billion in revenues,” Pockrass wrote on X after the lawsuit was filed.

The lawsuit stemmed from 23XI and Front Row opting not to sign NASCAR’s final charter proposal at Atlanta Motor Speedway in September. Teams negotiated 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.

NASCAR dunks on 23XI, Front Row in motion to dismiss lawsuit

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.

23XI and Front Row accused NASCAR 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.” In its latest filing, NASCAR called the plaintiffs’ complaint a “misguided attempt to dress up private business frustrations in antitrust garb.”

“Plaintiffs’ Complaint is a misguided attempt to dress up private business frustrations in antitrust garb,” the sanctioning body said. “Plaintiffs bring claims barred by the statute of limitations and laches; they fail to plead any reduction in competition, meaning they do not have the required antitrust injury to establish antitrust standing; and they aim to renegotiate contractual terms rather than address genuine anticompetitive behavior… claims should be dismissed.”

The teams have until Dec. 16 to file a response to NASCAR’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.