NASCAR attorney defends charter agreement, fires shots at 23XI, Front Row amid countersuit

NASCAR attorney Chris Yates said Wednesday the stock car racing series “doesn’t need the charter system” while defending the 2025 charter agreement as “fair, equitable” to all teams, per Jeff Gluck of The Athletic.

Yates, speaking with reporters after NASCAR filed a counterclaim against 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports and named Michael Jordan‘s longtime business partner Curtis Polk as a defendant, added that the teams’ action is “endangering the continuation of the charter system” and “calls into question whether the charter system can continue.”

“NASCAR obviously believes it will prevail but the 23XI Racing and Front Row lawsuit is endangering the continuation of the charter system,” Yates said, via Kelly Crandall of RACER/ESPN. “Let me be very clear, NASCAR is happy to proceed with the charter system and work with any and all teams interested in collaborating to grow the sport, but by seeking a declaration that the 2025 charter agreement is illegal and violates the antitrust laws, 23XI and Front Row are essentially claiming that charters are illegal agreements.”

Yates reiterated as NASCAR stated in its suit that it never asked for the charter system and would be content going back to having all open cars. Yates added that 23XI and Front Row “seem intent on destroying the value that race teams in partnership with NASCAR have built.”

NASCAR countersues 23XI and Front Row

23XI and Front Row filed an antitrust lawsuit this past October, accusing 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.” The antitrust lawsuit stemmed from 23XI and Front Row opting not to sign NASCAR’s final charter proposal last September at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Teams negotiated an extension of the original 2016 charter agreement for two years ahead of its Dec. 31 expiration. They 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 allegedly 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 final offer included a nearly 50 percent increase that teams earned from NASCAR’s record $1.1 billion per year television deal that went into effect in 2025 and also runs through 2031, Gluck and Jordan Bianchi wrote in their report.

NASCAR is not suing the other 13 teams since they signed the charter agreement, Yates said. Yates questioned if 23XI and Front Row are interested in growing the sport.

“NASCAR wants to work with teams to grow the sport,” he said. “I don’t know if 23XI and Front Row truly want to grow the sport, so I don’t know what the path toward a resolution here is at the moment.”

The jury trial for the joint lawsuit filed by 23XI and Front Row against NASCAR and France is set for Dec. 1.