NASCAR insider reveals expectation for how 23XI, Front Row lawsuit against NASCAR will play out

As NASCAR enters litigation with 23XI and Front Row Motorsports in an antitrust lawsuit, all eyes will be on the initial proceedings. They could well determine the course of the case.

FOX Sports published a piece Thursday that outlined some of the anticipated steps, one of which is a presumed motion to dismiss by NASCAR.

In the event the sport’s governing body takes that route, one of two things will happen. Either the judge will side with NASCAR and determine there isn’t enough meat to the case to pursue or the judge will side with the two teams and open the process up to discovery.

That’s where things could get interesting, with both sides forced to provide hordes of records requested by the other.

“We will be able to obtain financials,” said Jeffrey Kessler, the lawyer for the two teams involved in the suit. “We will be able to follow the money. We will be able to see exactly how exploitative this system has been and how much injury it’s inflicted on the teams and the drivers.

“Because when the teams have no money, that also directly kills the drivers. The teams are the ones who compensate the drivers. It is a direct attack on both. And the last time I spoke to a NASCAR fan, the reason they love this sport is about the teams and the drivers.”

At least one person with experience in litigation against NASCAR believes the 23XI and Front Row team have a chance of producing some change in the sport via the lawsuit.

FOX Sports spoke with Sam Cherry, an attorney who represented Speedway Motorsports shareholder Francis Ferko in an antitrust case against NASCAR in 2002.

He outlined that he thinks the lawsuit has a chance, particularly because it puts NASCAR on the back foot.

“NASCAR is a very, very tough litigator, but that’s not uncommon, especially when the core business itself depended upon prevailing on the antitrust complaint that we had filed,” Cherry said. “Many of the pundits were calling me and asking me, ‘Aren’t you afraid that you’re going to kill the goose that’s laying the golden egg?’ I said, ‘Perhaps but they’ve got a bigger fear than we do, and our people were risk takers.”

23XI and Front Row are now taking a similar risk, shelling out to litigate in the hopes it will produce a more favorable backdrop for teams and drivers going forward.