NASCAR president Steve Phelps makes decisive statement about charters amid 23XI Racing, Front Row lawsuit

NASCAR president Steve Phelps said Friday he would not discuss the topic of charters or 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports’ ongoing antitrust lawsuit against the stock car racing series in front of the media.

“There’s been some frustration in the room that NASCAR over the last two and a half years has not talked about charters publicly or with the media,” Phelps said while speaking with the media at Phoenix Raceway. “We have done that purposely. We don’t believe the media is a place to have discussions about our negotiations with our race teams. That was by design, and I know people are frustrated about that.

“… We are not going to answer any questions today about charters. … We are in active litigation and that matter is closed at least at this point.”

For the better part of the last two and a half years, NASCAR and its 15 Cup Series teams negotiated the terms of a new charter agreement. Ahead of the playoff opener at Atlanta Motor Speedway in September, NASCAR presented teams with a take-it-or-leave-it-offer. All but two teams, 23XI and Front Row, signed the agreement.

23XI and Front Row later filed an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR and its CEO Jim France, accusing them of “unlawful monopolization of premier stock car racing in order to enrich themselves at the expense of the premier stock car racing teams.”

Steve Phelps expresses excitement over new charter deal

23XI and Front Row filed a 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 on Monday. Frank D. Whitney, the United States District Judge in the case, denied the preliminary injunction Friday.

While France declined to offer comment about the injunction, he did reveal that in the new charter agreement set to go into effect in 2025, the teams are the “largest beneficiary” of the $7.7 billion in media rights deals from 2025-2031.

“We are very happy that 32 of our 36 charters were extended,” Steve Phelps said. “We are excited about the deal that was put on the table for them, which primarily the big win for race teams was money. I won’t go in what that money split looks like. But what I will say is that amount of money puts the race teams starting in 2025 as the single largest beneficiary of our media deal. We did that because our race teams are upside down financially.

“So, two ways to get out of that. You give them more money or help them earn more money through sponsorship. We have done the former. We’re going to do the latter to help our race teams and then try to cut costs. That provides for healthy race teams. And that’s our expectation moving forward that our race teams are going to be financially healthy. Why should fans care about that? Fans should care about that because healthy race teams provide better racing, full stop. So, we’re excited about what that looks like.”