NASCAR urges court to reject 'orchestrated' lawsuit move from 23XI, Front Row ahead of Thanksgiving

23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports submitted a second preliminary injunction in the District Court of North Carolina on Tuesday seeking relief in the form of charter status through the duration of their antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR.

One day after 23XI and Front Row filed the motion, the sanctioning body responded in opposition to the expedited timeline requested by the teams, per Matt Weaver of Sportsnaut. Through attorney Chris Yates, NASCAR accused the teams through attorney Jeffrey Kessler over the timing of the modified injunction request. Yates claims Kessler and the teams knew a week ago they were going to refile and intentionally held off just before Thanksgiving for strategic reasons.

As part of NASCAR’s latest filing: The “expedited proposal fails to provide … sufficient time to review and investigate, particularly given the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and the fact that Defendants are working to prepare an answer and responsive briefing that are due on December 2.”

23XI and Front Row initially withdrew their appeal of the first request denied in court before issuing the latest request with “new evidence,” and that irreplaceable harm is imminent. The teams cited “three redacted reasons and an unredacted reason revolving NASCAR’s decision to remove a ‘lawsuit release’ clause from the open agreement,” Weaver wrote.

23XI, Front Row lawsuit against NASCAR continuing into offseason

“Plaintiffs’ motion to expedite should be denied. Plaintiffs tactically delayed filing their new motion for a preliminary injunction for over a week, intentionally dropping it on NASCAR and the Court on the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday after first posting about it on social media many hours before filing,” NASCAR argued.

“In that post, Plaintiffs’ counsel described that Plaintiffs were submitting a second preliminary injunction motion, but Plaintiffs’ counsel did not file that motion until hours later and did not provide the unredacted version to Defendants’ counsel until another two hours later—just hours before midnight [after re-posting their social media posting about the second preliminary injunction motion in the interim].”

The teams want a response filed by Dec. 6, while NASCAR wants it due on Dec. 9. As for a hearing, the teams are asking for Dec. 12 or 13 and NASCAR is asking for it at the courts’ discretion.

The two racing organizations have three weeks to decide whether to close on the Stewart-Haas Racing charter purchase, with certain sponsors wanting assurances on sponsoring a chartered car, according to Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports. They want the courts to force NASCAR to allow them to sign the charter agreement without giving up their right to sue on antitrust grounds.

23XI and Front Row recently decided to compete as open teams while pursuing an appeal to operate as chartered teams. They are battling for the right to race without signing an agreement. By operating as an open team, this could mean that 23XI might miss The Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium in February.

On3’s Thomas Goldkamp contributed to this article.