With 23XI, FRM set to lose charters, NASCAR insider weighs in on whether they can get them back

Barring receiving the restraining order and preliminary injunction they have requested, 23XI Racing and Front Row have effectively lost charters. Going into this NASCAR weekend at Dover Motor Speedway, the two teams are going to have three open cars each. A radically different situation than they are used to.

Both 23XI Racing and Front Row are hoping to keep charter status. There is a legal dispute over whether or not they even owned charters going into this season, since they both refused to sign the agreement. They had been granted charter status by a preliminary injunction, but that did not necessarily mean they owned charters.

Then there is the question of the charters the teams bought from Stewart-Haas Racing last year. A preliminary injunction compelled NASCAR to approve the sale and transfer of those charters. So, do they own those charters but not the other two they each had in 2024? It’s hard to tell.

Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports explained the situation on Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast. It is a complicated situation.

“Some would say, do they have them at all, right? Because they didn’t sign the agreement. So, you could theorize that 23XI and Front Row don’t have charters anymore because they didn’t sign the agreement for this season,” Pockrass explained on Monday. “But I think the big question will be, what happens with the charters that they each bought from Stewart-Haas? And so, do they get to keep those? I think as of right now, the feeling is that when it comes to Dover, that both 23XI and Front Row will have three open cars a piece and kind of what happens with that Stewart-Haas charter that each bought will kind of get determined down the road.”

23XI, Front Row hoping to keep charters

So, will 23XI and FRM get their charters back? That remains to be seen. It feels like they would have to win the lawsuit and have the court order NASCAR to give them/allow them to retain the charters they previously owned. Or some sort of settlement, but that feels out of the realm of possibility given the way both sides feel about the situation.

The teams filed a motion for a restraining order to essentially block the decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals that would vacate the preliminary injunctions that allowed them to race as chartered teams this season up to this point. They also requested a preliminary injunction to get charter status back through the end of the trial.

A decision could come from the court today or tomorrow. NASCAR has accused the teams of essentially falsifying evidence and possibly committing perjury in response. It feels like this is going to continue to escalate.