23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports opened an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR in October. They are seeking better terms regarding the charter agreement.
13 of 15 teams signed the 2025 charter agreement. 23XI and FRM each own two charters. NASCAR is expecting to race in 2025 with just 32 charter teams.
NASCAR has stated that the charter agreement is no longer an option for both teams.
23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports have asked the courts for an injunction. They are requesting the courts allow both teams to sign the 2025 charter agreement while the lawsuit is ongoing.
The injunction was originally denied by the court. However, this is a re-filing with new information presented.
NASCAR requests the lawsuit be dismissed
On the other side of the court, this week, NASCAR has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
In the latest court document NASCAR stated, “Plaintiffs concede the Charters are “worth millions of dollars” and NASCAR increased the revenues available to teams.”
They added, “If NASCAR truly had market power, it would be decreasing its demand for Plaintiffs’ services and lowering the amount by which it compensates them.”
NASCAR also claims that Curtis Polk of 23XI Racing was forming a strategy that involved boycotts of NASCAR.
Court documents claimed, “boycotts and potential boycotts of NASCAR events, negative media campaign to affect the media rights negotiations and threats/coercion to other team owners to ‘not break ranks.’ “
Both teams purchased an additional charter
Stewart-Haas Racing closed at the end of the 2024 season. They were a four charter team. Gene Haas has kept only one of those charters for his new team, Haas Factory Team.
Both 23XI and FRM purchased an additional charter from SHR. What happens to those?
NASCAR needs to approve the sale of all charters. As of now, both sales have not been approved.
In the preliminary injunction, the teams also asked for the sale of those charters to proceed. If that request is denied by the judge, it’s unclear what happens to those additional charters for 2025.
However, we are sure that Gene Haas would not run three chartered teams in 2025 if those two charters defaulted back to Haas.
This news appeared first on @Racing News & Co
