Despite declaring they would stop activities, Stewart-Haas Racing is now involved in NASCAR’s lawsuit against 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports. Charter transfers for SHR have been postponed due to the continuing legal dispute.
In order to secure purchasers for all four of their charters for the 2025 season, SHR stated early in this year’s NASCAR Cup Series that they will be closing after the season. Co-owner Gene Haas, who intends to operate a one-car Haas team with Cole Custer the next year, has decided to keep one of those charters.
In a rather straightforward deal, another of those charters was sold to the growing Trackhouse Racing Team, which is planning to run a third full-time entry for Shane van Gisbergen. The other two charters, however, have not yet been given up. As they intend to grow to three cars, 23XI and FRM both decided to buy one charter from SHR.
However, because those two teams did not sign the new charter agreement, they are now involved in a legal dispute with NASCAR. In light of the current legal dispute between the organization and 23XI and FRM, NASCAR requested on Thursday that the Stewart-Haas Racing charter transfers and other charter membership perks be postponed, according to a report by Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports.He last posted a follow-up message reporting that NASCAR asked for a ruling to take place on Friday.
The reporter for FOX Sports then shared the decision on social media today, writing: “The judge stated that he will decide on Monday whether to postpone the implementation of his order (pending appeal) for NASCAR to authorize the transfers of the SHR charters to 23XI/FRM.
He directed them to hold off on closing on the sales until Monday if they were still unfinished. In the comments section, a curious fan asked if SHR would be responsible for paying for the charters they aren’t using. Pockrass said, “If the sales don’t go through, SHR would either have to field teams (which they say they aren’t prepared to do) or sell/lease them to someone else.”
Although NASCAR had stated that they were ready to operate 32 charters for the 2025 season rather than the customary 36, 23XI and FRM’s plans to operate an additional charter each have created a problem. Only 30 charters are recorded for because of the current legal battle.
Given that the off-season is already nearly halfway over, the two missing charters still belong to a team that no longer exists. With the price tags probably going down, SHR would lose out on a lot of money if NASCAR persisted in their goal of preventing the two charters going to 23XI and FRM due to their current dispute.
