NASCAR is returning the heat Michael Jordan brought them to court with.
In a court filing Wednesday, the racing company responded to the antitrust lawsuit filed by Jordan’s 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, claiming the teams are using the “antitrust discovery process as a weapon.” The racing company asked for the motion of expedited discovery to be thrown out.
In its filing, NASCAR calls the suit “meritless” and accuses the plaintiffs, which include 23XI co-owner Denny Hamlin, of “alleging baseless antitrust claims in order to obtain commercial agreements they previously rejected.” NASCAR accused the racing teams of attempting “to extort more favorable contract terms.”
23XI Racing, owned by Jordan and Hamlin, and Front Row Motorsports, owned by restaurant entrepreneur Bob Jenkins, filed a joint suit Oct. 2 accusing NASCAR of using its monopoly power to bully racing teams in negotiations and hoard revenue, calling the France family, the company’s owners, “monopolistic bullies.”
The lawsuit argues NASCAR’s charter system stifles competition and binds teams to its series, race tracks, and suppliers. The France family owns many of the race tracks where NASCAR races are held. The suit came after two years of failed revenue-sharing negotiations between NASCAR and its racing teams.
In the lawsuit, the two racing companies claim NASCAR pressured the teams to agree to the charter deals in September of this year. It describes a “take-it-or-leave-it offer” from NASCAR, with teams privately saying they were “coerced” and had a “gun to our head” while signing.
Both companies refused to give in to NASCAR. In the initial lawsuit, 23XI and Front Row filed for a preliminary injunction allowing them to compete in the 2025 season despite not agreeing to the charters.
NASCAR introduced the charter system in 2016, which guaranteed 36 entries in every major Cup Series race and included revenue sharing. Of the 19 team owners originally granted charters in 2016, the lawsuit says only eight remain in NASCAR. The lawsuit says the league’s model comes without a path for owner profitability.
The charter system originally ran from 2016 to 2020, with deals getting automatically renewed through the end of 2024. With the current deal expiring, teams wanted a bigger slice of profits, a role in governance and rule-setting, and part of the revenue made off deals involving the league’s biggest stars.
In its response this week, NASCAR said it has been following contractual agreements to prepare for a 2025 season with just 32 charters. Given it’s not unprecedented to race without a charter, NASCAR requested that the plaintiffs’ injunction to race without a charter should be denied.
NASCAR also said in its response that it’s currently distributing funds 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports would have gotten to other teams that opted in to their 2025 charters before the deadline.
“We believe NASCAR exercises monopolistic control over the sport of stock car racing and has a history of engaging in exclusionary acts and restrictive agreements that stifle competition, Jeffrey Kessler, the lawyer for Front Row Motorsports and 23XI, told Front Office Sports in a statement. “We look forward to presenting our case for a preliminary injunction to Judge Whitney at the hearing on Nov. 4.”
