The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in North Carolina ruled against the preliminary injunction granting 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports (FRM) the right to operate as chartered entities on Thursday morning, leaving the organizations on uncertain footing heading into NASCAR’s summer stretch.
After electing not to sign new Cup Series charter agreements for 2025 in September, 23XI and FRM filed a lawsuit in federal court in Charlotte on Oct. 2, 2024, claiming that its actions over the process violated antitrust laws. The teams requested a preliminary injunction with the district court to allow them to participant under the terms of the Charter Agreement for 2025, excising the release forbidding them to sue the sanctioning body. It initially failed but was ultimately approved by Judge Kenneth D. Bell in December.
Judges Paul V. Neimeyer, Steven Agee and Stephanie D. Thacker presided over the appeal. In the opinion accompanying Thursday’s ruling, Niemeyer said the injunction granted had no legal basis.
“In short, because we have found no support for the proposition that a business entity or person violates the antitrust laws by requiring a prospective participant to give a release for past conduct as a condition for doing business, we cannot conclude that the plaintiffs made a clear showing that they were likely to succeed on the merits of that theory,” Niemeyer wrote. “And without satisfaction of the likelihood-of-success element, the plaintiffs were not entitled to a preliminary injunction.”
In the time since the Judge Bell’s decision, both companies have operated as chartered teams, fielding three full-time cars apiece after acquiring an additional charter each from the now-defunct Stewart-Haas Racing. NASCAR filed its appeal brief on Feb. 12, FRM and 23XI filed their response on March 14 and the appeal was heard on May 9 by a three-judge panel in Richmond, Va.
