23XI Racing, Front Row Motorsports, and NASCAR had one of their most contentious days in federal court on Thursday over the charter status of the two teams moving forward.
23XI Racing and Front Row are seeking a new preliminary injunction to regain their charter status after it was vacated in June. They have raced as Open teams in the NASCAR Cup Series since then. In addition, they want the court to rule that NASCAR cannot sell or transfer their charters until the antitrust lawsuit is settled with the December trial.
NASCAR, however, has been adamant that 23XI Racing and Front Row have no claim to charters because they did not sign the 2025 charter agreement. As such, they’ve notified the court of their intention to unload one of the charters to an unknown named interested party as soon as the injunction is ruled up.
The hearing on Thursday began with both sides making such arguments. 23XI Racing made the case that if the charters are sold, they will go out of business. Jeffrey Kessler, the team’s lead counsel, told the court that it’s the time of year where the industry is working to find drivers and lock in their plans for the following season, and they are in danger of losing their sponsors and drivers. Tyler Reddick was specifically mentioned by name.
The “most critical part,” of the injunction request, Kessler argued, is for the status quo to be kept in place with the charters. It is not viable for the teams to race as Open competitors in the long run. Kessler also found the timing of a sudden charter sale “funny” because the party had been interested in one for years, and NASCAR could have granted one previously from the charters they have set aside.
NASCAR, through its lead counsel Chris Yates, continuously reiterated that 23XI Racing and Front Row have no rights to the charters. Furthermore, they argued, if the charter system was so bad then why do the two teams want permanent charters, or why did they buy more charters to expand? And if the system was so bad, then why do other teams want more charters and why are there interested parties trying to join the sport and obtain them?
Judge Kenneth Bell was conflicted, and questioned NASCAR about why it would not release other charters set aside instead of the 23XI Racing and Front Row charters. NASCAR can increase the field from 36 to 40 charter holders.
The proceeding then became contentious and colorful when internal messages were displayed from both sides during the two-year charter agreement negotiations. 23XI Racing and Front Row showed messages between NASCAR president Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR commissioner Steve Phelps, and others that talked about “zero wins” for the race teams in the proposed draft, “[expletive] the race teams,” and talks of bringing the sport back to 1996 with its leadership style.
However, NASCAR said those drafts were never presented to the race teams. And those closest to NASCAR say those messages were taken out of context.
NASCAR then showed some strongly worded messages from Curtis Polk, and Michael Jordan, where communications were made between those at 23XI Racing.
Polk wrote that “16 teams together are stronger than (NASCAR).”
Hamlin expressed at one point, “In short, im (sic) in for the fight with NASCAR. My despise of the France family runs deep, but whatever we do, please lets (sic) not sabotage our own business over principle when it comes down to it.”
Steve Lauletta, the president of 23XI Racing, had one of the strongest messages from June 2024. Lauletta expressed wishing he knew what was best and what was the best investment path. He then wrote, “Being in for the long haul and Jim [France] dying is probably the answer.”
Jordan, upon hearing that Joe Gibbs Racing had signed the charter agreement, wrote “f—ers!!!!” In another message he wrote, “I think people understand our fight. Good things will come from this. Teams are going to regret not supporting us. P—ies!!!!!!!”
Judge Bell, in one of few messages he sent during the hearing, made it known that if 23XI Racing and Front Row prevail, “NASCAR is going to look very different.” In that way, there would be a lot of discussions and moves as it pertained to racetrack sales, exclusivity clauses, non-competes, and perhaps the overall charter system.
“Look, I’ve been a fan of the game for a long period of time, and when we first started this whole process, I’ve always said I want to fight for the betterment of the sport,” Michael Jordan said after the hearing was over. “Even though they tried to point out that we’ve made some money, we had a successful business, that’s not the point. The point is that the sport itself needs to continually change for the fans as well as for the teams. As well as for NASCAR, too, if they understand that.
