NASCAR FACES LEGAL SHOWDOWN OVER CHARTER DISPUTE

Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing, along with Front Row Motorsports, filed a brief requesting to deny NASCAR’s stay for a preliminary injunction that would block the groups from participating as charter teams in 2025, Sportico reported.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell granted a request from 23XI and Front Row to be able to race under a pair of charters transferred from Stewart-Haas Racing.
One day later, NASCAR maintained Bell erred in his decision regarding how charter transfers work and filed an emergency motion for a partial stay of the ruling.

In a request for pre­lim­i­nary injunc­tion this fall, 23XI and Front Row Motor­sports sought to be rec­og­nized as char­tered teams while they pur­sue an antitrust law­suit against NASCAR.
The two rac­ing teams refused to sign a take-it-or-leave-it char­ter agree­ment pre­sent­ed to them in Sep­tem­ber, which the oth­er 13 orga­ni­za­tions rac­ing in the Cup Series signed. 23XI and Front Row called NASCAR “monop­o­lis­tic bul­lies” for its busi­ness prac­tices in the suit.

They were ini­tial­ly denied the injunc­tion by U.S. Dis­trict Judge Frank D. Whit­ney in North Car­oli­na, but on Dec. 11, the court announced Bell as Whit­ney’s replace­ment, with no expla­na­tion as to why.
In Thurs­day’s fil­ings, NASCAR assert­ed it was “nev­er giv­en the oppor­tu­ni­ty” to explain issues relat­ed to char­ter trans­fers, result­ing in a “mis­un­der­stand­ing” by Bell in his rul­ing.

NASCAR argued in court fil­ings that the league will suf­fer irrepara­ble harm unless a stay is grant­ed.

This week’s brief, filed by 23XI and Front Row, scoffed at that notion, while sug­gest­ing that NASCAR CEO Bill France is mere­ly rear­rang­ing the same argu­ment Bell ruled against.

“When a lit­i­gant does not have either the law or the facts on its side, it will pound the table,” the brief said, accord­ing to the Sporti­co report.
The brief calls NASCAR’s counter argu­ment “tired, famil­iar, and shrill.”

The two teams con­tend to the court that NASCAR pres­i­dent Steve Phelps “approved” the char­ter trans­fers from Stew­art-Haas Rac­ing and that Phelps has said Jor­dan’s pres­ence in NASCAR Michael Jor­dan’s 23XI Rac­ing, along with Front Row Motor­sports, filed a brief request­ing to deny NASCAR’s stay for a pre­lim­i­nary injunc­tion. That injunc­tion would block the two teams from par­tic­i­pat­ing as char­ter teams in 2025, Sporti­co report­ed.

If the stay is grant­ed, the injunc­tion would be side­lined until NASCAR’s appeal is heard by the Fourth Cir­cuit Court of Appeals. If the stay is denied, 23XI and Front Row will be allowed to com­plete their deal with Stew­art-Haas Rac­ing.

Unless set­tled, the antitrust law­suit against NASCAR still is sched­uled to go to tri­al in 12 months, Field Lev­el Media reports.