In a brief but sharply worded order that chastised NASCAR for making a “play to the court of public opinion and perhaps color [the judge’s] perception” of 23XI Racing, Front Row Motorsports and their counsel, U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell on Monday denied NASCAR an order that would have required 23XI and Front Row to show cause over allegations of submitting fake evidence and attorney-scripted testimony.
Bell wrote that NASCAR’s motion “does not productively move this case forward.” He reminded the parties the antitrust case is “important” because it “risks the fortunes of NASCAR” and the two teams. The case also “significantly impacts all the other companies and individuals who depend on their success (as well as legions of stock car racing fans),” Bell stressed.
Last Friday, NASCAR accused 23XI—which is co-owned by Michael Jordan, Denny Hamlin and Curtis Polk—and Front Row, along with the teams’ attorneys, of presenting fake evidence and scripted letters. The accusation implied that Bell was duped into granting a preliminary injunction last December. The injunction, later vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, ensured the two teams could enjoy the rights and face the obligations of the 2025 charter agreements without having to agree to a mutual release provision.
Bell’s decision last December was based in part on assertions, purportedly from 23XI drivers Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace, that they were very worried about the lack of charters and how the absence of charters would impact their careers and contracts. A month earlier, a different federal judge, Frank D. Whitney, denied essentially the same motion on grounds 23XI and Front Row had submitted insufficient evidence that an injunction was necessary for them to avert irreparable harm, meaning the kind of harm that monetary damages could not later remedy.
Bell on Monday suggested NASCAR misunderstood where his focus rests. The judge wrote his concern is “not on how” evidence and affidavits “came to be” but instead on “determining what truthful substance they hold.”
Along those lines, Bell reasoned that “regardless of whether or not the driver letters were prompted or even written by someone connected to Plaintiffs,” the substance of those letters is what counts. He added that “counsel often prepare their witnesses for depositions with suggestions on how to phrase answers.”
Last Friday, attorney Jeffrey Kessler, who is lead counsel for 23XI Racing and Front Row in the litigation, slammed NASCAR for “yet another baseless distraction.”