![\"NASCAR](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/charlotte-north-carolina-the-exterior-of-the-charles-r-jonas-federal-building-on-december-1-478334.j.jpeg\" "\\"NASCAR")
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23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports have taken NASCAR to court in North Carolina (Image: Getty)<\/p>\n
The 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR took a fresh turn on Wednesday, with the plaintiff\u2019s attorney, Jeffrey Kessler, tearing into NASCAR\u2019s executive vice president and chief strategy officer, Scott Prime, on the stand.<\/p>\n
With the lawsuit focused on the 2024 charter agreement, which neither 23XI nor FRM signed up to, and the former\u2019s co-owner, Denny Hamlin<\/a>, labeled a \u201cdeath certificate\u201d on Tuesday<\/a>, and supposedly \u201cmonopolistic\u201d practices from NASCAR<\/a>, Kessler honed in on Prime\u2019s take on the organization\u2019s final charter offer to the teams.<\/p>\n Prime was asked whether this agreement was a \u201ctake it or leave it offer,\u201d to which he eventually concurred. Kessler then went on to claim that both 23XI, which is also co-owned by Michael Jordan<\/a>, who is representing the team in court, and FRM, would have been made to end their NASCAR operations if they didn\u2019t sign, as per Dalton Hopkins<\/a>.<\/p>\n This prompted Kessler to comment that this was \u201cbecause you\u2019re a monopoly, yes?\u201d to which Prime replied, \u201cWe are the premier stock car series.\u201d Kesler then responded, \u201cBecause there\u2019s no other one?\u201d after which Prime commented, \u201cPremier means there\u2019s only one of them, yes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n NASCAR being seen as the \u201cpremier stock car racing\u201d series, is central to Kessler and Co.\u2019s argument that the organization \u201chas monopoly power in a properly defined market,\u201d as per a prior team release<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sign up to our NASCAR newsletter here.<\/a><\/p>\n Michael Jordan will remain in court throughout the lawsuit as 23XI’s designated representative (Image: Getty)<\/p>\n Rewind to a ruling by Judge Bell in November, and he appeared to agree with the plaintiffs in this regard<\/a>, dismissing a NASCAR counterclaim while also ruling that \u201cpremier stock car racing\u201d is all but under the thumb of NASCAR.<\/p>\n \u201cIn pursuing its Counterclaim, NASCAR argued that the Plaintiffs had market power in the relevant Cup Series market because it could not reasonably substitute Indy Car or Formula 1 racing teams or even the racing teams participating in its two lower level series,\u201d Bell said.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, in opposing Plaintiffs\u2019 relevant market, NASCAR now contends that the same motorsports that could not supply racing teams to the Cup Series are suddenly readily available substitutes for the Cup Series teams like Plaintiffs to sell their services.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNot only is it illogical, but there is no record evidence that racing teams in the various motorsports can only move from NASCAR to another motorsport but not vice-versa. Again, NASCAR wants to (but cannot) have it differently on each side of the same coin \u2013 heads we win, tails you lose.\u201d<\/p>\n Returning to Prime\u2019s cross-examination, messages between NASCAR executives were provided once more, this time showing the four demands teams had regarding the charter negotiations<\/a>, which Prime labeled \u201cquite disappointing,\u201d per Hopkins.<\/p>\n Instead, he offered five options to his fellow executives which were a \u201csanction agreement with SMI (Speedway Motorsports, LLC), as well as changing the charter agreement to cover 32 teams instead of the existing 36, handing them out on \u201ca first come, first serve\u201d basis, with charters only being awarded to the first 32 teams to agree to the new charter agreement.<\/p>\n Prime also proposed a combination of the first two options, ditching the charters entirely and simply returning to the previous open team format, or what he called \u201cProject Gold Codes,\u201d which would have seen NASCAR own the charters.<\/p>\n This final option would have come as a heavy cost, estimated at around $610 million just in the first year, followed by a further $500 million annually, via Claire B. Lang<\/a>.<\/p>\n Subsequently, it was noted by Kessler that telling a business to either take their deal or cease being in business is something that \u201conly a monopolist\u201d would do, to which Prime countered that teams would have been free to race elsewhere, as per Hopkins.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kessler questioned whether a competing series could be considered \u201cpremier\u201d if superspeedways were not involved, with most currently owned either by NASCAR or SMI, prompting Prime to note, \u201cNASCAR didn\u2019t have any superspeedways when it first started.\u201d However, Kessler was quick to reply, saying, \u201cI\u2019m talking about today, not 1946.\u201d<\/p>\n During the cross-examination, Kessler also revealed an email written by Prime about the final version of the charter agreement and how it would need to be signed by 12 pm on September 6, 2024, adding that he didn\u2019t \u201cwant to put a gun to their head, unless that\u2019s what they want.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"NASCAR](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/charlotte-north-carolina-michael-jordan-co-owner-of-23xi-racing-departs-the-charles-r-jonas-478344.j.jpeg\" "\\"NASCAR")
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