{"id":4157,"date":"2025-07-18T00:47:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T00:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/4157\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T00:47:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T00:47:08","slug":"nascar-fends-off-bid-for-temporary-restraining-order-in-charter-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/4157\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Fends Off Bid for Temporary Restraining Order in Charter Fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tU.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell on Thursday denied a motion for a temporary restraining order that would have ensured the three NASCAR<\/a>-chartered cars owned by 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports could not be revoked.<\/p>\n

\n\tBell\u2019s primary reason was that NASCAR has agreed to not sell the charters until the judge has ruled on the teams\u2019 motion for a preliminary injunction. The preliminary injunction seeks the same type of relief as the TRO except it would be designed to last a longer period: Through the reminder of the 2025 Cup Series season and through a trial scheduled for December.<\/p>\n

\n\t23XI, which is co-owned by Michael Jordan<\/a>, Denny Hamlin<\/a> and Curtis Polk, and Front Row sought a TRO because of the expiration of a preliminary injunction that had ensured the teams could enjoy the rights of the 2025 charter agreements without having to accept a mutual release provision. The teams had obtained that injunction from Bell last December, but in June a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed Bell. After 23XI and Front Row recently\u2014and unsuccessfully\u2014sought an en banc review in front of all active judges on the Fourth Circuit, a judicial mandate to end the injunction took effect on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs Bell explained in his latest order, 23XI and Front Row sought a TRO \u201cto stave off what they urge to be the dire consequences of no longer operating as a \u2018chartered\u2019 team.\u201d Those \u201cdire consequences\u201d include the possibility that \u201cNASCAR will quickly sell their charters to other racing teams, thereby for all practical purposes ending their existence as a realistic competitor in NASCAR\u2019s Cup Series.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Bell acknowledged 23XI and Front Row\u2019s worries, he reasoned the teams have come up short in arguing for a TRO.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo that end, 23XI and Front Row failed to convince Bell they could establish a likelihood of imminent irreparable harm, which is the type of harm that monetary damages can\u2019t later remedy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBell noted that while 23XI and Front Row fear the transfer of charter spots would \u201cdestroy their businesses,\u201d NASCAR has agreed it \u201cwill not sell any charters\u201d before Bell rules on the motion for a preliminary injunction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tLikewise, NASCAR has assured that all of 23XI and Front Row\u2019s cars would, if the teams wish to race, qualify for races in Dover and Indianapolis that are set to occur over the next couple of weeks. Bell further pointed out that 23XI and Front Row don\u2019t claim they\u2019re likely to lose drivers or sponsors over the next couple of weeks since the teams\u2019 charter status won\u2019t change.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a statement shared with\u00a0Sportico, 23XI and Front Row attorney Jeffrey Kessler said he and his clients are \u201cdisappointed\u201d by the TRO ruling but \u201cremain confident\u201d that they will prevail in their motion for a preliminary injunction. Kessler said Bell rejected the TRO \u201cbecause NASCAR has agreed to preserve our charters until the preliminary injunction can be decided and because we are assured of qualifying all our cars the next two weeks so that there will be no irreparable harm before the preliminary injunction can be fully briefed and ruled upon.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell on Thursday denied a motion for a temporary restraining order that would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[4997,49,48,3932,4998,3004,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-4157","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-antitrust","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-denny-hamlin","12":"tag-federal-courts","13":"tag-michael-jordan","14":"tag-nascar","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}