{"id":83841,"date":"2025-08-20T14:11:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T14:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/83841\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T14:11:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T14:11:07","slug":"nascar-blames-23xi-racing-front-row-for-problems-in-latest-brief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/83841\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Blames 23XI Racing, Front Row for Problems in Latest Brief"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn a brief that essentially blames 23XI Racing\u2014which is co-owned by Michael Jordan<\/a>, Denny Hamlin<\/a> and Curtis Polk\u2014and Front Row Motorsports for problems they contend are NASCAR<\/a>\u2019s fault, NASCAR on Monday urged a federal judge to deny the teams\u2019\u00a0third motion for a preliminary injunction<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRepresented by Christopher S. Yates of Latham & Watkins, NASCAR\u2019s latest filing urges U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell to reject an injunction that would prohibit NASCAR from denying 23XI and Front Row the same terms offered to charter teams without compelling 23XI and Front Row to sign a mutual release of legal claims.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNASCAR,\u201d the brief contends, \u201cbuilt the world\u2019s best racing series from the ground up through 75-plus years of hard work, billions in investment and innovation . . . the antitrust<\/a> laws celebrate, rather than punish, such success.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNASCAR also asserts that antitrust laws don\u2019t compel private businesses to rewrite contract offers so that they satisfy offerees\u2019 demands. The association points out that 23XI and Front Row are \u201cassured entry\u201d for six open cars in the remaining 2025 Cup Series races, and that the teams chose to reject the kind of offer NASCAR made to charter teams.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlong those lines, NASCAR says it has made a simple business decision: It wants to partner with teams that are willing to sign. \u201cEquity,\u201d NASCAR maintains, \u201cdoes not reward self-inflicted injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition, NASCAR asserts that Bell can\u2019t force NASCAR to allow 23XI and Front Row to participate on what it maintains are preferential terms. NASCAR notes that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit \u201crejected such relief\u201d when in June it\u00a0vacated a preliminary injunction<\/a>\u00a0Bell issued.<\/p>\n

\n\tNASCAR also tries to rebuke the underlying antitrust theory espoused by 23XI and Front Row.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tNASCAR asserts that the teams have failed to identify \u201cany motorsport competitor ever excluded by NASCAR\u201d and argues that if it were a monopsony (i.e., a monopoly except instead of selling a product, it buys services\u2014here services provided by teams and drivers), evidence would show NASCAR pays less.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe opposite is true here,\u201d NASCAR maintains. The association points out it hasn\u2019t reduced the number of chargers and contends it \u201chas repeatedly agreed to pay Charter holders more or create additional value for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t23XI and Front Row will have the opportunity to try to rebut NASCAR\u2019s arguments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSince suing last year, the two teams have insisted NASCAR relies on exclusive dealing provisions to contractually block racetrack owners from hosting other events, to diminish opportunities for teams and constrain the racing market. 23XI and Front Row also depict NASCAR as \u201cthe only premier stock car racing series in the United States\u201d and as armed with such market control teams must accept what 23XI and Front Row depict as onerous terms.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a brief that essentially blames 23XI Racing\u2014which is co-owned by Michael Jordan, Denny Hamlin and Curtis Polk\u2014and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83842,"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-83841","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\/83841","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=83841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}