What’s Happening?

One of the many documents shared by 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports’ legal team following yesterday’s preliminary injunction hearing shows what appears to be NASCAR expressing interest in purchasing fellow track owner Speedway Motorsports.

Among the notable lines in this document are phrases like “Lock Up SM” (Speedway Motorsports) in a column titled ‘Actions’. In a column titled ‘Considerations’, the document claims that Speedway Motorsports is “currently reliant on media revenue to service debt” and that “Fan/partner reaction likely to be negative upfront.”

The Smith family owns Speedway Motorsports, which owns many well-known NASCAR tracks, such as Bristol Motor Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, and Texas Motor Speedway.

It is unclear whether or not NASCAR acquiring SM was a realistic option, as this document lacks certain levels of necessary context.

Nonetheless, the idea that NASCAR would be interested in such an acquisition is important for the two sides’ ongoing lawsuit, as of the 28 unique tracks on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series schedule, NASCAR owns 12, and Speedway Motorsports owns 10.

This acquisition, had NASCAR pursued it, would not only increase the sport’s in-house track ownership but also give the sport a dominant majority on it’s own schedule.

Prior to 2019, NASCAR’s fleet of tracks was owned by International Speedway Corporation, a sister company of NASCAR, which the France family also owned. NASCAR purchased ISC flat out in early 2019; this purchase was cited as an anticompetitive action by the sport in the two teams’ initial lawsuit on Oct. 2, 2024.

Per Page Six of the initial lawsuit:

“This acquisition gave NASCAR full control over 13 of the country’s premier racetracks, including Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway. When paired with NASCAR’s practice of entering into anticompetitive agreements requiring independently owned racetracks to agree to not host any other premier stock car racing events as a condition of those tracks being awarded a Cup Series event, this acquisition substantially foreclosed any potential new competitor from being formed, as it would not be able to access enough high-quality racetracks to operate a stock car racing series that could compete with NASCAR’s Cup Series.”

Since this document has gone public, fans in the online NASCAR community have reacted rather poorly to the idea of NASCAR buying out SM. Some have begun replying to this post with pictures of the NASCAR-themed edition of the board game Monopoly.

Unless the two parties reach some form of settlement, though it looks as unlikely as ever, NASCAR and 23XI Racing are set to battle out this antitrust lawsuit in early December. We have extensively covered all aspects of this lawsuit via the timeline linked below.

What’s Happening?

The 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports lawsuit will continue for some time. However, many developments will occur along…

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