23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports filed documents in U.S. District Court Monday seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to maintain their charter status days before they are are scheduled to lose it.<\/p>\n
The teams, in court documents, state losing their charter status would cause \u201cirreparable harm\u201d and that NASCAR has \u201csignaled its intention to immediately move or sell (their) charters to other entities \u2014 putting (23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports) in irreparable jeopardy of never getting their charters back and going out of business.\u201d<\/p>\n
NASCAR issued a statement Monday morning:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is unfortunate that instead of respecting the clear rulings of the Fourth Circuit, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports are now burdening the District Court with a third motion for another unnecessary and inappropriate preliminary injunction. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs both the Fourth Circuit and the District Court suggested, NASCAR has made multiple requests to 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports to present a proposal to resolve this litigation. We have yet to receive a proposal from 23XI or Front Row, as they have instead preferred to continue their damaging and distracting lawsuit. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe will defend NASCAR\u2019s integrity from this baseless lawsuit forced upon the sport that threatens to divide the stakeholders committed to serving race fans everywhere. We remain focused on collaborating with the 13 race teams that signed the 2025 charter agreements and share our mutual goal of delivering the best racing in the world each week, including this weekend in Dover.\u201d<\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s filing comes after a three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a preliminary injunction in June that allowed 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports to receive the benefits of a charter team \u2014 primarily financial \u2014 even though they did not sign the charter agreement last year.<\/p>\n
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request for a rehearing July 9, meaning 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports could be classified as open teams ahead of Sunday\u2019s race at Dover Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n
The teams filed their request Monday for an oral argument on their request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction in U.S. District Court in Charlotte, North Carolina.<\/p>\n
The two teams stated in court documents that they \u201cbring this new motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to protect the status quo and prevent the irreparable harm that will result if (they) lose their charter rights or are forced to unwind their charter purchases before trial (Dec. 1).<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the Fourth Circuit has vacated the prior preliminary injunction, and the mandate is scheduled to be issued on July 16, the Fourth Circuit\u2019s decision was based on the narrow holding that NASCAR\u2019s release in the 2025 Charter Agreement is not, standing alone, exclusionary conduct in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act. The Fourth Circuit expressly did not consider NASCAR\u2019s other exclusionary acts that \u2026 clearly establish that (23XI and Front Row) are likely to prevail at trial.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the court filing from 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, the teams state: \u201cSince the Fourth Circuit\u2019s decision, NASCAR has signaled its intention to immediately move to sell or issue Plaintiffs\u2019 charters to other entities\u2014putting Plaintiffs in irreparable jeopardy of never getting their charters back and going out of business.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the Court has already found, it is not economically viable for a team to participate in the Cup Series on a long-term basis racing under an \u201copen\u201d agreement. Moreover, if Plaintiffs are forced to relinquish their charters before trial, they once again will face the prospect of losing key sponsors and star drivers, who will have the right to terminate their contracts and have already signaled their intention to pursue driving opportunities with other teams (should Plaintiffs lose their charter rights).\u201d<\/p>\n
The teams request that the court issue a temporary restraining order and then a preliminary injunction that allows 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports to continue racing as chartered cars for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n
23XI Racing employs drivers Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace and Riley Herbst. Front Row Motorsports\u2019 drivers are Todd Gilliland, Noah Gragson and Zane Smith.<\/p>\n
In the court filing, the teams stated: \u201cSince the Fourth Circuit decision vacating the injunction, drivers for Plaintiffs have already expressed their concerns about the continued ability of the teams to compete without charters.\u201d<\/p>\n
23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports also stated in court documents their concerns about losing charters.<\/p>\n
In court documents, the two teams stated: \u201cMoreover, if Plaintiffs lose their charter rights now, they may never be able to get them back. After the Fourth Circuit\u2019s decision vacating the preliminary injunction, NASCAR\u2019s counsel sent a letter to Plaintiffs on June 25, 2025, stating that NASCAR intended to \u201cimmediately undertake a process\u201d to sell or unwind the 23XI and Front Row charters that Plaintiffs purchased from Stewart-Haas Racing. \u2026 NASCAR stated that it is \u201caware of interest from multiple prospective buyers for Charters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese potential buyers would also be a threat to obtain Plaintiffs\u2019 other charter rights if Plaintiffs are forced to relinquish them, putting Plaintiffs\u2019 entire future business at risk\u2014as they cannot race as open teams on a long-term basis.\u201d<\/p>\n
23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports each purchased one charter from Stewart-Haas Racing last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports filed documents in U.S. District Court Monday seeking a temporary restraining order…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[425,99],"class_list":["post-9146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}