There isn't a lot that is new here, however ...
Much of what 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports offered in a Friday night legal filing in response to a NASCAR motion for summary judgement was a rehash of previous defenses to a countersuit from the Sanctioning Body.
NASCAR countersued 23XI and FRM, who sued the league on antitrust grounds in October 2024, by arguing that it was the two teams that were in fact acting in violation of federal antitrust laws.
In addition to the lawsuit and countersuit, both sides have filed motions for summary judgment against each other that need to be resolved before the trial scheduled for December 1 can take place. A summary judgment can be issued when there are no issues beyond legal fact -- allowing a judge to render a verdict without a jury.
The evidence NASCAR has put together includes an alleged conspiracy from 23XI investor Curtis Polk to lead a Cup Series teams boycott of the 2024 Duel at Daytona qualifying races and joint negotiating tactics spearheaded by Polk as frontman for the Teams Negotiating Committee -- all in the name of securing better terms for the charter agreement that oversees revenue sharing within the sport.
NASCAR also argues that the teams have a market power advantage over the Sanctioning Body, which mirrors 23XI and Front Row’s own summary judgement claims that NASCAR has market power over the teams.
There is a hearing set for October 23 for the court to consider these arguments if a court mandated settlement mediation meeting scheduled for October 21 does not produce such an outcome.
The short version, which has been filed elsewhere, is that 23XI and Front Row Motorsports defend the use of jointly negotiating with all the other teams with NASCAR because there are numerous legal precedents in doing so.
In addition to negotiating collectively, NASCAR also successfully negotiated with teams on an individual basis and were not prevented from doing so.
From the filing, bold emphasis from Motorsport.com:
“NASCAR’s newly submitted declarations from the teams further confirm that teams negotiated individually with NASCAR on substantive issues. (‘During the negotiation process, NASCAR listened to input from Hyak Motorsports, even though we are one of the smaller Cup Series teams.’); (‘I also participated in the negotiation process leading up to the 2025 Charter Agreement. LEGACY MOTOR CLUB received and reviewed multiple drafts in late 2023, May 2024, August 2024, and September 2024. Our team provided comments and input[.]’). Tellingly, NASCAR’s opposition does not identify a single instance of a team refusing NASCAR’s request to negotiate individually, and there is none.”
23XI and Front Row claim NASCAR has no evidence of a boycott conspiracy led by Polk. And Front Row specifically claims there was no reason for NASCAR to specifically cite their organization in this particular counterclaim or summary judgment motion because they have nothing to do with these claims beyond participating in joint negotiations.
From the filing:
“There is no evidence that Front Row did anything other than participate in the joint negotiations of its trade association, the Race Team Alliance, and make statements of encouragement during the negotiations. Both Front Row and 23XI engaged in individual negotiations with NASCAR when asked to do so.
“As for Mr. Polk, NASCAR’s agreement to joint negotiations with RTA members, and its creation of the charter system, predated 23XI’s entry into NASCAR by seven and four years, respectively. His statements to other RTA members to support the joint negotiations never led to any boycott or uniform team negotiating positions, as illustrated by the fact that 13 other teams accepted NASCAR’s final proposal—which achieved none of the four core objectives advocated by Mr. Polk or the TNC.”
What is new within this document is a response to NASCAR including written declarations within its summary judgement motion from 10 Cup Series team owners who expressed support for the charter system and urging both sides to settle.
Even though the team owners wrote these letters at the request of NASCAR, they each said they were doing so without taking a side in the matter.
23XI and Front Row have used the wording in these letters to paint a picture of how NASCAR used its alleged market authority to force the 13 of 15 teams that signed the agreement to accept below-value terms.
From the filing, bold emphasis from Motorsport.com:
“The team declarations NASCAR submitted with its summary judgment papers underscore the existential threat the teams faced when NASCAR made its take-it-or-leave-it charter demand.”
…
“NASCAR’s top executives recognized that the teams had to take any final offer presented to them as they could not afford to lose their charters. The new declarations submitted by NASCAR in support of its summary judgment motion confirm this fact. See, (‘Hyak Motorsports accepted NASCAR’s final Charter offer on September 6, 2024 because I believed that signing the new Charter agreement . . . made more sense than potentially losing the Charter that we owned[.]’); (‘We signed the 2025 Charter because … we didn’t want to risk losing what my family has worked so hard to create over the years.’-Front Row Motorsports) (‘Had we not [agreed to the 2025 Charter Agreement], Joe Gibbs Racing would have put at risk its four Charters, which in turn, would have put at risk the organization as a whole, and the employees and families that rely on us.’). NASCAR executives knew the offer being forced upon the teams was a ‘fuck the teams’ proposal with ‘zero wins for the teams’ and a return to the past.”
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Category: General Sports
