4 Takeaways From the 23XI/Front Row Motorsports-NASCAR Settlement

After more than a year of heated back-and-forth on paper, in the courtroom, and even at the track, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports reached a settlement agreement with NASCAR.

With a few immediate details and more to come in the following days, weeks, and months, here are four immediate takeaways from the trial proceedings and ultimate settlement.

Charters are permanent

The technical term used in the post-court debrief is that the charters are evergreen. Regardless of what phrasing you want to use, this means the charters will be around for a long, long time to come.

This is big because it should cause the charters to largely increase in their valuation. It’s easier for a potential investor to buy into something with a long future ahead as opposed to bidding for a contract that could be meaningless in a handful of years.

It also could benefit the sponsorship side of the teams for the same reason. Many sponsorships in modern NASCAR are brief, with sponsors claiming a handful of races during a season or signing on for a few seasons at a time. After all, it’s tough for brands to try and find a consistent identity within a team if the charters keep changing hands or teams keep shutting down.

Additionally, if teams are making more money from increased revenue, they might be able to be able to work better with their sponsors to retain or add more tenure to previous existing or new deals.

In the charter area so far, new owners have treated race teams like a new toy that they quickly lose interest in. Teams like Furniture Row Racing and Leavine Family Racing, and famous figures like Pitbull and Floyd Mayweather invested heavily to start or improve their race teams, only to leave NASCAR altogether.

The hope is that with permanent charters, owning charters will be a much bigger deal, help teams to better sustain themselves and make owning a race team worth it.

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Teams come away as winners

The court ended in a settlement rather than a verdict, meaning the parties found a way to finally come together and both sides walked out of the courtroom sporting smiles and selling how great their settlement will be.

However, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports really accomplished what they set out to do. 

When the lawsuit was filed in 2024, that was no guarantee. There was a chance NASCAR would win if the case went to trial and the teams would more or less be out of business. The two teams could stay in the game either by forcing a settlement with permanent charters or causing a massive shakeup by winning the case, but going up against NASCAR always gave the perception that they were underdogs.

Ultimately, the two teams got what they and many of the other team owners wanted by settling for permanent charters. Make no mistake, this was only done when NASCAR arrived at a point where it felt it might actually lose the trial.

For every moment that NASCAR felt it had a fighting chance, it did its best to shut out the two teams that stood up against the sanctioning body. Things got tense, especially in court filings and the early, lengthy days in the courtroom trial.

At some point, NASCAR must have realized the teams had the upper hand, both currently and down the road had NASCAR lost and appealed. That, in turn, led to NASCAR opening up to a settlement.

That’s not all, though. It appears the teams — all of them — are going to have a bigger say in future NASCAR decisions. 

This is where we wait to see what official terms and definitions are drafted up, but the teams have regained a level of power to veto certain decisions that NASCAR attempts to make. Additionally, the teams also appear to be earning a larger slice of the revenue pie following the settlement.

There are still many details to come out about what concessions were made by either side, but the initial look is that NASCAR is the side giving the most while the teams have the most gained so far.

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Fan perception of NASCAR leadership is at an all-time low

The talk leading up to the trial showed that the NASCAR name carries very little weight outside of Charlotte. The biggest attention-grabber was the fact that NBA legend Michael Jordan was the one taking on the racing entity.

Inside the sport, however, fans were locked in on what was made public, and it was clear that there would be some sparks.

As private emails, texts and other documents were made public through court filings, NASCAR’s insistence to control the teams became obvious when the Gold Codes — the organization’s plans to circumvent a team boycott — showed how the series intended to put on a show without its biggest teams.

Additionally, inflammatory comments made toward team owners and an apparent unwillingness to answer questions further fueled fans’ negative feelings toward NASCAR’s top brass.

Leadership also expressed major disdain for SRX, which only added to the anger. After all, many race fans may prefer NASCAR, but race fans simply like to watch racing. Summertime SRX races might have had Cup Series stars competing, but it felt like another outlet to watch racing, not something that was stealing away attention from NASCAR.

Combine this with frustrations about the Next Gen car and the still-current playoff format, fans feeling that those making the decisions at the top of NASCAR are disconnected from what race fans truly want.

Sure, both the teams and NASCAR walked out of the courtroom with smiles on their faces. But NASCAR and its leadership has a long way to go to rebuild relationships with the fans and sell the idea that all truly is well.

Future NASCAR leadership will look different

Along the same line of thought, NASCAR very well may look different at the top in the near future. For starters, NASCAR doesn’t lose, and it really doesn’t ever compromise. The fact that this trial went the way it did surely upset some of the top brass.

While fan sentiment has a little less weight on the future of leadership of the series, sponsor feelings could be a much bigger deal. With sponsors like Johnny Morris and Bass Pro Shops challenging the credibility of NASCAR leadership, that will certainly get a lot of attention and go a long way in propelling some change.

One person whose name was mentioned by Morris in his statement was Steve Phelps. While the burden of these shortcomings fall to many across the NASCAR world, Phelps seemingly took the brunt of much negativity.

Phelps was also noticeably absent from the post-court media opportunity, which leads to speculation that movement within the NASCAR leadership team is already occurring. 

The biggest question, however, is who NASCAR turns to in order to fill the roles. Does the France family keep its stronghold on key positions, or do they bring in some outside influence to make decisions?

Among these key takeaways, there are still plenty of questions and even more details to figure out. By the time the 2026 NASCAR season rolls around, the biggest takeaways could be completely different, and the sport could have a new outlook.

With the trial out of the way and a settlement in play, it’s time to let the healing begin while we watch and see what the teams and NASCAR decide for the sport’s future. 

Caleb began sports writing in 2023 with The Liberty Champion, where he officially covered his first NASCAR race at Richmond in the spring. While there, Caleb met some of the guys from Frontstretch, and he joined the video editing team after graduating from Liberty University with degrees in Strategic Communications and Sports Journalism. Caleb currently work full-time as a Multi-Media Journalist with LEX 18 News in Lexington, Kentucky and contributes to Frontstretch with writing and video editing. He’s also behind-the-scenes or on camera for the Happy Hour Podcast, live every Tuesday night at 7:30!