Motorsports

Judges may throw out order allowing 23XI, Front Row to race as chartered teams

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A three-judge federal appellate panel indicated Friday it might overturn an injunction that allows 23XI Racing, co-owned by retired NBA great Michael Jordan and veteran driver Denny Hamlin, and Front Row Motorsports to race as chartered teams in NASCAR this season while the two teams sue the stock car series over […]

Published

4 weeks ago

May 12, 2025

Your Sports Nation

NASCAR attorney Chris Yates argued the injunction, granted in December by U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell of the Western District of North Carolina, forced the series into an unwanted relationship with unwilling partners, and that it harms other teams because they earn less money.

Yates said the district court broke precedent by granting the injunction, saying the “release” clause in the charter contracts forbidding the teams from suing is “common.” He argued, essentially, that the teams should not have the benefits of the charter system they are suing to overturn.

Overturning the injunction would leave the two organizations able to race but without any of the perks of being chartered, including guaranteed weekly revenue. They would also have to qualify at every Cup Series event to make the field, which currently has only four open spots each week; 23XI and Front Row are each running three cars in Cup this season.

Judges Steven Agee, Paul Niemeyer and Stephanie Thacker, at multiple points during the 50-minute hearing at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth District, pushed back on the argument made by plaintiff’s attorney Jeffrey Kessler, who accused NASCAR of being a monopoly.

“There’s no other place to compete,” Kessler told the judges, later noting that overturning the injunction would cause tremendous damage to the two teams, which could lose drivers and sponsors. “It will cause havoc to overturn this injunction in the middle of the season.”

The teams filed the antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR on Oct. 2 in the Western District of North Carolina, arguing that the series bullied teams into signing new charters that make it difficult to compete financially. That came after two years of failed negotiations on new charter agreements, which is NASCAR’s equivalent of franchise deals.

23XI – co-owned by Jordan, Hamlin and Curtis Polk, a longtime Jordan business partner – and Front Row Motorsports, were the only two out of 15 charter-holding teams that refused to sign new agreements in September.

The charters, which teams originally signed before the 2016 season, have twice been extended. The most recent extension runs until 2031, matching the current media rights deal. It guarantees that 36 of the 40 available spots in weekly races will go to teams holding charters.

The judges expressed agreement with Yates’s argument that the district court had erred in issuing the injunction allowing the teams to race, because it mandated they sign the NASCAR charter but eliminated the contract’s release.

“It seems you want to have your cake and eat it, too,” Niemeyer told Kessler.

At another point, the judge pointedly told Kessler that if the teams want to race, they should sign the charter.

Yates contended that forcing an unwanted relationship between NASCAR and the two teams “harms NASCAR and other racing teams.” He said that more chartered teams would earn more money if not for the injunction and noted that the two teams are being “given the benefits of a contract they rejected.”

Kessler argued that even if the district court’s reasoning was flawed, other evidence should lead the circuit court to uphold the injunction. Niemayer disagreed.

“The court wanted you to be able to race but without a contract,” he said.

A trial date is set for December and Agee strongly urged the sides to meet for mediation — previously ordered by a lower court — to attempt to resolve the dispute over the injunction.

“It’ll be a very interesting trial,” Agee said with a wry smile.

The prospect of successful mediation seems unlikely. Yates told the judges: “We’re not going to rewrite the charter.”

___

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

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Motorsports

Corey Heim to replace Jake Finch for Venturini Motorsports in ARCA race at Michigan

A big shock to the ARCA Menards Series field tonight. Corey Heim is replacing Jake Finch for Venturini Motorsports in the No. 25 car. Heim, a favorite to win the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship this year, is going to test these ARCA drivers like never before. Corey Heim is going to be a great […]

Published

13 minutes ago

June 6, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Corey Heim is going to be a great test for the rest of the field. Drivers like Brenden “Butterbean” Queen will get a shot to go up against a driver that many consider ready to take on the Cup Series.

This race also features Gio Ruggiero, a Truck Series full-timer. Butterbean, Isabella Robusto, Lavar Scott, and the usual suspects are going to be pushed to their limits tonight in Michigan if they want to keep up with Ruggerio and Heim.

Corey Heim was the runner-up in the 2021 ARCA Menards Series season. That is where his infamous rivalry with Ty Gibbs began, a rivalry many NASCAR fans believe has contributed to Heim being held up in the lower ranks for so long. Though that seems to be more conjecture than fact.

In 43 starts in the ARCA Menards Series, Heim has nine wins and 41 top-10 finishes. He also has seven pole awards. His chances of winning tonight, if a sportsbook carried ARCA, would probably be -1000 or more. In Venturini equipment, he should be head and shoulders above the competition.

Then again, you line them up and race for a reason. We have seen Butterbean emerge as the likely championship favorite in the series this season. He has won at Daytona and Kansas, coming from a short track background, which is very impressive.

Corey Heim might stink up the ARCA show at Michigan

The ARCA race at Michigan isn’t usually the most exciting. These big, fast tracks string out the field quicker than most, and with only a handful of competitive cars and drivers in the field, it could get ugly, quickly. Good news, it should be a quick race, all things considered.

Corey Heim is going into this race feeling he should win, no doubt. He is a 23XI Racing development driver, a 15-time winner in the Truck Series, and is seen as one of the top prospects in the sport.

Even though Heim hasn’t raced under the ARCA platform since 2022, it won’t be that big of an adjustment. This weekend is more about getting back in the winner’s column in the Truck Series. At Nashville, Heim started on pole and, for the fourth time this season, failed to convert his pole position to a checkered flag.

Corey Heim has never raced at Michigan in the Truck Series. The extra laps will help him out. Jake Finch is recovering from an infection and decided it was best not to race this weekend.

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NASCAR insider goes off on fans ‘b****ing’ about Prime Video race broadcasts

A NASCAR insider had a message for the fans who have been complaining about races being on Prime Video. After the Nashville Cup Series race, Jeff Gluck of The Athletic went to X/Twitter to sound off on the fans who don’t like live racing being on a streaming service. “The people in my mentions bitching […]

Published

14 minutes ago

June 6, 2025

Your Sports Nation

“The people in my mentions bitching about races on Prime are so exhausting,” Gluck wrote. “OH NO, possibly the best NASCAR TV coverage ever is on a streaming service with a free 30-day trial! But I wanted to watch more ads and have no post-race and pay for my Amazon shipping. You bastards!”

Prime Video coverage of NASCAR has received rave reviews from critics and fans. But there are some people who either don’t have Prime or don’t want to subscribe to the streaming service, leading to some complaints. It’s no different from what we have seen with the NFL streaming games on Prime, Netflix and Peacock.

The good news for the non-Prime lovers is that NASCAR will have just three more races before TNT takes over. In NASCAR’s new media deal that was signed in November of 2023, Prime Video will cover five races each year until the end of the 2031 season.

More on NASCAR’s coverage on Prime Video

“NASCAR is the most popular motorsport in the country, and we can’t wait to deliver Cup Series racing to Prime members in the U.S. for the first time,” Jay Marine, vice president and global head of sports at Prime Video, said in November 2023. “We are excited to find ways to get NASCAR fans closer to the racing than ever before, and we are proud to contribute to the growth of the sport in the years ahead.”

After Prime Video made its NASCAR coverage debut last month, Jeff Gluck praised the streaming service. “People across my feed have just been raving,” Gluck said on The Teardown podcast. “Even when NBC took over and everybody’s really excited about them coming in, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen my social media feed rave about a NASCAR broadcaster to that level. People were just thrilled with the product that they got from every facet, it seemed like.

“…It was such a high-quality product, and you could tell that they put a lot into it, and it was just really great. I also think it’s very important in a sense for NASCAR to see that the fans do like something and will all love something when it’s worth loving. There’s a narrative in NASCAR that the fans hate everything, they’re so cynical and they’ll complain about everything. There’s a lot of complaints, but when you see something like you saw with the Prime broadcast the other night, people just genuinely loved it.”

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Motorsports

Colorado’s Eli Tomac, motocross legend, driven to ‘prove he’s still got it’

While riding a tiny 50cc bike on his family’s ranch in southwest Colorado, a young Eli Tomac started down the track toward motocross immortality. Tomac, the son of iconic mountain biker John Tomac, got that first bike for Christmas when he was 4 years old. In the decades that followed, the father and son trained […]

Published

42 minutes ago

June 6, 2025

Your Sports Nation

While riding a tiny 50cc bike on his family’s ranch in southwest Colorado, a young Eli Tomac started down the track toward motocross immortality.

Tomac, the son of iconic mountain biker John Tomac, got that first bike for Christmas when he was 4 years old. In the decades that followed, the father and son trained relentlessly on what was at first a small-scale track on just a couple of acres.

Now, the same 800-acre ranch where Tomac still trains is a sprawling motocross oasis in the shadow of the Battle Rock sandstone formation in McElmo Canyon. There’s a full-size motocross track, multiple supercross tracks and some smaller practice tracks, too, encompassing about 80 acres.

“We started to build the track when we first started riding together, and it kept evolving as his bikes got bigger, as his skill level raised,” John Tomac said. “We just kept advancing the track with him. We added on, we refined it, we moved it a couple of times.

“There’s a lot of kids who are good racers when they’re younger, and they don’t pan out later. I think it helped that I was a professional athlete, we had the land to practice on, and I kind of knew a good pathway and I could gauge where he was at, and where he might end up. … But even with all that, he definitely exceeded what a normal expectation for a career would be.”

Tomac is the local headliner at the Thunder Valley National on Saturday in Lakewood.

A four-time motocross champion and two-time supercross champion, he’s racing there for the first time in a couple of years after injuries prevented him from competing in 2023 and ’24. Tomac enters the race in third place in the 450 class, 17 points behind leader Jett Lawrence.

The 32-year-old veteran’s won four times in Colorado as a pro. He claimed the first supercross event at Empower Field in 2019 and has also won at Thunder Valley three times: the 250 class in 2013, and the 450 class in 2018 and ’20. Thunder Valley promoter David Clabaugh says Tomac’s return “notches up the excitement around the event.”

Tomac, who broke his leg in February at a supercross race in Tampa, believes he still has the speed to win and vie for the circuit title this season despite being one of the oldest competitors in the field. Tomac placed second in the first race of the season at Fox Raceway, then fourth in the second race last weekend at Hangtown, where he won the first moto but crashed in the second.

“The comeback and the rebound have been really good,” Tomac said. “I’m looking forward to a better showing in Colorado, because the last time I raced in Colorado in 2024, I ended up breaking my thumb in Denver (during supercross). That was a bummer.

“… I’m more motivated when I show up in Colorado. I get this natural lift and motivation, and the home crowd’s always great.”

Colorado pro motocross racer Eli Tomac, ... — Andy Cross, The Denver Post

Colorado pro motocross racer Eli Tomac at the finish line jump during the 450 Moto #1 for the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship 2020 Thunder Valley National at Thunder Valley Park on Oct. 3, 2020. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)

While Tomac looks to return to the Thunder Valley podium, John is the grand marshal of Saturday’s event. John’s guided Eli throughout his career, from the time Eli won his first race at Loretta Lynn’s at the age of nine, to Eli becoming the only rider ever to win his pro debut in 2010, and through the championships and Eli’s 108 total American Motorcyclist Association wins.

Eli said his father’s coaching and support have been critical to his success and longevity. The father-son duo got their start in the sport together when Eli was little and they’d travel to races with John competing in his own class as an amateur.

“He’s been with me by my side since the beginning of it all, going to every race,” Eli said. “It’s a little out of the ordinary, but we’ve made it work, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. We’ve been able to maintain a great father-son working relationship. He’s always had a great eye in terms of technique on the motorcycle, helping me find lines before the race, and the little details of the sport others might overlook.”

Considering both of their resumes, John and Eli are one of the most accomplished father-son duos to ever get on two wheels.

John won the National Off-Road Bicycle Association Championship in cross-country, downhill and slalom in 1988, and went on to accumulate several more titles before retiring in 2005 as the winningest mountain biker ever. He was also an elite road cyclist who competed for the U.S.A. Cycling National Team.

All that earned John induction into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame and U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame.

“There’s a reason why they call him ‘The General,’” said motocross racer and family friend Jeremy Martin, who trained with Eli in Cortez for several years. “That dude left no stone unturned, and he held you accountable. Even on the days you were tired, he showed up, put in the work, was consistent, was rock solid. He did what needed to be done when you never wanted to do it.”

Now, “The General” is determined to see his son finish his career on his terms.

Eli says he’s planning on racing at least one more year after this one, then he might hang it up. But John says he’s heard that before and thinks his son has even more in the tank while going up against the sport’s next generation of stars, such as Lawrence, a 21-year-old phenom who’s already won an AMA 450-class title in motocross and supercross.

“He says next year will be his last, but he’s told me that three or four times,” John quipped. “There’s some really fast young kids who are coming up now, and he really enjoys competing against them. That’s part of the fire in his belly, is to prove he’s still got it.”

A win at Thunder Valley would bump Tomac up the all-time standings.

He’s currently fourth on the all-time 450 motocross wins list with 32 victories, one short of tying Rick Johnson for third place. He’s also second on the all-time 450 supercross wins list with 53. His 85 combined wins in motocross and supercross are only bettered by the sport’s greatest rider ever, Ricky Carmichael’s 124 wins, and the king of supercross, fellow icon Jeremy McGrath’s 87 wins.

Both are AMA Motorcycle Hall of Famers, a club that the speed demon from tiny Cortez seems destined to join.

“The guys he’s surrounded by in the record books are legends, so I think Eli is absolutely a legend, too,” Martin said. “He’s a good ol’ Colorado country boy who works hard, has stayed true to his roots, and has consistently found a way to win. And I don’t think he’s done winning.”

Toyota Thunder Valley National

Andy Cross, The Denver Post

Back of Colorado motocross racer Eli Tomac’s helmet before the start of the 450 Moto #1 for the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship 2020 Thunder Valley National at Thunder Valley Park Oct. 03, 2020.

The AMA Pro Motocross Championship returns to Thunder Valley Motocross Park in Lakewood this Saturday for the 21st running of the Toyota Thunder Valley National. Here’s the event schedule:

• Practice and Qualifying, 8 a.m.

• Opening Ceremonies, 12:30 p.m.

• First Motos (250 Class & 450 Class), 1 p.m.

• Second Motos (250 Class & 450 Class), 3:30 p.m.

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.

Originally Published: June 6, 2025 at 10:52 AM MDT

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Motorsports

NASCAR Chicago Street Race course puts on a great show, Jeff Gordon says

Could the rain delays that dogged NASCAR’s Chicago Street Race in its first two years have inadvertently become its superpower? “Wet weather road racing is really exciting,” four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon told Chicago’s City Club on Thursday night. “The most exciting type of racing is not only slick (conditions) but drying pavement.” […]

Published

43 minutes ago

June 6, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Could the rain delays that dogged NASCAR’s Chicago Street Race in its first two years have inadvertently become its superpower?

“Wet weather road racing is really exciting,” four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon told Chicago’s City Club on Thursday night. “The most exciting type of racing is not only slick (conditions) but drying pavement.”

Drying pavement is something the Grant Park 165, the premier event of the Chicago Street Race weekend, has seen plenty of. Rainy conditions forced NASCAR to shorten the race in 2023 and 2024, but both events also produced dramatic racing that gave pundits plenty to talk about.

The race weekend, which has drawn mixed reaction from locals because of the road closures, returns to downtown Chicago for a third year on July 5 and 6.

Last year Alex Bowman won the rain-delayed Grant Park 165 after staying on wet-weather tires, even as other race leaders swapped their tires for slicker ones better suited for the drying conditions. The victory snapped an 80-race winless streak for Bowman, who drives the No. 48 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, of which Gordon serves as vice chairman.

New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen won the rain-shortened Grant Park race in 2023, becoming the first driver in 60 years to win in his NASCAR Cup Series debut. Gordon, a NASCAR Hall of Famer, called the win “probably one of the most shocking things that’s happened in NASCAR in the last 30 years.”

Gordon said that when he first saw the course map for the inaugural street race, he wondered about some of the narrow stretches on the route. Some of the participating race teams were also initially nervous about the course, he said.

But drivers now love the 12-turn, 2.2-mile course, which offers high- and low-speed areas, narrow passes, and roomier stretches. The pop-up course runs through Grant Park, down DuSable Lake Shore Drive and up Michigan Avenue.

“It’s a very fun and flowy” course, Gordon said. “It puts on a great show, and the drivers really love it.”

“They absolutely can’t wait to get here” next month, added Gordon, who was in Chicago for the 2023 and 2024 races and plans to return this year.

Jeff Gordon, Vice Chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, on the grid during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 24, 2025 in Concord, North Carolina. (David Jensen/Getty) — Jeff Gordon, vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, on the grid during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 24, 2025, in Concord, North Carolina. (David Jensen/Getty)

“It’s such a cool event,” he said. “To see our race cars screaming around the streets of Chicago, and all the city has to offer, it’s so special for all of us competitors to be a part of.”

The launch of a street course was made possible in part by the Next Generation car, which NASCAR began using in the 2022 season. The Next Generation car was designed with several improvements, including better brakes, that opened the door to racing on different types of tracks, Gordon said.

Could the success of the Next Generation car in downtown Chicago pave the way for future NASCAR street races in other locations?

“I certainly think so,” Gordon said in an interview Thursday afternoon. “It opens up a whole new window of opportunity. (But) I’d like to see it stay here for a long time because it’s the perfect city for us to be in.”

Gordon said the race puts a spotlight on Chicago. The event also has helped expand NASCAR’s fan base, which has declined partly because iconic drivers such as Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards and Mark Martin have retired.

“When you have that many key figures in a sport step out, you lose fans,” Gordon said. “We’ve got to make drivers household names and faces again.”

With hotels, restaurants and entertainment footsteps away from the downtown course, he said the Chicago Street Race offers an enhanced experience for fans, partners and sponsors. Next month’s race weekend also will feature a Saturday night concert by the Zac Brown Band.

“It’s just a fun and exciting atmosphere that we see a lot of interest in,” Gordon said.

Originally Published: June 6, 2025 at 9:35 AM CDT

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58 minutes ago

June 6, 2025

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How to watch 2025 NASCAR Michigan: Schedule, start time, TV channel for Firekeepers Casino 400

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! The 2025 Firekeepers Casino 400 is back at Michigan International Speedway for another year of racing. A 400-mile race that requires 200 laps to complete, it will mark the next race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season. Here’s what you need to know about the race, […]

Published

59 minutes ago

June 6, 2025

Your Sports Nation

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

The 2025 Firekeepers Casino 400 is back at Michigan International Speedway for another year of racing. A 400-mile race that requires 200 laps to complete, it will mark the next race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season. Here’s what you need to know about the race, how to watch and more.