MOTOR SPORTS
NASCAR won’t re-distribute charters
NASCAR has promised a federal court it will not re-distribute any charters pending the conclusion of the antitrust suit filed against the stock-car series by two race teams, one owned by Michael Jordan.
The Friday filing in the Western District of North Carolina comes one day after a heated hearing in which 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports argued for a preliminary injunction to have six charters restored to them until the jury trial, scheduled to begin Dec. 1.
NASCAR in multiple filings has indicated it immediately planned to re-distribute charters and has one interested party it could negotiate with right now. A charter is the equivalent of a franchise in other sports, and 23XI and FRM refused to sign the agreements last September and instead sued NASCAR, accusing the motorsports series owned and operated by the Florida-based France family as being bullies and monopolizing the stock-car racing market.
There are 36 charters for a 40-car field and U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell on Thursday repeatedly asked NASCAR why it couldn’t take one of the four “open” ones to sell to an interested buyer, or come up with a contingency plan that would leave room to return charters to 23XI and FRM if NASCAR loses at trial.
The original four “open” charters are set aside for any potential new manufacturer to enter the sport. With the six from the two teams suing, there are technically 10 “open” charters right now. 23XI, which is owned by Basketball Hall of Famer Jordan and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, and Front Row, owned by entrepreneur Bob Jenkins, want to be recognized as chartered for 2025 to receive significantly larger payouts than what they receive as “open” teams.
Bell said he would rule on the injunction next week although NASCAR’s filing Friday calms some of the urgency in that the France family has promised not to sell the charters, a move the teams claim would put them out of business.
