Two Teams Take on the Monopoly over Stock Car Racing: 23XI/Front Row v. NASCAR

By Marlee Ressa | @motorsportmarlee

This all started with an ultimatum issued by NASCAR on September 6, 2024: sign the 2025 Charter Agreements by midnight or risk permanently losing your charter(s) and the entire charter system. The 105-page document was delivered to team owners at 5:00 p.m., with only one hour originally granted to review and sign the contract. A contract that had been in the works for over two years. The deadline was then extended to midnight. Six hours to decide.

All but two teams signed. 23XI and Front Row Motorsports chose not to sign the Charter Agreements, stating it was unfair not to allow teams the time to properly barter the negotiations that would extend through 2031. A month later, 23XI filed a joint lawsuit with Front Row Motorsports in the Western District of North Carolina, where they would be suing NASCAR and James France for antitrust.

In part, their statement read, “NASCAR and the France family operate without transparency, have stifled competition, and control the sport of stock car racing in ways that unfairly benefit them at the expense of team owners, drivers, sponsors, partners, and fans through anti-competitive practices.”

There are five main anti-competitive practices that the two teams are suing the series and its owner over, with an initial hearing set for December 1st. As our court system continues to become more and more pro-business, the only way for 23XI and Front Row to walk out victorious will be to prove to the court that NASCAR has unreasonably restrained the flow of commerce in stock car racing.

September 6, 2024: The Charter Agreements

The Charter Agreements in the Cup Series came about in 2016 after a history of teams competing in year-to-year contracts. This guaranteed each chartered car entry into Cup Series races throughout the terms of the Charter Agreement. Why were these agreements so important? Throughout its history, many team owners have struggled to generate enough of a profit to keep their teams afloat.

Bob Jenkins, owner of Front Row, stated that after being in the business for 20 years, he has yet to make a profit. Front Row isn’t the only team worried about finances. Jeff Gordon, who is not only a NASCAR legend but is the Vice Chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, who owns four charters and has fourteen Cup Series championships, stated that he has “a lot of fears that sustainability is going to be a real challenge.”

Even with the 2016 Charter Agreements, teams faced extreme financial hardships. The high turnover rate presents itself as proof of this issue. In 2016, 19 team owners were granted charters, and of those, only eight remain in the sport.

Throughout the more than two years that negotiations for the 2025 Charter Agreements took place, “NASCAR continually stonewalled and refused to engage constructively," according to the joint statement made by 23XI and Front Row. In their court filing, they added that after refusing joint team negotiations, “The individual negotiations with the racing teams were completely one-sided, as NASCAR refused to budge from any of its core negotiating demands.”

It was after these unsuccessful individual negotiations that NASCAR sent its take-it-or-leave-it offer to team owners on September 6, 2024. While no teams went on the record for fear of retaliation by NASCAR, several were quoted as stating that they felt “coerced” into signing. One team owner went so far as to say it felt like NASCAR “put a gun to [their] head[s and we] had to sign.”

At midnight, when the deadline hit, while all the other teams handed over their signed 2025 Charter Agreements, 23XI and Front Row instead gave NASCAR a statement on why they refused to sign.

“I have dedicated myself to championing a more fair and transparent system within NASCAR… The charter that was forced on the teams with only hour’s notice does not accomplish these objectives,” stated 23XI Co-Owner Curtis Polk, “The new charter is an attempt to further marginalize the teams’ voices in the sport and consolidate control and the power in the hands of the France family for their sole benefit. I hope our actions [in not signing the Charter Agreement] lead to a future of collaboration for this great sport we love.”

October 2, 2024: The Monopolistic Practices

To support their claims against NASCAR, 23XI and Front Row listed five anti-competitive practices performed by the series and its owner.

The first practice listed is “Buying a majority of the premier racetracks that are exclusive to NASCAR races,” which coincides with the second practice, “Imposing exclusivity deals on NASCAR-sanctioned racetracks.”

In their acquisition of ISC in 2019, NASCAR gained control of 12 racetracks. Six out of the 12 racetracks acquired annually host two Cup Series races. Furthermore, according to NASCAR’s website and its list of NASCAR tracks, you can see that in 2024, over half of the Cup Series’ races were held on one of the 12 NASCAR-owned tracks.

“As the owner of these premier racetracks,” stated 23XI and Front Row’s legal team, “NASCAR can and will refuse to hold any other top-tier stock car races at the tracks so that it can maintain its monopoly position.”

When it comes to tracks that they don’t own, NASCAR requires track owners to sign an exclusivity provision should they wish to host a Cup Series race. In the terms that Dover Motorsports signed to continue to have their monster mile raced on by the Cup Series, it stated that they could “not promote, host, conduct, or stage… a stock car racing event at the Facility that attempts to duplicate, emulate, imitate, copy, simulate and/or mimic the NASCAR National Series.”

The next monopolistic practice by NASCAR, according to the two teams, was “Acquiring Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA), the only notable stock car racing series competitor.” NASCAR took full control over the series in 2020 and has relegated it to a lower-level feeder series role.

“ARCA isn’t a true competitor to NASCAR…,” Yahoo Sports Senior Writer covering stock car racing, Nick Bromberg, stated, “but having ARCA under the NASCAR umbrella removes the last remaining possible competition to NASCAR’s stock car monopoly.”

The next practice listed is that NASCAR “[prevents] teams from participating in any other stock car races.” When the teams signed the 2016 Charter Agreements, it included a covenant not to compete, which has been applied continuously. 23XI and Front Row see this as a restriction on competition.

Lastly, the two teams state the practice of NASCAR to “[retain] ownership over Next Gen parts and cars[, and] forcing teams to buy their parts from single-source suppliers chosen by NASCAR.”

“Since the Next Gen car is property of NASCAR, NASCAR can and does prohibit teams from using the car in any race other than Cup Series races,” WINSTON & STRAWN LLP representatives stated in their claim, “If a team wanted to participate in another stock car racing event not authorized by NASCAR – even after the Charter Agreement and the covenant not to compete expired – it would have to build an entirely new car from the ground up.”

December 1, 2025: The Hearing and Its Challenges

After hearing the anti-competitive practices that 23XI and Front Row are suing NASCAR over, it is now time to look ahead to the challenges the teams might face in court as they head to their hearing set for the first of December this year.

In her book, Antitrust: Taking on Monopoly Power from the Gilded Age to the Digital Age, Senior Senator, and chair of the U.S. Senate’s Antitrust Subcommittee, Amy Klobuchar tackles several issues that antitrust plaintiffs may face in a federal court. While several of these challenges Senator Klobuchar lists could pertain to this case, the two largest that these teams might run into will be conservative judges and existing legal practices.

This lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, where Chief Judge Martin Reidinger presides. Chief Judge Reidinger was nominated by President George W. Bush in 2007 and began serving as chief judge in 2020. According to Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, “justices appointed by Republican presidents have, with remarkable consistency, delivered rulings that advantage big corporate and special interests.”

Thus far, the District Court has denied NASCAR’s motion to dismiss, allowing discovery, and has since set the initial hearing date for December 1, 2025. While the district court did deny a restraining order to retain their expired Charter Agreements, this seeking of discovery should spark some hope in the two teams that they may face a fair trial unhindered by conservative practices.

On the other hand, when it comes to existing legal practices, 23XI and Front Row may face more trouble. In order to successfully prove a violation of the Sherman Act, the two teams will be forced to provide evidence that the market for stock car racing was unreasonably restrained.

Since they plan to show this unreasonable restraint through the anti-competitive practices listed above, they will likely have to prove more than just the Sherman Act violation. When it comes to NASCAR acquiring ARCA, the two teams’ legal representatives will also have to show that this acquisition violated Section 7 of the Clayton Act. The acquisition of ARCA will have to be presented as “substantially lessening competition or [creating] a monopoly.”

The Vertical Merger guidelines from 1984 were replaced on June 30, 2020, by the first Trump administration. These new guidelines have been heavily criticized by Klobuchar and several of her fellow Senators for being pro-business. In NASCAR’s case, these new guidelines may allow an argument to be created that the acquisition of ARCA benefited competition rather than lessening it.

As the legal battle proceeds, 23XI, Front Row, and their legal team have stood by their original statements dating back to that night in September when NASCAR handed them an ultimatum, and they seemingly look forward to the December hearing.

“All I can tell you, and this will just be my blanket answer for all questions about [the lawsuit],” Denny Hamlin, part-owner of 23XI and NASCAR driver, said after his Cup Series win at Dover Motor Speedway this July, “if you want answers, if you want to understand why this is all happening, come December 1st. You’ll get the answers that you’re looking for, and all will be exposed.”

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Sources

Nick Bromberg, NASCAR teams: Current Cup Series economic model is ‘broken’ and future sustainability ‘could be a real challenge’, YAHOO! SPORTS (Oct. 7, 2022), https://sports.yahoo.com/nascar-teamscurrent-cup-series-economic-model-is-broken-and-future-sustainability-could-be-a-real-challenge194559687.html. Last Accessed 12 August 2025.

Jeff Gluck, NASCAR's Brian France says Race Team Alliance unnecessary, USA TODAY (July 21, 2014), https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nascar/2014/07/21/race-team-alliance-brian-france/12967329/. Last Accessed 12 August 2025.

9 ISC Completes Closing of Acquisition by NASCAR, NASDAQ (Oct. 18, 2019), https://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/isc-completes-closing-of-acquisition-by-nascar-2019-10-1

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See Secs. And Exch. Comm’n Form 8-K, Dover Motorsports, Inc., June 2, 2020

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“UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA CHARLOTTE DIVISION 2311 RACING LLC d/b/a 23XI RACING, and FRONT.” Courthouse News Service, 2 October 2024, https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/nascar-monopoly-antitrust.pdf. Last Accessed 12 August 2025.

“23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports Sue NASCAR and CEO Jim France.” 23XI Racing, 2 October 2024, https://www.23xiracing.com/post/23xi-racing-and-front-row-motorsports-sue-nascar-and-ceo-jim-france. Accessed 12 August 2025.

Klobuchar, Amy. Antitrust: Taking on Monopoly Power from the Gilded Age to the Digital Age. Alfred A. Knopf, 2021.

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