23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports have filed a preliminary injunction in their antitrust case against the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). This legal move aims to allow the teams to continue competing as chartered teams in 2025 while the case progresses through the legal system.
In a joint statement, the teams said “The 23XI and Front Row Motorsports teams are fully committed to competing in next year’s Cup Series. Today’s procedural filing is the next step in advancing our case against NASCAR and their monopolistic practices, while protecting our drivers, race teams, and sponsors by establishing our legal right to run in 2025.”
Additionally, they filed a motion for expedited discovery, requesting the court to grant their legal counsel immediate access to documents and files from key NASCAR executives, including Jim France, Lesa France Kennedy, Ben Kennedy, Steve O’Donnell, Steve Phelps, and Scott Prime. The teams are particularly interested in discovering:
“NASCAR’s dominant control over racing is not because of its superior skill or business acumen, but rather its history of exclusionary acts and restrictive agreements that have stifled competition through its monopoly power. We believe our expedited discovery requests of NASCAR and the France family will shed light on their anticompetitive practices and support a preliminary injunction ruling that 23XI and Front Row Motorsports have a legally protected right to race next year while our antitrust case proceeds in Court,” stated Jeffrey Kessler, Partner at Winston & Strawn LLP, Co-Executive Chairman, and lead counsel for 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports.
The motion for expedited discovery also seeks information regarding NASCAR’s exclusive or restrictive contracts with independently owned racetracks that have hosted Cup Series races since 2016, as well as details about NASCAR’s acquisitions of the International Speedway Corporation (ISC) and the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA). Furthermore, the teams are looking into charter agreement provisions that limit teams from competing in non-NASCAR events and from using Next Gen parts and cars in those events.
Lawsuit
The lawsuit claimed that NASCAR and the France family operate without transparency, hinder competition, and dominate stock car racing in ways that unfairly advantage them at the expense of team owners, drivers, sponsors, partners, and fans. The teams allege that NASCAR engages in anti-competitive practices, such as acquiring most of the top racetracks exclusively for NASCAR events, enforcing exclusivity agreements on NASCAR-sanctioned tracks, acquiring the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA), restricting teams from participating in other stock car events, and mandating that teams purchase their parts from designated single-source suppliers selected by NASCAR.
