NASCAR Lawsuit: Fans Left Bitter as Reports of Michael Jordan & NASCAR’s ‘Redacted’ Agreement Comes to Light

23XI Racing, Front Row Motorsports, and NASCAR have locked horns in a lawsuit. This commenced after the two teams refused to sign the latest charter agreement, as it failed to incorporate their demands of a seat at the table and an increase in the revenue cut, amongst others. This led to the teams filing an antitrust lawsuit against the racing organization.

The teams have accused NASCAR of having an unfair monopoly in the premier stock-car series. This is because NASCAR owns the majority of the tracks (65% of the revenue goes to tracks) in the series. Excluding the track revenue, they get an additional 10% per race. Also, teams aren’t allowed to participate in any other stock-car racing events. These are part of a long list of accusations.

However, NASCAR has called the antitrust claims “meritless” and a ploy by the teams to wrongly gain a bargaining do-over and “extract more favorable contract terms.” While the two were going at each other aggressively, they reached consensus on a recent matter in the case. This has left fans utterly disappointed since they have been closely following the case.

The latest update on the NASCAR lawsuit includes an agreement

In the latest development, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports (FRM) have filed for a preliminary injunction to secure their spots as chartered teams in the 2025 season. A charter ensures entry in every race, crucial for earning race purses, which are a significant part of a team’s income—especially the Daytona 500, which alone contributes around 15% of the season’s purse. The teams argue that without this, they could risk losing sponsors. NASCAR opposes the motion, calling it a contract issue, not an antitrust matter, and claims the criteria for the injunction aren’t met. The teams also seek expedited discovery to access critical documents for the case.

1. Documents discussing the mandatory release provision in the 2025 charter agreement,
2. NASCAR’s exclusive contracts with racetracks,
3. Its acquisitions of the ARCA Menards Series, among many others.

However, NASCAR has appealed to deny the motion, as they claim it to be “a one-sided, non-reciprocal request for relief more akin to a motion to compel.” While the next court ruling on the matter is scheduled for November 4th,  NASCAR has appealed to keep some documents sealed in case the motion of discovery is accepted.

NASCAR doesn’t want ‘confidential’ information in the documents to be made public. The redactions requested are specifically from the 2016 and 2025 charter agreements. And according to recent reports, surprisingly, the two teams have readily agreed to this.

According to NASCAR, these documents contain;

1. Sensitive information on revenue,
2. Rights agreements, and sponsorships.

NASCAR fears that if this information is made public, it could harm their relationships with stakeholders crucial to their business. And the teams agreeing to this is confusing and alarming to fans. As wasn’t this exactly what the teams were trying to bring to light? The unjust monopoly of the racing organization and how teams are suffering?

Teams agreeing with NASCAR have invited an uproar from the fans

The 23XI co-owner, Denny Hamlin, since the beginning of the lawsuit has remained open about sharing their books. He had previously revealed that it takes 18 million a year to put a single car on the racetrack. He’s also repeatedly spoken about them not having made the money back and not being profitable since the team started. However, if NASCAR refuses to share revenue information or sponsorship details, how would it become clear as to how much teams are actually making? The teams agreeing to NASCAR’s redacting request has puzzled fans and raised questions on the whole NASCAR lawsuit scenario. One fan wrote, “@dennyhamlin wasn’t the point of the whole lawsuit to force NASCAR and its branches to open their books so everyone could see? So why agree to redact charter agreements?” 

Another fan echoed the same emotion, writing, “Just like everything else NASCAR, the lawsuit that should be showing behind the curtain of the finances of the sport is gonna be a cocktease where we still get minimal information. Disappointing.” Fans were glued to the case since 23XI and FRM were so blatant with their claims, and fans rallied behind them to reveal the truth. But this move has left fans disheartened.

And this fan came after Jeffrey Kessler, the attorney representing 23XI and FRM of Winston & Strawn in their NASCAR lawsuit, said, “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.” Another fan disappointed by the news wrote, “That kinda sucks, would have been interesting to see the inner workings of the agreement. Here’s hoping that a lot of this lawsuit is still kept public.”

Of course, fans were hoping to know the inside workings of NASCAR, but with the teams consenting to NASCAR’s redacting request, this seems impossible. A fan disappointed by this wrote, “Oh cmon man. Why can’t they just let shit go public? NASCAR been in the shadows with this type of shit long enough.” Wouldn’t these documents reveal the monopolistic behavior of NASCAR, which forms the basis of this case in the first place?

Amid all the frustration from fans, one of them feels he is entitled to know all the information related to the NASCAR lawsuit, regardless of sensitivity. He wrote, “Shouldn’t be allowed to redact anything if your lawsuit is being played out in court paid by taxpayers.” In all seriousness, the question now is whether the case is going to be a curtain-raiser on NASCAR or not. Which fans had hoped it would be!

What do you think of the teams’ stand on NASCAR’s recent request?