In a new court filing, NASCAR says 23XI Racing, which Michael Jordan co-owns, is using a “meritless” antitrust lawsuit as a ploy to wrongly gain a bargaining do-over and extract “more favorable contract terms.”
NASCAR’s opposition to a motion for expedited discovery was filed on Wednesday. NASCAR aims to repel 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports’ attempt to accelerate the discovery process for their motion for a preliminary injunction.
As previously detailed, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports have sued NASCAR and its CEO, Jim France, in a North Carolina federal court for alleged antitrust violations. The case centers on NASCAR’s use of charters, which guarantee teams a starting position in NASCAR-sanctioned races and limit their chances to compete in other circuits. As the plaintiffs tell it, NASCAR has too much control over premier stock racing series and abuses that control to suppress competition and curtail economic opportunities for stock car racing teams and potential rivals.
23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports—which didn’t sign NASCAR’s 2025 charter agreement before a deadline in September—hope U.S. District Judge Frank D. Whitney grants an injunction that would empower the plaintiffs to compete as chartered teams and restrain NASCAR from enforcing a contractual clause (Section 10.3) that releases antitrust claims.
To advance that effort, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports seek an order that would compel NASCAR to turn over its contract provisions with independent racetracks, acquisition documents related to the International Speedway Corporation and Automobile Racing Club of America, and charter agreements that restrict teams from racing in non-NASCAR events.
In a brief authored by Tricia Wilson Magee and other attorneys from Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick and Latham & Watkins, NASCAR depicts the plaintiffs’ motion to expedite as an unjustified and unnecessary ruse. NASCAR says the motion demonstrates the plaintiffs’ “true” but unstated aim: “To use the antitrust discovery process as a weapon.”
NASCAR insists Jordan’s group wants a chance to enter into charter agreements that the group “previously rejected, and which are no longer available.”
Just as objectionable, NASCAR asserts, an injunction would effectively delete the antitrust release clause that 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports “previously accepted” and that “all other racing teams accepted in their 2025 Charter Agreements.”
NASCAR stresses it has taken steps to move forward with 32 charter teams since it has contractual obligations to those teams. Further, NASCAR claims that 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports can still race without a charter—which NASCAR points out they did in the 2023 Daytona 500 and which they’ve “stated publicly” they’ll do if necessary. NASCAR also emphasizes that while the plaintiffs want the court to excise “Section 10.3” from the charter, they noticeably “do not mention that Section 10.4 provides Charter Teams with reciprocal releases.”
To bolster its argument, NASCAR maintains Section 10.3 wasn’t raised as a concern during negotiations with the plaintiffs or other charter members and that, “tellingly,” the section “is nowhere mentioned in the long correspondence sent by Plaintiffs to NASCAR just a month ago.”
NASCAR also questions why Section 10.3 would now be viewed as so problematic when it “is exactly the same as the release in Section 10.3 of the 20126 Charter Agreements that both Plaintiffs already signed or assumed.” Also, according to NASCAR, 23XI and Front Row Motorsports have signed agreements (pending NASCAR approval) to acquire other teams’ charters, which include Section 10.3.
NASCAR’s brief charges that by saying their motion for a preliminary junction is already justified, 23XI and Front Row Motorsports “concede the discovery their request is not necessary.”
In addition, NASCAR describes the plaintiffs’ request for documents going back to 2016 as “incredibly broad” and “improper,” since antitrust claims have a four-year statute of limitations. There is also no credible risk of evidence being destroyed, NASCAR says, since NASCAR has “already implemented a litigation hold that preserves relevant materials, including those requested by Plaintiffs.”
23XI and Front Row Motorsports have until next Wednesday to reply to NASCAR’s brief.
