What’s Happening?

Monday, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports will finally have their day in court, 425 days after filing their lawsuit against NASCAR. It’s been a long road getting to trial, so what do you need to know entering Day One?

What’s on Today’s Docket?

On Monday at 8:30 AM, the trial will begin with jury selection. During this process, the parties will select from a list of prospective jurors, with both sides deliberating over who will serve on the jury.

Following this, the two sides’ attorneys will give their opening statements, giving the selected jury a look at their side of the case. For 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, the opening statement will come from Jeffrey Kessler, and for NASCAR, it will come from attorney Christopher Yates.

Though this is a public trial in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, there will not be a live stream or broadcast of the trial.

Why Are the Teams Suing?

On October 2, 2024, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports sued NASCAR on antitrust grounds.

In a joint statement, the two teams, one from the Toyota camp and one from the Ford camp, claimed that NASCAR was operating in violation of antitrust laws in numerous ways.

These included the sport’s purchase of a “majority of the premier racetracks,” acquisition of the ARCA Menards Series, limits placed on team competing outside of NASCAR, and “forcing teams to buy their parts from single-source suppliers.”

NASCAR, of course, denies these allegations and has claimed that the teams are suing to obtain more favorable terms following an abrupt end to 2024’s 2025 NASCAR Charter Agreement Negotiations in September 2024.

At the time, the two teams, which then owned two charters apiece, held out on signing the agreement and, ultimately, lost their charters, with the court granting them their charters, alongside a new one purchased from Stewart-Haas Racing, in December 2024, before they were revoked on appeal earlier this year.

What’s the Latest News About the Lawsuit?

Though the lawsuit has continued throughout the year with both sides battling over charter status and NASCAR even filing a now-defunct countersuit, most of the major headlines about this lawsuit have come in recent weeks.

This was the result of text messages and emails found during discovery, made public on November 21.

These texts included messages from NASCAR Commissioner and former President Steve Phelps, calling owner Richard Childress a “dumb redneck” in 2023, and messages from current NASCAR President Steve O’Donnell expressing fears about the now shuttered SRX Series.

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