Michael Jordan’s 23XI vs NASCAR: The Complete Timeline
What’s Happening? The 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports lawsuit will continue for some time. However, many developments will occur along…
Though the ongoing lawsuit between Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports lawsuit with NASCAR is awaiting its day in court, Wednesday, NASCAR filed a counterclaim against the teams. The sport claims that the teams, alongside 23XI co-owner Curtis Polk, committed “anticompetitive collective conduct.”
NASCAR claims that the teams and Polk violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act.
The sport’s legal team is asking that an injunction be issued to eliminate the guaranteed entry provision associated with the team’s Charters “if Counterclaim Defendants persist in seeking to have the Charter Agreements declared as unlawful under the antitrust laws.”
The suit claims that Polk, a longtime business partner of Jordan and a sports agent, acting on behalf of the Race Team Alliance during Charter negotiations, conducted a “plot to use collusive behavior to extract more favorable commercial terms from NASCAR in the Charter negotiations.”
The suit further states this alleged “plot” included:
“These strategies and threats included, but were and are not limited to, a group boycott and threatened group boycotts of NASCAR events, including televised qualifying races, negative media campaigns, meetings with at least one NASCAR media partner to affect ongoing NASCAR negotiations for a new media rights agreement, and threats/coercion to other team owners to ‘not break ranks.'”
Polk has been notably outspoken about the negotiations prior to their conclusion on Sept. 6 in Atlanta. This includes him wearing a sign at Darlington on Sept. 1 stating, “Please don’t ask me about my Charter. I don’t want to disparage NASCAR and lose it.”
On. Oct. 2, 23XI, owned by Denny Hamlin, Jordan, and Polke, alongside FRM, owned by Bob Jenkins, sued NASCAR on antitrust grounds and, shortly after, filed a preliminary injunction to race as Chartered teams in 2025. This lawsuit followed the two teams, which at the time owned two charters apiece, publicly holding out on signing the 2025 NASCAR Charter Agreement on Sept. 6.
Following the end of these negotiations, many team owners anonymously expressed their displeasure. One even referred to NASCAR as a “communist regime.”
The last update on the three parties’ lawsuits came on Feb. 12, when NASCAR laid the groundwork for their appeal of a Dec. 18 injunction ruling that the teams be granted their Charters for 2025. In that filing, NASCAR claimed that the judge’s ruling “was fraught with errors, both legally and factually.”
This is a developing story. We have covered this lawsuit extensively via the story linked below.
What’s Happening? The 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports lawsuit will continue for some time. However, many developments will occur along…
