NASCAR has filed a countersuit against Front Row Motorsports and Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing over the teams’ refusal to sign the 2025 charter agreement.
FRM and 23XI had previously sued NASCAR over the agreement, which it said was anti-competitive and monopolistic. In NASCAR's countersuit, the sanctioning body names 23XI co-owner and longtime Jordan associate Curtis Polk as a defendant and says the two teams "agreed to a scheme to pressure NASCAR to accept their collusive terms, including by engaging in media campaigns, interfering with NASCAR's broadcast agreement negotiations, threatening boycotts of NASCAR events and engaging in a group boycott of a NASCAR Team Owner Council meeting."
In September, NASCAR famously gave its teams hours to sign a revised agreement offer with the potential threat of teams losing their charters if they didn't sign it. Every team outside of FRM and 23XI signed the agreement.
The charter system guarantees teams entries into every single NASCAR Cup Series race and a larger share of purse money than race teams operating without a charter. Charters can be and have been sold on the open market when a team closes or downsizes. Prior to the charter agreement, a NASCAR team shutting down had no value to pass on other than its buildings and race parts.
The previous charter agreement expired at the end of the 2024 season and teams had been asking NASCAR for a larger share of television revenue ahead of NASCAR’s current TV deal that began this season. Tracks — many of which are owned by NASCAR — get a sizable portion of television revenue and NASCAR also gets a cut. With viewer numbers far from what they were in the 2000s, longtime sponsors exiting the sport over the past decade and the costs to operate a Cup Series team rising every year, teams have contended they need a bigger share of media money to help them stay solvent.
By not signing the charter agreement, FRM and 23XI had forfeited their rights to operate as chartered teams in 2025. However, they asked and received an injunction allowing them to continue as chartered teams this season as their litigation continues.
NASCAR’s negotiations with teams over the course of the 2024 season made it clear that the sanctioning body felt it had all the leverage. And that’s what an attorney for NASCAR confirmed on Wednesday in a call with reporters.
Yates says the charter system "provides little benefit to NASCAR itself." He says 23XI and Front Row's action is "endangering the continuation of the charter system. ... This calls into question whether the charter system can continue."
— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) March 5, 2025
NASCAR’s owners, the France family, has long operated with an iron fist. Bill France Sr. famously prevented drivers from unionizing decades ago and, unlike other sports leagues in the United States, there’s no collective competitor association.
NASCAR’s current chairman is 80-year-old Jim France, the son of France Sr. and brother of Bill France Jr. The younger Bill France took over running NASCAR from his father before Brian France, Bill France Jr.’s son, was the chairman until his arrest in 2018.
