NASCAR Lawsuit Escalates As Teams Rally To Defend Charter System

EASTABOGA, AL – APRIL 26: NASCAR Commissioner Steve Phelps on pit road before the NASCAR Xfinity Series Ag-Pro 300 race on April 26, 2025 at the Talladega Superspeedway in Eastaboga, Alabama. (Photo by David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The NASCAR charter fight that began as a messy dust-up between 23XI Racing, Front Row Motorsports, and the sanctioning body has now become something far bigger: a referendum on the future of the entire sport.

On Friday night, NASCAR filed a new round of court documents designed to make one point crystal clear—Michael Jordan’s 23XI and Bob Jenkins’ Front Row are, at least in the eyes of the garage, standing on an island.

“Today’s filing demonstrates that NASCAR’s charter system has the support of race teams throughout the garage, and that the 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports lawsuit is not in the best interests of the sport,” NASCAR said in an on-the-record statement. “This lawsuit is not about antitrust; it is merely an attempt to renegotiate an agreement that was signed and is being honored by all other race teams.”

The Market Fight

This latest filing came just a day after 23XI and Front Row tried to tip the scales on one of the case’s most important questions: what, exactly, is the market?

In a motion submitted to U.S. District Court, the two teams asked Judge Kenneth Bell to rule that the NASCAR Cup Series is its own specialized market—a closed shop where teams have no other comparable place to race. Their argument is simple: if the Cup Series is the only relevant market, then NASCAR wields monopoly power over it, bolstering their antitrust case.

NASCAR, for its part, has until October 15 to respond. The sanctioning body is expected to argue what it has all along: that the market is much broader, encompassing everything from IndyCar to Formula 1. In other words, if 23XI or Front Row don’t like the deal, they can take their cars and compete somewhere else.

The teams have even requested oral arguments on the matter before the December 1 trial date, underscoring how central the market definition will be to their case.

A Garage United—Mostly

Meanwhile, NASCAR is trying to show the judge that the rest of the sport is very much on its side. Friday’s filing included declarations from an all-star lineup of owners who built NASCAR’s modern empire. Hendrick Motorsports, Team Penske, Joe Gibbs Racing, Richard Childress Racing, and RFK Racing were all represented, along with smaller teams like Wood Brothers Racing and Rick Ware Racing. Even track operators including Speedway Motorsports, Pocono Raceway, and World Wide Technology Raceway weighed in.

Rick Hendrick, who has been in this game longer than most of his drivers have been alive, didn’t mince words: “The Charter agreement is critical to the stability of the NASCAR ecosystem… Undoing what we have collectively negotiated will not only result in immeasurable damage to our sport and our respective businesses, it will, most importantly, hurt the people and families that depend on us for their livelihoods.”

Roger Penske, who has won just about everything with wheels on it, was equally blunt. “I believe that the Charter system has been beneficial because it delivered on the race teams’ goal of creating long-term equity value.” Penske even pointed out that his experience with NASCAR’s system inspired him to set up a similar model in IndyCar.

Joe Gibbs, a man who has three Super Bowl rings and five Cup Series championships, stressed urgency: “The most important thing to me is that this lawsuit is resolved amicably, quickly, and in a manner that preserves the Charter system and the long-term viability of our incredible sport.”

The Stakes

The charter system, first introduced in 2016, was designed to give teams something they’d never had before: guaranteed entry, predictable revenue, and actual equity they could sell if they decided to walk away. NASCAR says the system has created more than $1.5 billion in equity value for teams. The 2025 charter deal—already signed by 13 of 15 full-time organizations—delivers 49% of media revenue to teams, a 62% increase over the prior deal.

But as Judge Bell reminded everyone in an August hearing, if the plaintiffs prevail, the fallout could be seismic: “There will be non-exclusivity provisions erased, noncompete provisions erased, maybe track sales. The whole charter system itself may be looked at… Nobody knows what 2026 is going to look like.”

What Comes Next

The case heads to trial in December, but with fresh motions flying and both sides digging in, few believe this will wrap up cleanly. Legal observers already warn the dispute could drag well into 2026 before any final clarity arrives.

For now, NASCAR has promised not to reallocate the contested charters while the litigation plays out, leaving 23XI and Front Row to run as “open” teams without guaranteed spots. That leaves the sport with a surreal split-screen: most of the garage throwing their weight behind a system they say has finally made team ownership sustainable, while two well-funded operations insist the structure is rigged and needs to be torn down.

For fans, the racing goes on—this weekend at Charlotte’s ROVAL, next month at Phoenix for the championship—but in the background, the very business model of stock car racing is on trial.

And if you think the fighting is fierce on the track, you should see the lawyers.