Insiders react to NASCAR court victory over 23XI, FRM, talk grave implications

Two insiders reacted to NASCAR earning a big court victory over 23XI Racing and Front Motorsports (FRM) ahead of the big case later this year. On The Teardown podcast, Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic talked about what could happen to 23XI and Front Row if they lose their charters.

“If their appeals are exhausted, NASCAR can then take the two existing charters back from each team and the other charters that they bought from Stewart-Haas Racing,” Gluck said. “…So what would that mean? That means they would get a lot less money racing as open teams. It could mean that their drivers in their contract that say you have to provide us with a chartered car, so Tyler Reddick could leave if he wanted to. Now would he do that?”

Bianchi added,” The potential dominoes from this are numerous. …It’s a lot of hypotheticals and it’s a lot of moving parts and there’s a lot of scenarios involved. But the reality is they lose a charter, they will lose millions of dollars. That is the reality. …They may have to owe past money from the season that they’ve already earned. And so who knows?

More on 23XI and FRM potentially losing charters

“This is a battle and a war. They may lose this battle, and it’s going to be interesting to see how this goes forward. But this doesn’t mean they’re going to lose the war. Let’s say NASCAR does take the six charters, the likelihood is that those basically are just effectively put on the shelf for the year. It would not make sense for NASCAR to start auctioning off or go sell them.”

Bianchi then revealed what could happen if 23XI and FRM competed as open teams this season. “Every race this year, except for one, you’re going to be fine,” he said. “But depending on when this all comes together, if it came together before Chicago or these two teams are racing as open, there’s a chance that for Chicago you could have more than 40 cars enter the race, which then potentially could create a scenario where one of Front Row MotorSports or 23XI has a driver DNQ for the race. That is wild to think about.”

Last week, three judges ruled in favor of NASCAR in the antitrust lawsuit filed by 23XI and FRM and vacated an injunction that required the two teams to be recognized as chartered teams. 23XI, co-owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin, and Front Row are suing NASCAR after refusing to sign new agreements on charter renewals. The trial for that case is set for Dec. 1.