NASCAR insiders react to latest developments in 23XI, Front Row lawsuit

Two NASCAR insiders broke down what’s going on in the lawsuit between NASCAR, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports. On The Teardown podcast, Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic reacted to the latest developments in the case.

Gluck updated everyone on the situation and said that 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports lost their request to have the preliminary injunction. He explained that NASCAR has a clause in the charter agreements with the charter and open teams. The teams believe that it does not allow them to take legal action against NASCAR if they sign it. 23XI and Front Row are asking the judge to waive the clause and allow them to sign the charter agreements that were issued to them on Sept. 6.

However, Gluck noted that NASCAR is taking back the charter agreements offered to 23XI and Front Row because the teams went after the organization. The judge told 23XI and Front Row that they need to prove that they have suffered harm instead of just “speculation.”

“This is not going to end anytime soon,” Gluck said. “It’s going to be going on well into the offseason. I’m sure this will keep us busy in the offseason.”

What’s next for 23XI and Front Row after injunction denial?

Bianchi is interested to see how this plays out, especially when the 2025 Cup Series Season begins in February. “It’s going to be interesting,” he said. “I feel like the teams Front Ro and 23XI are expected to file their appeal officially [Monday]. That will come out and that will be the next thing. And then from there, a court date will be set.

“It feels like maybe the door has been cracked a little bit now that this first step is out of the way to maybe coming to the table and figuring out a way to resolve this with some kind of settlement. We’ll see. I’m curious to see where this goes. …The Daytona 500 isn’t that far away, I mean we’re talking two and a half months or so. There’s not a lot of time and especially with teams like 23XI and Front Row that are trying to expand. They have sponsorship commitments they’ve got to finalize, they’ve got drivers they got to get in place, they’ve got people they got to hire. A lot of moving parts here.”

It was also mentioned that the court decided to expedite discovery, which means there will be a lot more coming out of this lawsuit in terms of NASCAR and its business. The decision came ahead of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race. Joey Logano won the race and claimed his third Cup Series title.