Last October, the Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan-owned 23XI Racing and the Bob Jenkins-owned Front Row Motorsports filed a lawsuit against NASCAR in the hope of trying to increase the revenues and influence of NASCAR Cup Series teams.
They claimed that NASCAR's actions, centered around the new charter agreement which, violated antitrust laws in that NASCAR and the France family are effectively operating as a monopoly. Unlike the other 13 Cup Series teams, they did not sign that agreement.
The saga has taken a number of twists and turns since then. Due to the lawsuit against them, NASCAR was prepared to run only 32 of 36 charters in 2025, given the fact that 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports each owned two, but that would have meant only 30 chartered entries since both teams had agreed to purchase a third from the now defunct Stewart-Haas Racing.
So two charters would have effectively been left without homes for 2025, a decision that ultimately would have also screwed over a team that no longer exists.
But a judge ultimately ruled in the favor of the two teams, and while NASCAR tried to not only fight it but block the Stewart-Haas Racing charter transfers, they were each allowed to compete as chartered teams with all three of their entries in 2025.
But the saga is still ongoing, even if it's starting to seem like NASCAR is just repeating itself at this point.
NASCAR filed a counterclaim alleging that the two teams, and specifically Curtis Polk, a co-owner of 23XI Racing who is Jordan's longtime agent, conspired to use tactics that violate antitrust law.
The claim is based on the idea that Polk organized a boycott of a charter-required team meeting and attempted to organize a boycott of a qualifying event, effectively colluding to get better terms out of the charter agreement and thus force a renegotiation with regard to "duration of the Charters and financial floors".
The seven-year charter agreement is aligned with NASCAR's new media rights deal, which is worth $7.7 billion over the next seven years and includes not only existing partners Fox and NBC but also newcomers Amazon Prime Video and TNT Sports.
It provides teams with 49% of the revenue from that deal, which is a significant jump up from between 38% and 40% under the previous deal, and there is an option that would extend the deal from the end of 2031 to the end of 2038.
23XI Racing's driver lineup consists of Bubba Wallace behind the wheel of the No. 23 Toyota, rookie Riley Herbst behind the wheel of the No. 35 Toyota, and Tyler Reddick behind the wheel of the No. 45 Toyota.
Front Row Motorsports' driver lineup consists of former Stewart-Haas Racing driver Noah Gragson behind the wheel of the No. 4 Ford, Todd Gilliland behind the wheel of the No. 34 Ford, and former Spire Motorsports driver Zane Smith behind the wheel of the No. 38 Ford.