NASCAR, at least temporarily, recently got their wish in court amid the ongoing legal dispute between the sanctioning body and Cup teams 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, with the two teams losing their chartered status for all six (three each) cars after a judge's decision.
Aside from the obvious financial benefits of holding one of the sport's 36 charters, the main perk of having one is the guaranteed entry into each Cup race. This is something that these two teams lost for all six of their cars once their charter status was revoked.
But NASCAR has now made a number of rule changes that, on paper, benefit the very two teams they are continuing to try to screw over in court, following the teams' decision not to sign the new charter agreement last year and instead pursue this antitrust lawsuit.
Here's a look at NASCAR's new rules.
Rule 5.1.F. - NASCAR, at its sole discretion, may elect to limit the number of entries for a race to 40. In such instances, Open Teams will be determined based on the Team Owner Points standings.
Rule 7.9.1.1.B. - Four Open Teams will be eligible for starting grid positions based on the fastest single lap speed posted to each Open Team’s vehicle in the first Qualifying round.
Rule 7.9.1.1.C. - Up to six Open Teams will be eligible for starting grid positions based on the highest ranked Team Owner Points standings.
Seeing as how there are only six (these six) teams that compete full-time without charters, there is no possible way for any other teams to take one of the six provisional positions on points.
But while NASCAR has been criticized for bending the rules in favor of these two teams, their real intentions are the complete opposite, and they are actually quite clear.
One of the arguments that 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports have used, even going back to the offseason when a judge ruled that they be allowed to compete with three charters each, is the fact that they run the risk of missing a race if they aren't chartered.
They no longer have that argument.
Let's look at the big picture for a second. Excluding Daytona 500s, there has been just one single Cup race since 2018 for which there has been a DNQ. That's one total race for which the entry list featured more than 40 cars.
How much does this rule change actually help in a series that isn't expected to have more than 40 cars on any entry list throughout the remainder of the year, after which point this case should hopefully be resolved in its entirety?
NASCAR didn't implement these rules to benefit these two teams. This is actually a major slap in the face, in fact, and it's arguably a major win for NASCAR in court, not only as the upcoming August court date nears, but as the December trial date nears.