Earlier today, NASCAR and its legal team filed a notice to the district court. 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports have responded. Today’s filing attempts to essentially throw out the preliminary injunction request from the teams.
NASCAR and Jim France have made a few “voluntary commitments” in order to prevent an injunction from being granted to 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports. Basically, they won’t sell the six charters previously associated with the teams. They also will not change rules to prevent the teams from missing races in the 2025 season as Open Teams.
Given these concessions, NASCAR is seeking to prevent the injunction from being approved for the teams. The teams want to be given charter status, the same situation they had to start the season. They are also seeking to stop NASCAR from selling or transferring charters while the case is ongoing.
In response to the filing, Jeffrey Kessler released a statement on behalf of 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports. That statement is included in he filing as well.
“Plaintiffs do not agree that Defendants’ notice and representations moot Plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction. Plaintiffs further do not agree that Defendants’ notice and representations demonstrate Plaintiffs face no irreparable harm,” Kessler said in the statement. He continued, “Plaintiffs will provide their position to the Court on Defendants’ notice and representations on September 2, 2025.”
The two sides met in court on Thursday. It was a heated hearing regarding the injunction request. Now, Judge Bell is still in consideration over the motion and NASCAR and the teams are still going back and forth.
23XI Racing, Front Row are three months from trial
September is right around the corner that is this weekend. After Darlington and the first race of the NASCAR Playoffs, there will be three months before the scheduled trial date. 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports will be going into the offseason uncertain if they will even exist as businesses by the time the Daytona 500 comes around.
Judge Bell has warned time and again that this case should settle out of court. Neither side appears to want to meet in the middle. NASCAR has stated multiple times that they do not want to do business with these two teams any longer.
A lot of uncertainty around this lawsuit right now. No one is sure where the sport ends up on the other side of it, but right now, it looks like things will be much more different than they currently stand.
There is a future where 23XI Racing and Front Row win, and NASCAR has to sell off assets. That includes race tracks, the ARCA Menards Series, and potentially changing the charter system. The teams have also raised concerns over the Next Gen car, single-source supplier parts, intellectual property rights over cars and innovation, and more.
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