A long-standing rumor that NASCAR gave teams a “sign it or else” ultimatum regarding the 2025 charter agreement is back in the spotlight and this time it’s more believable.
The rumor has been floating around the garage for months but with 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports now suing NASCAR for monopolistic behavior, the idea of a backroom deal doesn’t feel like just garage gossip anymore.
At the heart of the case is a clause in the new charter agreement that requires teams to waive their right to bring antitrust claims against NASCAR.
Only 13 teams signed without complaint. The rest including 23XI and FRM are going head-to-head with the system. Their argument: NASCAR, controlled by the France family, runs the sport like a monopoly . It writes the rules, owns the tracks, punishes the teams and takes a cut of the team merchandise sales. That’s a lot of control.
Teams Push Back Against NASCAR’s Control
As one NASCAR fan put it bluntly, “NASCAR is a monopoly owned and operated by one family. One family who not only makes all the rules, but who owns a portion of the tracks they race on.”
The case gained momentum when a judge ruled 23XI and FRM could continue to race with charter status while the lawsuit plays out. NASCAR’s argument? Teams can’t have it both ways — use the charter benefits while suing to get out of the agreement they never signed.
Recently, U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Niemeyer wasn’t buying it. “ “Let’s say it is (anticompetitive), then don’t enter into it. You don’t sit there and say ‘I want into that contract’ but also say ‘I want it modified to allow me to bring my antitrust claim.”
That might just hold in theory, but practically it just gives more substance to the “sign it or else” rumor. If the other option to the signing is to be completely cut out of the sport altogether, then teams never really had an option in the first place.
As this legal saga unfolds, the bigger question remains: how much power is too much power for one organization to have? And what options do teams really have when the biggest decisions in the sport are made by one person? Scheduled to go to trial on December 1, 2025, pending on how things shake up in court, it could turn out to be the moment that changes the way NASCAR (or maybe eventually all big organizations) does business.
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