23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports scored a victory over NASCAR in federal court on Wednesday.
Judge Kenneth Bell ruled in favor of the teams’ request for a preliminary injunction to race as licensed teams in 2025. Bell’s granting of the injunction in a North Carolina federal court means that the two teams can race with the advantages granted to them. team and also allow them to finalize charter purchases from Stewart-Haas Racing. NASCAR has the option to appeal the decision.
Both teams requested the injunction because they filed an antitrust complaint against NASCAR in October on the charter agreement of the sanctioning body. The two were the only teams not to sign the new deal. The previous charter contract – NASCAR’s version of a franchise agreement between itself and its teams – expired at the end of the 2024 season.
“The court hereby enters a limited preliminary injunction for the duration of the 2025 NASCAR Cup season only, as follows: Defendants and their agents, servants, employees, attorneys and all persons in concert or active participation with the defendants must allow plaintiffs each to enter. two race cars in all NASCAR Cup races under the terms of the 2025 Charter Agreement applicable to all charter teams, except for the “authorization” language in Section 10.3 of the 2025 Charter Agreement The Lease Agreement shall not be enforceable to the extent that it would discharge or preclude plaintiffs’ claims in this action,” the ruling states. “Furthermore, NASCAR is preliminarily enjoined from refusing to approve purchases by two charter plaintiffs Stewart-Haas Racing, LLC. , which Plaintiffs will have the right to use in all 2025 NASCAR Cup races on the same terms as other charter teams, again with the exception of applying the release language to Plaintiffs’ claims in this action ; and a case management schedule will be set by the court which, in the absence of a voluntary resolution of this dispute between the parties, provides that a trial on the plaintiffs’ claims be concluded before the start of the racing season NASCAR 2026.”
23XI and Front Row competed as two-car teams in 2024. 23XI, the team co-owned by Michael Jordan and NASCAR Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin, fielded cars for Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick, while Front Row had drivers Michael McDowell and Todd. Gilland. With the four-car Stewart Haas Racing closing at the end of the 2024 season, each team agreed to purchase a charter from SHR to expand to three cars and drivers in 2025.
Hamlin had a jubilant reaction on social media after the decision.
Front Row is expected to field a third car for Zane Smith in 2025 as Noah Gragson replaced McDowell. 23XI Racing has already announced that Riley Herbst will drive a third car for the team.
“We welcome today’s decision by Judge Bell granting a preliminary injunction in our favor,” the teams’ attorney, Jeffrey Kessler, said in a statement. “The court’s decision allows 23XI and Front Row Motorsports to race existing cars as licensed teams in next year’s Cup Series. The decision also requires NASCAR to approve both teams’ purchase of a third charter from Stewart-Haas Racing and allow those cars to also race as charter teams during the 2025 season. We are confident in the strength of our cause and will continue to fight so that motor racing can thrive and become a more competitive and equitable sport in a way that benefits the teams, the drivers, the sponsors and, most importantly, our fans. »
Charter teams receive a larger share of NASCAR’s purse money and charters guarantee a car entry into every race on the Cup Series schedule. 23XI and FRM had already been allowed to compete as open teams in 2025 if the injunction had not been granted, although each of them would not have been guaranteed three spots in the Daytona 500 if more 40 cars had attempted the race.
