It seems Michael Jordan’s NASCAR Team, 23XI, is on the verge of folding up shop and calling it good forever. That would leave Bubba Wallace, Tyler Reddick, and Riley Herbst without jobs. The reason is an ongoing lawsuit against NASCAR itself that is highly contentious and just seems to get worse as time marches on.
Cadillac’s Formula One strategy is starting to take shape.
At the heart of the issue are charter agreements, which guarantee spots on the track for different teams as well as payouts for placement. Almost every team has signed such an agreement with NASCAR, except 23XI and Front Row Motorsports, which are the two parties which filed suit.
Those teams have argued in court that the charters violate federal anti-trust laws. A court overturned the charter system in NASCAR last month, meaning they’ve all been racing as open entries.
But the legal tide appears to be moving against 23XI and Front Row Motorsports. Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports reports the two teams say they’re shuttering if their open charters for NASCAR are sold.
One of the charters has been sold to an unnamed party, so it seems either the two teams will have to fold up shop or reveal they were actually bluffing.
In the meantime, the two teams have been trying to get a court injunction so they’re accepted as chartered teams for the remainder of this season, which might be their last.
However, 23XI and Front Row Motorsports have claimed in legal filings with the court to be in possession of "smoking-gun documents that admit NASCAR viewed competitive entry as a threat" and "internal NASCAR documents with top executives describing how NASCAR used its monopoly power to impose a one-sided" charter agreement.
In other words, there are more twists and turns in this legal case than in a street race circuit. That makes predicting what will come out of the anti-trust lawsuit difficult to predict, but it could reshape NASCAR one way or another.
Image via 23XI Racing/Facebook
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