NASCAR has a full-on fight on its hands, as two NASCAR Cup Series teams, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, filed an antitrust lawsuit against the sanctioning body on Wednesday morning. And the two teams have the lawyer equivalent of a championship heavyweight prizefighter in their corner — attorney Jeffrey Kessler.
On Wednesday, Kessler took part in a press conference with 23XI Racing co-owner Curtis Polk and Front Row Motorsports team owner Bob Jenkins, and in the press conference, Kessler didn’t pull any punches. Like the teams he is representing, the legendary antitrust lawyer put his foot on the floorboard.
Jeffrey Kessler in regards to the 23XI Racing/Front Row lawsuit to #NASCAR: "There has never been a case that I have found that is as egregiously anti-competitive as this one." pic.twitter.com/GJoN3rt64T
— Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) October 2, 2024
“I have spent much of my professional career bringing antitrust actions to different professional sports to try to create a fairer, more beneficial, more innovative system for those sports that benefits all of the stakeholders in those sports. There has never been a case that I have found that is as egregiously anti-competitive as this one,” Kessler stated emphatically.
Hearing Kessler, who has fought various sporting leagues, including the NFL, NBA, and NCAA over the years in antitrust lawsuits, say that this is the most egregious case he’s ever personally seen is quite a damning statement for NASCAR.
Kessler continued by calling out the France family, who have held control of NASCAR within their family since the formation of the sport in 1948.
“Here we have a sport where one family has basically used its power to create an absolute monopoly for the benefit of that family as opposed to being for the benefit of the teams, the drivers, the sponsors, the broadcasters, the fans. This monopoly didn’t happen because of superior product, because of the family’s investment, because of their innovation,” Kessler explained. “This monopoly has happened because of illegal monopolistic practices.
“When there was a competitor, that competitor was acquired. When there were tracks that would enable another competitor to be formed, those tracks were acquired or they were subject to agreements that prevented them from being available to any other competitor. When the teams tried to think about forming their own circuit to create competition, the teams were subjected to restrictive covenants to prevent them from doing so. Then, they were told that their cars would be ones that the teams would build them and pay for them, but NASCAR would control them. So, they can’t even be used in a competitive league.”
While 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports are suing NASCAR, the other teams in the NASCAR Cup Series garage signed the Charter Agreement for the 2025 season. According to Kessler, the method of which NASCAR went about obtaining those signatures is what caused his clients to put their foot down, and finally pull the trigger on the lawsuit.
“The final straw for these two teams is when NASCAR in an ultimate example, a classic example of monopoly abuse, went to the teams on September 6th and at 5:00 PM said, this is your deal. Either you take it, or you’re not going to have any charters at all,” Kessler said.
So, why did the others sign the deal? According to Kessler, they, like many victims in monopolistic deals like this one, couldn’t risk holding out even if the deal was predatory in nature.
“Most of the teams, who have their livelihood invested in this, could not stand up to that monopolistic pressure, and they concluded that they were just going to have to do the deal,” Kessler said. “These two teams were not going to stand for it. There comes a time in most professional sports, and college sports as well if you’re familiar with that situation, where a transformative moment comes where the sports either have to willingly restructure and adopt to change and make a fair competitive system, or the courts are going to force them to do so. We are at that moment now for stock car racing in the United States.”
NASCAR, being that it is a family-owned sports league, hasn’t had to open its financial books yet to Kessler or the race teams to show its financial situation as it pertains to the chunk of the revenue pie that it enjoys, but Kessler says that is expected to change if the case goes to trial.
“We know what we know from public information. We will find out a ton more through discovery. That is one of the advantages of federal antitrust litigation,” Kessler stated. “We will be able to obtain financials. We will be able to follow the money. We will be able to see exactly how exploitive this system has been and how much injury its inflicted on the teams and the drivers. Because when the teams have no money, that also directly kills the drivers, but the teams are the ones that compensate the drivers. So, it’s a direct attack on both. The last time I spoke to a NASCAR fan, why they were interested, the reason they love this sport is about the teams and the drivers. Not about the France family.”
As far as what 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports want to see change, Kessler wouldn’t go into specifics as the trial will dictate how vast the changes to the sport will be, but regardless, Kessler feels the sport of stock car racing in America will change for the better as a result of the antitrust lawsuit that was filed on Wednesday.
Will it? We’ll see. But no matter what, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports have remained steadfast in their belief that the current Charter Agreement, and the way NASCAR has been conducting business for years has been very anti-race team, and they’ve opted to band together to do something about it.
