While 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports have engaged in a lawsuit with NASCAR over what the teams and their attorney Jeffrey Kessler have described as monopolistic actions that the sanctioning body has taken in ruling the sport, until Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway, no other team owners had gone on the record about the ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ ultimatum that NASCAR allegedly put the teams in.
According to the lawsuit, teams were sent a revised Charter agreement late in the evening on Friday, September 6, and were told to sign the agreement by the end of the day, or they would lose their charters.
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Richard Childress, team owner of Richard Childress Racing opened up, as much as he could about the ongoing legal battle between 23XI, Front Row, and NASCAR in an interview with FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass.
Childress says he has read through the lawsuit, and he confirms that he felt the pressure from NASCAR to sign the deal, and in that moment, he felt he didn’t have a choice but to sign the agreement.
Richard Childress on the 23XI/Front Row lawsuit against NASCAR, whether any team owners could join and the pressure he felt to sign the charter agreement Sept. 6. pic.twitter.com/tcN17OVnnS
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) October 5, 2024
“We’ve read it all, I can’t comment a whole lot now, because I know the attorneys are handling a lot of that,” Childress said. “But I will say the part about, we got our DocuSign that evening at 6:37 PM ET is when it came in, and we had to sign it by 12 AM ET or we’d lose our Charters. I didn’t have a choice because we had to sign. I have over 400 employees, OEM in contracts, contracts with sponsors, and I have to take care of my team.”
When pressed on if he was happy that other teams opted to continue taking the legal fight to NASCAR, Childress stopped short on saying he was happy about how the situation has unfolded.
“…I don’t know how you phrase happy on this,” Childress explained. “I would just say that I don’t think we can join, I don’t know. It’s way too early to talk bout the legal stuff. NASCAR hasn’t even come back with an answer, I’m sure they’re looking at antitrust attorneys. I know they are. And we’ll go from there.”
As for any potential changes that arise from the legal situation to the NASCAR Cup Series Charter Agreement, Childress believes the changes will apply to all of the teams in the garage, despite only two teams going forward with the lawsuit. However, Childress feels the sanctioning body needs to be much more transparent going forward so all teams can see that everyone is treated equally.
“I think it will by the law, but the way we don’t have a favored Nation in our Charter which is not fair to me, anyway. Because everybody should be treated equal[ly],” Childress stated. “How do I know they’re not going to give someone a bigger restrictor plate, or how would I know they’re not going to pay someone $20 million more than me? We don’t know without a favored Nation.”
With Childress choosing to go on the record, his account of the ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ situation that NASCAR allegedly put the teams under, definitely shoots holes in the theory of if the deal was so unfair, why did so many teams sign the deal. It appears they were indeed forced to sign the deal under threat of revocation of their charters, as TobyChristie.com and other outlets had reported anonymous sources had indicated all along.
