What Is the NASCAR Lawsuit?
The NASCAR lawsuit is a federal antitrust case brought by two racing teams, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, against NASCAR and Chairman Jim France, alleging NASCAR unlawfully used its dominant position over premier stock car racing to impose anticompetitive charter terms on the teams that compete in its top-tier Cup Series.
23XI Racing, co-owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan and driver Denny Hamlin, and Front Row Motorsports, owned by Bob Jenkins, filed suit on October 2, 2024 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, Charlotte Division, Case No. 3:24-cv-00886. The complaint named the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) and its CEO and Chairman, James “Jim” France, as defendants.
The case went to trial on December 1, 2025 before Judge Kenneth D. Bell and settled nine days later, on December 11, 2025, after both sides presented testimony from figures including Jordan, Hamlin, Jenkins, and several NASCAR executives, but before the jury reached a verdict.
“This is a case about the unlawful monopolization of premier stock car racing by the France family in order to enrich themselves at the expense of the premier stock car racing teams that the fans come out to see and that sponsors and broadcasters value. The France family has realized monopoly profits through its ownership and control over the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, which has exploited its economic power as the sole premier stock car racing organization in the United States.”
Source: 2311 Racing LLC d/b/a 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, Inc. v. National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC and James France, No. 3:24-cv-00886 (W.D.N.C.), Complaint (Oct. 2, 2024)
Why Was the NASCAR Lawsuit Filed?
People are filing NASCAR lawsuit searches because 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports sued NASCAR after refusing to sign the sanctioning body's 2025 charter agreement, alleging its terms were the product of unlawful monopoly power rather than fair negotiation.
NASCAR introduced its charter system in 2016, guaranteeing chartered teams a starting spot in every Cup Series race along with a share of certain revenues, but the charters were revocable and not permanent. In September 2024, NASCAR presented all chartered teams with new 2025 charter terms on a take-it-or-leave-it basis, with a midnight deadline two days before the season's first playoff race. Every chartered team except 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports signed. The two holdout teams alleged the terms cut their share of revenue, expanded restrictions on racing in competing series, and still refused to make charters permanent, and that NASCAR could dictate these terms only because it controlled the tracks, the standardized Next Gen car parts, and the only viable premier stock car series in the country.
The lawsuit itself is why the two teams' cars raced as unchartered “open” entries for part of the 2025 season: a preliminary injunction let them keep their charters at first, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that injunction on June 5, 2025, and a second request for an injunction was denied on September 3, 2025, leaving both teams to compete without guaranteed race entry until the case went to trial that December.
What Harms Does the NASCAR Lawsuit Allege?
The NASCAR lawsuit alleges two distinct categories of anticompetitive harm to the plaintiff teams: financial harm from suppressed revenue and inflated costs, and competitive harm from being locked out of any alternative racing series. NASCAR has denied any unlawful conduct throughout the case.
Suppressed Team Revenue
Suppressed revenue, in an antitrust claim, means a company's dominant market position let it pay less to its business partners than a genuinely competitive market would allow.
The complaint alleged NASCAR used its monopsony position, effectively the only major buyer of premier stock car racing services, to keep teams' share of media rights and other revenue artificially low. At trial, Front Row Motorsports owner Bob Jenkins testified his team had never posted an operating profit in two decades, averaging a $6.8 million annual loss, including an $8 million loss in 2022 alone. 23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin testified his team's profit margin was 2.26 percent and that the team needed roughly $45 million in sponsorship revenue just to approach breaking even.
Restricted Competitive Options
A restricted competitive option, in this context, is a contract term that blocks a business from operating in, or partnering with, any rival to the dominant company.
The teams alleged NASCAR's charter agreements included a broad “goodwill provision” barring any team owner, even a minority owner holding as little as 10 percent, from owning or investing in a competing stock car series, and that this restriction continued for more than a year even after a team left NASCAR or gave up its charter. Trial testimony also described NASCAR's exclusivity agreements with major track owner Speedway Motorsports, and NASCAR's blocking of the short-lived Superstar Racing Experience series from racing at those tracks, as evidence NASCAR moved to foreclose any potential rival series before one could take hold.
What Is the Current Status of the NASCAR Lawsuit?
The current status of the NASCAR lawsuit is closed: 23XI Racing, Front Row Motorsports, and NASCAR reached a settlement on December 11, 2025, ending the case before the jury issued a verdict.
2311 Racing LLC d/b/a 23XI Racing, et al. v. NASCAR, et al.
Judge Kenneth D. Bell of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina presided over the case from filing through trial. A jury of six men and three women was seated on December 1, 2025, and both sides settled on the fourth day of trial testimony, December 11, 2025, after the plaintiffs had finished presenting their case-in-chief. Neither side disclosed the settlement's specific dollar figures.
| Court | U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, Charlotte Division |
| Case Number | 3:24-cv-00886 |
| Judge | Kenneth D. Bell |
| Filed | October 2, 2024 |
| Trial Began | December 1, 2025 |
| Resolution | Settled December 11, 2025, before a jury verdict |
What Was the NASCAR Lawsuit Settlement?
NASCAR and the two plaintiff teams settled on undisclosed financial terms, but the settlement's structural terms were reported publicly: every charter-holding team's charter becomes permanent, or “evergreen,” rather than expiring on a fixed term.
This is a private business settlement between NASCAR and two racing teams, not a consumer class-action fund, so there is no claims process or individual payout for the public to file against. Generally, the reported terms describe changes to NASCAR's own business structure rather than a cash award, and only the parties' own public statements or court filings can confirm figures neither side has released.
Reported terms beyond the permanent charters include teams gaining a formal voice in NASCAR governance, an expanded “Three-Strike Rule” letting teams vote against up to five NASCAR proposals that would cost them money, a share of NASCAR's international media rights revenue, one-third of revenue from any new deal involving a team's own intellectual property, and an undisclosed monetary payment to 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports covering lost income from the unchartered races both teams ran in 2025.
NASCAR Lawsuit Updates and Case Status
Here is the latest on the NASCAR lawsuit, updated with the case's confirmed filings, rulings, and its December 2025 settlement.
NASCAR Lawsuit Timeline of Events
23XI Racing, Front Row Motorsports, and NASCAR Settle
Both sides announced a settlement on December 11, 2025, after eight days of trial testimony, ending the case before the jury reached a verdict and making every charter-holding team's charter permanent going forward.
Trial Opens in Charlotte With Denny Hamlin's Testimony
Jury selection concluded and the trial began on December 1, 2025, with 23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin testifying that NASCAR team owners are "essentially just professional fundraisers" under the sport's current revenue structure.
Parties Hold a Court-Ordered Settlement Conference
Judge Kenneth D. Bell ordered 23XI Racing, Front Row Motorsports, and NASCAR into a settlement conference on October 21, 2025 with mediator Jeffrey Mishkin, after NASCAR itself asked the court to arrange one two weeks earlier; the parties reached no agreement that day and met again on October 22.
Court Denies a Second Preliminary Injunction Request
The court denied 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports' renewed motion for a preliminary injunction on September 3, 2025, leaving both teams to keep competing as unchartered, "open" entries through the remainder of the regular season.
Both Teams Begin Racing as Unchartered Open Entries
23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports began competing without guaranteed race entry starting at Dover Motor Speedway in July 2025, after the Fourth Circuit's ruling stripped their charter protection for the rest of the season.
The Fourth Circuit Overturns the Teams' Preliminary Injunction
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit overturned the December 2024 preliminary injunction on June 5, 2025, and later denied the teams' request for a rehearing, ending their chartered status while the case continued toward trial.
A Federal Judge Grants a Preliminary Injunction
The district court granted 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports a preliminary injunction on December 18, 2024, allowing both teams to race as chartered entries through the 2025 season while the antitrust case proceeded.
23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports File Suit
23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports filed their federal antitrust complaint against NASCAR and Chairman Jim France on October 2, 2024 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, Case No. 3:24-cv-00886.
What Did NASCAR and Jim France Allegedly Do to Maintain Their Position?
The complaint alleged NASCAR and Chairman Jim France used a combination of racetrack acquisitions, exclusivity agreements, and the Next Gen car program to prevent any rival premier stock car series from ever gaining a foothold, then used that control to impose take-it-or-leave-it charter terms on teams. NASCAR denied the allegations throughout the case and, through trial counsel, characterized the lawsuit as the product of failed business negotiations rather than genuine antitrust conduct.
Trial testimony from NASCAR executive Scott Prime and former chief operating officer Steve O'Donnell described internal planning around a possible LIV Golf-style breakaway racing series and NASCAR's move to strengthen exclusivity agreements with track-ownership company Speedway Motorsports partly in response to that risk. Internal messages shown at trial, including a NASCAR executive's text describing the sport's revenue split as producing "zero wins for teams," were introduced by the plaintiffs' attorney, Jeffrey Kessler, to argue NASCAR's own executives recognized the terms were lopsided even as the company presented them to teams as final offers.
How Does the NASCAR Lawsuit Compare to Related Cases?
The NASCAR lawsuit is a private antitrust case between businesses, not a mass tort or consumer class action, so it has no relation to product-liability or data-breach litigation despite sharing the word "lawsuit." It is closest in kind to other major professional sports antitrust disputes, such as past challenges to league-wide franchise and broadcast-rights rules in the NFL and NBA, though NASCAR's single-family ownership structure, rather than a league of independently owned franchises, made this case's monopoly allegations distinct from those earlier sports cases.
The case is also separate from NASCAR's own long regulatory history: the France family and NASCAR were not defendants in any federal safety or consumer-protection action tied to this dispute, and no other current team besides 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports was a party to the suit, even though the settlement's permanent-charter terms extend to all 15 charter-holding teams.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the NASCAR lawsuit about?
The NASCAR lawsuit is a federal antitrust case in which 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports alleged NASCAR and Chairman Jim France used monopoly power over premier stock car racing to impose unfair, take-it-or-leave-it charter terms on teams.
Is the NASCAR lawsuit a class action or an MDL?
No. It is a single federal antitrust case brought by two plaintiff teams, not a class action or multidistrict litigation, and it involves no recruitable class of other claimants for the public to join.
Who filed the NASCAR lawsuit and who are the defendants?
23XI Racing, co-owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin, and Front Row Motorsports, owned by Bob Jenkins, filed the lawsuit. NASCAR (the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC) and Chairman Jim France are the named defendants.
Did NASCAR settle the lawsuit?
Yes. NASCAR, 23XI Racing, and Front Row Motorsports settled on December 11, 2025, during the trial's fourth day of testimony, before the jury reached a verdict, and neither side disclosed the settlement's specific dollar figures.
What did the NASCAR lawsuit settlement change?
The reported settlement terms make every charter-holding team's charter permanent instead of expiring on a fixed term, give teams a formal role in NASCAR governance, expand teams' voting power over costly NASCAR proposals, share international media rights revenue with teams, and include an undisclosed payment to 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports.
Why did 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports race without charters in 2025?
A federal court initially granted both teams a preliminary injunction letting them keep their charters, but the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that ruling on June 5, 2025, and a later request to restore chartered status was denied on September 3, 2025, so both teams competed as unchartered "open" entries until the case settled that December.