Well, things escalated dramatically this week, didn’t they?
On Wednesday (Oct. 2), NASCAR was handed a potentially sport-altering antitrust lawsuit, filed jointly between 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports.
If this isn’t your first time hearing these two teams in the same sentence, that’s because it isn’t. The two teams were the only ones to hold out against NASCAR’s charter agreement, which the sanctioning body allegedly forced teams to sign within hours of receiving it at 5 p.m. ET on Sept. 6 before the playoff opener at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
While both 23XI and FRM have released joint and individual statements regarding the matter, NASCAR has yet to come out with a statement with its own. One shouldn’t expect it to either, considering it didn’t even really comment on the charter agreement debacle in early September.
It begs the question of how exactly NASCAR will respond to the matter. At a certain point, neither NASCAR nor 23XI and FRM will be able to comment due to whatever pending litigation lies in the case. But NASCAR likely won’t respond through PR statements or anything of the like.
Now, on the racetrack? That would be an interesting development.
Historically, NASCAR and the France family don’t like to be challenged. That was evident in the 1960s when it suspended two of its most popular drivers, Curtis Turner and Tim Flock, for attempting to unionize the drivers. When another attempt at unionization came about in 1969, then-owner and founder Bill France did everything in his power to ignore it, resulting in the infamous first race at Talladega Superspeedway when only three NASCAR Cup Series cars competed among a field of Sportsman Division cars.
However, in an era when social media is king and fan support is much higher than it was in the ’60s, taking action to outright ban 23XI and FRM would receive backlash from which it could potentially never recover. Plus, at a time when the Cup Series is already struggling to reach full 40-car fields, losing four full-time entries would only worsen the issue.
It only helps that 23XI has Michael Jordan. One of the most iconic athletes in the world with just as equal star power away from sports certainly could make a move like permanent suspension fall right back in NASCAR’s face.
No, if there was any way NASCAR could send a message to 23XI and FRM outside of the courtroom, it would be on the racetrack. Failing inspection, pit road penalties,…
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