How Big Is the NASCAR Stick?

In 1948, stock car racing was a ragtag assemblage of unscrupulous promoters and outlaw drivers with no set of rules or direction. Bill France assembled a group of people and laid the groundwork for what is now NASCAR. One undeniable fact about the original organization of NASCAR was that it was Big Bill France’s sandbox, and if you wanted to play in it, you had to follow his rules.

France demanded that his drivers only compete in his series, and he enforced that by penalizing points from any drivers who chose to race in another series. In the 1960s, there were two different attempts at unionization by drivers. The first led to the suspension of Curtis Turner and Tim Flock, two of the most popular drivers in the sport. The second time a union came together resulted in a boycott of the original Talladega Superspeedway race.

It also resulted in Bill France being punched in the face and ultimately pulling a gun at a meeting to emphasize his leadership over the sport.

That tyrannical leadership of the sport continues to this day, and the result is a lawsuit that is now challenging the tactics that NASCAR uses to lead the sport, and the legality of their right to monopolize almost everything about the sport.

NASCAR has been in negotiations for some time over the next generation of the charter agreement between themselves and the race teams. That agreement determines revenue sharing and certain guarantees that provide each team the ability to negotiate with sponsors about their sponsorship.

At the beginning of September, NASCAR delivered a 105-page agreement to the teams and gave them a deadline some seven hours after the delivery to sign it. 13 of the 15 NASCAR charter teams signed the agreement; 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports were the two organizations that did not sign. In theory, that means that they will be stripped of their charters, at the Cup level, starting in 2025.

Many people wondered what was next for these two companies, and that answer came out Wednesday. 23XI and FRM are filing an anti-trust lawsuit against NASCAR for their anti-competitive practices that prevent fair competition in the sport. From their joint statement:

NASCAR and the France Family operate without transparency, have stifled competition and control the sport of stock car racing in ways that unfairly benefit them at the expense of team owners, drivers, sponsors, partners and fans, through the following anti-competitive practices:

• Buying…