Just before championship conversations swallowed the NASCAR world at Phoenix Raceway, one of the first major rulings came in the 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR.
On Friday, Nov. 8, U.S. District Court Judge Frank Whitney denied the injunction, ruling that the teams “have not met their burden required for a preliminary injunction.” The ruling did become a topic of conversation for Denny Hamlin in his media availability the following day.
Here are some of the words – and steps – exchanged in the week since.
- During Hamlin’s media availability on Saturday, Nov. 9, NBC Sports’ Dustin Long asked if Hamlin was “confident” 23XI will race at the Clash or the Daytona 500. Hamlin responded, “I think it’s all TBD. There’s certain agreements that we’re going to have to navigate, so I hope so.”
- “We were obviously pleased with the ruling that the judge sees merits in the case,” Hamlin also said. “He’s going to move forward to expedite it, expedite the discovery side of it, which is a reverse from what he had before. … Obviously he understands the complexity of it, and obviously understands that the situation is fluid and we obviously could see some pretty bad harm coming up.”
- The teams initially stated that they planned to run the 2025 season no matter what, but there is some concern as to whether or not teams can still run as open cars while bringing litigation against NASCAR.
- Frontstretch’s Stephen Stumpf asked Bubba Wallace if things would proceed as normal by the time Daytona rolls around. “That’s what I’ve been told,” Wallace replied. “Honestly, I’m not on social [media], so the updates that you’re saying to me right now is new news to me, so we’ll keep on racing, as long as they call me back.”
- “It’s very hard to not feel a slight bit of uncertainty,” said Todd Gilliland, who is slated to become the team veteran at Front Row Motorsports in 2025. “From our team and all that, it’s always been the same message to us, is that we’re going to keep pushing forward, and just continue to do your job.”
- While that occurred before Sunday’s (Nov. 10) championship race, 23XI and FRM filed an appeal to the preliminary injunction denial earlier this week, on Tuesday, Nov. 12.
- The appeal is set for the U.S. Court of Appeals (Fourth…
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