23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports have been granted the preliminary injunction to keep their charters for the 2025 season while the antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR and the France family continues. The ruling is just for next year and states that the disputed sections of the 2025 Charter Agreement that caused this lawsuit are not enforceable while the legal battle is ongoing.
The ruling read as follows: “The Court hereby enters a limited preliminary injunction only for the duration of the 2025 NASCAR Cup season as follows: Defendants (NASCAR) and their agents, servants, employees, attorneys, and all persons in active concert or participation with Defendants, must allow Plaintiffs (23XI/FRM) to each enter two race cars in all NASCAR Cup races under the 2025 Charter Agreement terms applicable to all charter teams, with the exception that the “release” language in Section 10.3 of the 2025 Charter Agreement shall not be enforceable to the extent that it would release or bar Plaintiffs’ claims in this action.
“Further, NASCAR is preliminarily enjoined from refusing to approve Plaintiffs’ purchases of two Stewart-Haas Racing, LLC charters, which Plaintiffs will be entitled to use to race in all 2025 NASCAR Cup races on the same terms as other charter teams, again with the exception of the application of the release language to Plaintiffs’ claims in this action; and 3. A Case Management schedule will be set by the Court which, in the absence of a voluntary resolution of this dispute among the Parties, provides for a trial on Plaintiffs’ claims to be concluded in advance of the beginning of the 2026 NASCAR race season.”
In order to be granted a preliminary injunction, the plaintiff (in this case the race teams) must demonstrate the following: Are likely to succeed on merits, likely to suffer irreparable harm without the relief of the injunction, the balance of equities tops in its favor, and the injunction would be in the public interest.
The teams originally lost in their motion for a preliminary injunction on November 8th as the judge noted their failure to prove irreparable harm would come as a result of losing the charters. 23XI/FRM then moved to appeal but due to changing circumstances, they chose to drop the appeal and re-file the motion for a preliminary injunction from a new approach. The case also moved from Judge Frank D. Whitney, who rejected the motion in November, and is now in the hands of Judge…
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