The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series has now been tainted with a legal problem in the form of NASCAR’s courtroom drama against 23XI Racing, the team co-owned by basketball legend Michael Jordan and driver Denny Hamlin. The fight started over financial terms and now it has escalated into lawsuits and counter-lawsuits. It’s gotten ugly.
In 2024, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports (FRM) took a stand and didn’t sign the 2025 Charter Agreement, arguing that the new system is designed to kill off independent teams. They even accused NASCAR of monopolistic behavior, unfair revenue sharing, and purposefully devaluing some teams to control the sport. The teams cited the $6 million sale of championship-winning Furniture Row Motorsports as proof - a big example of how the system is broken.
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NASCAR’s Nasty Counter-Lawsuit
NASCAR filed a counter-lawsuit against 23XI Racing, FRM and Michael Jordan’s business manager, Curtis Polk. The suit claims Polk orchestrated a campaign of threats, media manipulation, and potential boycotts to get NASCAR to cave on terms. NASCAR calls this an “illegal cartel” to undermine the organization and its authority.
Essentially, both sides are calling each other a monopoly or cartel.
But make no mistake: money is not the reason why this legal battle is big as it is. It’s about control and the course of the sport.
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If 23XI Racing and FRM win, the future of how NASCAR is run and the effect a team can have on competition will be changed. If NASCAR wins, they reinforce the status quo while scaring away other teams considering to poke their heads into the ring. This will change the face of NASCAR for years, whatever the result.
Denny Hamlin’s Defiant Stance
The whole time, Denny Hamlin has been vocal. As a driver and a team owner he’s in a tough situation. On the track, he says he is not worried about retaliation: “I have no doubt we’ll be treated fairly on the racetrack.” Michael Jordan, he also says, sent him a clip of the movie Moneyball to represent their method of approaching the situation.
In December 2024, U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Kenneth D. Bell entered a preliminary injunction that allows 23XI Racing and FRM to remain on NASCAR’s Cup Series grid as charter teams while their lawsuits against NASCAR play out.
Hamlin tweeted after the ruling, “For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, nor is anything secret that will not become known and come to light.” His words suggest that more serious revelations about NASCAR’s inner workings could be coming.
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