By David G Firestone
I had something prepared for this week, but that’s getting pushed back to next week. Two things that I’ve previously talked about have had updates. First, Front Row Motorsports and 23XI Racing have jointly filed a lawsuit against NASCAR. According to The Athletic, Jayski and Fox Sports:
“Two NASCAR teams, including one owned by basketball icon Michael Jordan, accused NASCAR of being a monopoly in a joint antitrust lawsuit filed Wednesday morning in federal court.
23XI Racing, the team co-owned by Jordan and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, joined with Front Row Motorsports to allege NASCAR and its CEO Jim France have used “anticompetitive and exclusionary practices” to “enrich themselves at the expense of the premier stock car racing teams.”
NASCAR did not offer an immediate comment as it is reviewing the filing.
The teams claim that while even the winningest organizations struggle to break even, NASCAR has unlawfully blocked the formation or growth of any other series — thus forcing competitors “to accept take-it-or-leave-it economic conditions” in order to participate.
The lawsuit seeks details from NASCAR and France “related to their exclusionary practices and intent to insulate themselves from any competition.” Jeffrey Kessler, a top antitrust attorney said he would ask for a preliminary injunction that will enable the two teams to compete in 2025 under the new charter agreement while the litigation proceeds.
The teams said they will seek treble damages for anti-competitive terms that have ruled the sport since the initial 2016 charter agreement.
In a teleconference Wednesday morning with reporters, Kessler said that this case has similarities with other sports antitrust litigation where a fundamentally unfair system has been created for the participants. But this case also has a major difference – the France family (one small group of individuals) controls NASCAR.
“There is no other major sport where one family has run that sport as its own personal fee stub and piggy bank the way that NASCAR has been run,” Kessler said.
“We will see what impact that has in terms of how they try to defend themselves. We will see what impact that has in terms of whether it’s possible to settle this case or whether we have to take it all the way through trial — either way, we’re prepared to do what’s necessary to effectuate change.”
Both teams said they would continue with their 2025 plans.”
We all saw this coming. We all knew it was going to come and it has. I’m actually shocked it took as long as it did. NASCAR strong arming the teams into signing the new deal was not a good look, and oh man, has it backfired. The charter system was doomed to fail, and NASCAR has made their teams into serfs.
I do not see NASCAR coming out on top here. There is more than enough evidence that NASCAR is a monopoly on American stock car racing. They pretty much control the stock car market in the US. Their big mistake is that they tried to bully Michael Jordan. Jordan has more money and power than many state governments, and he doesn’t take people disrespecting him. This is going to be a good fight. A lot of lawsuits like these get settled or end because one side, if not both, don’t have the funds to continue. With Jordan and NASCAR, this isn’t an issue. I’m going to invest in a few dozen boxes of popcorn to watch this match.
Speaking of watching matches, AEW and Warner Bros. Discovery announced Wednesday, that they had signed a new TV deal. In a press release, Warner Bros. Discovery said:
“Warner Bros. Discovery and All Elite Wrestling (AEW) today announced a multi-year renewal of their highly successful five-year relationship with an expansive multi-platform media rights agreement that will provide fans with the widest available access ever to AEW’s most popular programming.
WBD’s networks and platforms will remain the exclusive home of AEW Dynamite (Wednesdays on TBS) and AEW Collision (Saturdays on TNT), with enhanced distribution rights across social platforms as well as building opportunities for additional AEW programming for linear and digital platforms in the future.
Additionally, for the first time, all AEW Dynamite and AEW Collision programming starting January 2025 will stream live exclusively on Max (U.S. subscribers only). All AEW programming airing on WBD’s networks will also be available to stream on demand on Max.
AEW and WBD will also collaborate to distribute AEW live pay-per-view events on Max at a discounted price per event, with all marketing and promotions of those PPV events exclusively centered on Max. AEW PPV distribution on Max will begin later in 2025, with additional information and pricing to be shared in the coming months.”
Ok, this one I get. AEW isn’t getting what they were, but it isn’t a total loss, like moving to a streaming only platform. I did notice a little detail that wasn’t mentioned in the press release. AEW Dynamite will continue Wednesdays on TBS. AEW Collision will continute Saturdays on TNT. What about AEW Rampage? Is Rampage going away? If so, oh well. Let’s be honest, Rampage was always an afterthought when compared to Dynamite. It became even more of an afterthought when Collision came to be. Rampage never did ratings remotely comparable to Dynamite and Collision. So it seems that Rampage will go away, at least according to the press release. And nothing of value was lost.
Well like I said last time, if anything changes, I will discuss it later. Next week, a discussion about egos.
Sources Cited:
23XI Racing, Front Row Motorsports file lawsuit against NASCAR UPDATE 2
Click to access 23XI-vs-NASCAR-Petition-KTT-WM.pdf
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