NASCAR files counterclaim against teams in ongoing charter system dispute

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR on Wednesday filed a counterclaim against Michael Jordan-owned 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports alleging they “willfully” violated antitrust laws by orchestrating anticompetitive collective conduct in connection with the most recent charter agreements.

23XI and Front Row were the only two teams out of 15 that refused to sign the new agreements, which were presented to the teams last September in a take-it-or-leave-it offer a mere 48 hours before the start of NASCAR’s playoffs.

The charters are NASCAR’s version of a franchise and guarantee 36 of the 40 spots in each week’s field to the teams that hold them, as well as other financial incentives. 23XI and Front Row sued, alleging NASCAR and the France family that owns the stock car series are a monopoly.

NASCAR already has lost one round in court in which the two teams have been recognized as chartered organizations for the 2025 season as the legal dispute winds through the courts.

In the 30-page counterclaim filed Wednesday — which names Curtis Polk, Jordan’s longtime agent, as a defendant — NASCAR said “the undisputed reality is that it is 23XI and FRM, led by 23XI’s owner and sports agent Curtis Polk, that willfully violated the antitrust laws by orchestrating anticompetitive collective conduct in connection with the terms of the 2025 Charter Agreements.”

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“This is not the first time that 23XI and FRM have sought to impose their viewpoints, and those of their counsel, on the racing teams writ large,” NASCAR continued. “And it is truly ironic that in trying to blow-up the Charter system, 23XI and FRM have sought to weaponize the antitrust laws to achieve their goals.”

NASCAR alleged that Polk threatened to boycott NASCAR races as part of the negotiations on the new charters and is “attempting to misuse the legal system as a last resort to secure new terms.”

Polk started as an agent and is now Jordan’s business partner and business manager.

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NASCAR’s counterclaim asks for an injunction eliminating guaranteed starting spots for charter teams “if Counterclaim Defendants persist in seeking to have the Charter Agreements declared as unlawful under the antitrust laws.”

NASCAR attorney Christopher Yates in a call after the filing argued the charter extensions signed by 13 teams provided significant improvements to the previous charter agreements and said “NASCAR doesn’t need the charter system,” but that the teams fought for it in 2016 and the most recent agreement “is fair and equitable” and gives teams what they wanted.

He said the charter system provides little benefit to NASCAR, and while NASCAR is “happy” to continue the system, it would discontinue charters if needed.

“Polk and 23XI’s other owners openly professed that they wanted to change NASCAR’s economic model by demanding more money for the teams from NASCAR media revenues, instead of teams competing against each other,” Yates said. “However, 23XI and FRM did not merely reject the terms of the 2025 Charters. Rather, those teams embarked on a strategy to threaten, coerce, and extort NASCAR into meeting their demands for better contract and financial terms.”