As the 2025 NASCAR season gets underway with the Daytona 500 this Sunday (Feb. 16), there’s still one ongoing storyline from 2024 that will still be relevant throughout most, if not all of 2025.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know I’m talking about the ongoing lawsuit with NASCAR on one side and 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports on the other.
There are plenty of columns on Frontstretch alone that cover what’s been happening in the legal world regarding the lawsuit, but here’s a super quick rundown. After feeling like they didn’t get a fair charter deal, 23XI and FRM held out on signing and instead sued NASCAR. They filed (and were granted) an injunction to race as chartered teams for 2025 while the lawsuit runs its course.
As it stands right now, neither side seems to want to settle. The battle will continue in court and will be as fierce as the battles on the racetrack throughout 2025.
However, the latest development is something that everyone in the sport, chartered or not, should keep their eyes on ahead of the 2026 season. That’s because even though it’s a year away, one piece of fallout from the lawsuit could affect everyone going forward.
Just one hour before qualifying for the Duels for the Daytona 500 on Wednesday (Feb. 12), NASCAR filed an appeal to the granted injunction, saying that, “The district court’s injunction orders flout federal antitrust law; misapply the established rules governing the use of preliminary injunctions; ignore unrebutted, legally significant evidence; and have sweeping implications for NASCAR’s 2025 Cup Series season.”
Additionally, NASCAR stated in the 68-page appeal, “These injunctions misuse the judicial power to force NASCAR to treat its litigation adversaries as its business partners and confidants, undermining the mutual trust that has fueled NASCAR’s growth and success.”
It appears both sides are willing to see this lawsuit through to trial. However, in a bombshell dropped by the Associated Press, it appears that if 23XI and FRM come out in top in the lawsuit, NASCAR wouldn’t just renegotiate charters — it would get rid of them altogether.
A move such as this would not only be drastic but would also evoke mixed reactions.
On the one hand, charters going away would put more emphasis on owner points in instances where qualifying contains go-or-go-home drivers (such as the Daytona 500 Duels). The difference in prize money per race between chartered and open teams would likely become more evenly distributed, encouraging more teams to attempt races and giving us more 40-car fields.
On the other, the last 10 years of work for charters goes completely out the window.
This wouldn’t be a huge deal for teams such as Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing, who have had their charters since charters were formed. The issue more so arises in teams that have purchased charters from other teams. The value of charters have grown exponentially in the last decade, and if NASCAR totally does away with charters, there are several teams who are out tens of millions of dollars.
In 2023, Spire Motorsports bought the charter of Live Fast Motorsports for a whopping $40 million. Just a few years earlier, FRM snagged a charter from BK Racing for $2 million. While monetary values were never disclosed, 23XI, FRM and RFK Racing each acquired a charter from Stewart-Haas Racing just this year.
Charters aren’t cheap. To do away with them would put teams that bought one out millions, and with no way of getting that money back. Spire can’t go to BJ McLeod and Matt Tifft (co-owners of Live Fast) and ask for a refund, because that isn’t fair to McLeod and Tifft, and because NASCAR is the party that took charters away, not McLeod and Tifft — they would have nothing to do with it.
But NASCAR likely wouldn’t cough up that money to the teams that broke the bank for nothing, which would lead to some very unhappy owners. Perhaps then we’re looking at a much larger lawsuit than just 23XI and FRM.
But let’s come back down to earth for a second. Would NASCAR actually do away with charters if it loses the lawsuit?
We just went over the logistical and financial repercussions on the teams’ part if that were to happen. NASCAR would probably face a bunch of backlash from its own teams should it end the charter system.
However, it’s long been documented that NASCAR does not like to be challenged, and this lawsuit is its greatest challenge yet. If it does not come out on top, ending the charter system could very well be a realistic piece of the overall fallout.
The moment the news came out that 23XI and FRM were suing NASCAR, we knew we were heading into unprecedented times in NASCAR.
But there’s a chance that we’ve only scratched the tip of this historic iceberg. We may not understand the full impact of this lawsuit until 2026.
Buckle up, race fans. This wild ride is only going to get wilder.
Follow @AnthonyDamcott on X.
Anthony Damcott joined Frontstretch in March 2022. Currently, he is an editor and co-authors Fire on Fridays (Fridays); he is also the primary Truck Series reporter/writer and serves as an at-track reporter, among many other duties he takes on for the site. A proud West Virginia Wesleyan College alum from Akron, Ohio, Anthony is now a grad student. He is a theatre actor and fight-choreographer-in-training in his free time.
You can keep up with Anthony by following @AnthonyDamcott on X.
People of the racing car need to work full time for the future
NA$CAR will do whatever it takes to get more $$$$$$$!