The antitrust lawsuit case between 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports versus NASCAR continued this week. While things in appeals court have heated up in the last few months, the most recent filings came back in the district court in western North Carolina.
Here’s what was in this week’s filing:
- The teams and NASCAR filed a joint motion on March 21 to amend the case management plan. Basically, both sides asked that a few of the dates, including discovery, be moved back about a week.
- On March 26, 23XI Racing filed a motion to dismiss NASCAR’s countersuit against Curtis Polk with some very strong language condemning the retaliatory lawsuit.
- “NASCAR’s retaliatory counterclaim is an act of desperation that cannot withstand a motion to dismiss.”
- 23XI also called the counterclaim “litigation gamesmanship” with the “objective of intimidating other racing teams by threatening them with severe consequences” if they supported the teams’ challenge to NASCAR.
- They also accused NASCAR of using the countersuit as an opportunity “to conduct a press conference” so they could warn “NASCAR will end the charter system that the racing teams depend on” if 23XI and Front Row win the case.
- In that March 5 countersuit, NASCAR accused Polk of helping lead a boycott of a contractually-obligated Team Owner Council Meeting, adding that he threatened a group boycott of NASCAR races an events.
- Back to this week, 23XI refuted that claim, saying “there is no allegation that such a threatened boycott of qualifying races ever took place.”
- Front Row also filed its own motion to dismiss NASCAR’s countersuit against Polk. Its extra reason for dismissal is because Polk is not an owner or employee for their team.
- “NASCAR does not allege any specific conduct by Front Row or its owner or employees to support a claim that it participated in the alleged conspiracy.”
Caleb began sports writing in 2023 with The Liberty Champion, where he officially covered his first NASCAR race at Richmond in the spring. While there, Caleb met some of the guys from Frontstretch, and he joined the video editing team after graduating from Liberty University with degrees in Strategic Communications and Sports Journalism. Caleb currently work full-time as a Multi-Media Journalist with LEX 18 News in Lexington, Kentucky and contributes to Frontstretch with writing and video editing. He's also behind-the-scenes or on camera for the Happy Hour Podcast, live every Tuesday night at 7:30!