UPDATE: 23XI and Front Row’s temporary restraining order request to keep NASCAR from revoking their chartered status was denied Thursday (July 17).
23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports have completed the paperwork needed to race as open teams, per a NASCAR filing released on Wednesday (July 16).
The response filing from NASCAR also says that the teams don’t have the charters as they didn’t agree to the terms of the charter agreement; NASCAR has the charters.
The teams don’t need charters to race, the filing said.
“There is no credible risk (or even threat) that any of Plaintiffs’ drivers will leave mid-season, let alone over the next two weeks,” NASCAR said. “None of their evidence even makes that claim.”
Additionally, NASCAR says the charters won’t be sold until after the preliminary injunction request is decided.
Joy joined Frontstretch in 2019 as a NASCAR DraftKings writer, expanding to news and iRacing coverage in 2020. She's currently an assistant editor and involved with photos, social media and news editing. A California native, Joy was raised watching motorsports and started watching NASCAR extensively in 2001. She earned her B.A. degree in Liberal Studies at California State University Bakersfield in 2010.
Remember the words of BIll France…..
The drivers need NASCAR more than NASCAR needs the drivers!
Meh. Rich guys yelling at other rich guys. I can’t bring myself to get too worked up about this, as I have to think even if the teams fold, most if not all the employees will quickly be scooped up by other teams.
That said, I feel NASCAR is flirting with disaster. With their iron fist BS, they are practically begging someone to start a competing series, and in this case, ticking off someone (Michael Jordan) who between deep pockets and connections within the sports industry, could likely have a fairly strong product off the ground within a few years.
Imagine, if you will, that FRM and 23XI start their own series. Tyler Reddick is fast, and clearly popular, both with fans and sponsors. All Star voting shows Noah Gragson is quite popular (though it mystifies me as to why). Bubba Wallace is quite popular, especially with sponsors (though this mystifies most others as to why). Hamlin would likely jump ship, and become the “heel” veteran presence for the first few years. Riley Herbst also brings big sponsorship. Throw in Gilliand and Zane Smith, and you already have a decent starting point of drivers.
NASCAR obviously controls the vast majority of ovals, either via ownership, or leverage. But, there are tons of road courses which likely would love to have a stock car series. Because it seems the younger generation enjoys road course racing, and the international racing fans absolutely prefer it, it quickly could become a more affluent, younger, more cosmopolitan series.
It would also attract more international talent, like SVG, which would only make international appeal and TV ratings stronger. The more I think about it, the more I wonder why Jordan (or someone else) hasn’t done this already.
I have no specific love for NASCAR or the teams involved. Again, rich guys yelling at other rich guys. But a stock car series with new ideas, and less good old boy crap sure sounds intriguing.
There have been other stock car series. Years ago USAC tried competing with NASCAR, and while they had some success in the midwest were NASCAR wasn’t, they eventually folded. ARCA was around forever, but they never manged to grow beyond a feeder series, and finally sold out to NASCAR.
They could create a road course series, but the number of tracks that could handle a major series and don’t already have ties to NASCAR is somewhat limited. And of the potential tracks out there, how many would be interested in hosting a starter series, at the risk of pissing NASCAR off? We already a sort of stock car road racing series in the US that’s close to 70 years old, the Trans Am. They raced at Watkins Glen last week in front of empty stands.
It’s easy to say all of the sponsors would follow Wallace, Reddick, Herbst and Hamblin, but that remains to be seen. Sponsors go where the exposure is, and an upstart series with an unknown future isn’t exactly a lock for the best exposure per dollar. Even if some sponsors followed them, chances are they wouldn’t be willing to pay as much for a new series, on a limited number of tracks.
CART tried this with Indy car racing 45 years ago. They survived for a while, but eventually had to surrender. Unlike what you’re proposing CART had all the big teams and all the big names go with them. What CART didn’t have was Indy, and in the end Indy is where the sponsors want to be.
How many new football leagues have popped up in the last 30 years, and how long did they last? Like the NFL, NASCAR’s the big dog in the room and it’s hard knock the big dog off. I’d love to see a road race at Road America or Sebring, but in the end the big sponsors will want to be at Daytona.
Good points all around. I think where this differs a bit is the international market likely would support a competing series, one which has a lot less backwards thinking, and a more diverse lineup of drivers.
Indycar/CART were always going to be competing with F1 as the top echelon of open wheel racing. The Indy 500 is still a big deal, and sponsorship there is still quite valuable, but the remainder of Indycar is a shadow of what it once was, with F1 now towering above it in popularity. Unless NASCAR watches their actions, they could find themselves in the same place with Daytona.
There is no international equivalent of NASCAR. Sure Australia has “stock car” racing, there are European analogs like BTCC and DTM, Trans Am in the US (though laughably poorly managed and marketed), but none of these are truly international series. Now, imagine an international “stock car” equivalent of F1, running all over the Americas, Europe, and Bathurst in Australia.
We can debate the “why” though I won’t do it here as politics and a great auto racing website should rarely mix. Still, irrespective of political affiliation, the average American just doesn’t have the financial muscle they once did, and this trend is only accelerating. It’s no wonder IMSA and WEC have more auto manufacturers than they know what to do with, (18 at Le Mans, if I remember correctly,) and F1 has auto companies clamoring to get a spot on the grid. None of those series are beholden to Americans for their success.
Follow the money, and collectively the international market is much more important than our domestic market. That’s why NASCAR is having to all but beg manufacturers to join, Indycar may be on the cusp of losing one of only two engine suppliers, while again, auto companies are doing everything they possibly can to increase their international presence, including Cadillac paying the FIA $450 million dollars to get on the F1 grid. And that $450 million is just an entry fee. It has nothing to do with the costs to run a new team. I believe the money and demand is there for an international stock car series.
The NFL is quite different. The remainder of the world doesn’t really care about American Football. The NFL is the master of the US, and people like the product, so competing is largely a fool’s errand. Also, the growing wealth gap from the average American to the top 1% doesn’t matter as much to the NFL. World wide, people do enjoy racing, and support all forms of the sport. I see no reason “stock cars” would differ here.
Don’t mess With NASCAR, ask Mayfield
Don’t forget Curtis Turner and Carl Long! Mayfield’s problems started after he rattled Ironhead’s cage at Pocono and I remember thinking “Uh oh, he shouldn’t have done that!”