NASCAR Makes Claim of Extortion Against 23XI Racing and Front Row in Latest Court Filing

The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season is starting to wind down but the antitrust court case between 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports and the sanctioning body is starting to heat up. On Wednesday, NASCAR filed its response to the plaintiffs/teams' motion for expedited discovery and unexpectedly included a claim of extortion.

The claim appeared in the first section of the document titled "Bottom Line Up Front," and read: "Plaintiffs have filed a meritless suit against NASCAR alleging baseless antitrust claims in order to obtain commercial agreements they previously rejected, and to attempt to extort more favorable contract terms."

Interestingly, the extortion claim is just one notable part of the 22-page document filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. Another that 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports fans will be particularly interested in is regarding the 2025 season.

"Plaintiffs did not timely sign, and under basic contract law, the offer was thus rejected, leaving no offer existing to be accepted," the document read. "When the extended deadlines to sign expired, NASCAR took down the AdobeSign and moved on to planning a 2025 season with 32 instead of 36 Charters.

"NASCAR carries contractual obligations to the 13 teams that accepted its offers of 2025 Charters, and consistent with the terms of the 2025 Charters, NASCAR is working on reallocating funds that Plaintiffs would have received to increase prize money and other special awards for the 2025 season for the benefit of teams that timely executed 2025 Charters, as well as Open teams who can compete to win the increased prize money and other special awards."

Translation: 23XI and FRM will compete as open teams in 2025 and the teams who signed the charter agreement can likely expect to receive larger payouts due to their portion of the pie being increased.

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