23XI, Front Row Motorsports expect to compete in 2025 NASCAR Cup Series despite lawsuit

23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, two top-tier Cup Series teams, are still making plans to compete in the series in 2025, despite the fact that they’ve initiated an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR.

In fact, both 23XI and FRM are planning on expanding their operations and adding a third car to their lineups. Whether or not NASCAR allows that to happen, though, remains to be seen.

23XI, FRM look to expand 2025 NASCAR operations

On October 2, 2024, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, two teams active in the Cup Series, filed an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR and its owner Jim France. The teams allege that NASCAR is engaging in monopoly-like behavior.

This lawsuit appears to stem from 2024’s particularly contentious negotiations regarding the Cup Series’ charter system extension. The charter system establishes rules by which both teams and the series operate, with the charter itself accruing value and establishing that team’s right to compete in NASCAR.

This year, 23XI and FRM allege that NASCAR engaged in joint charter negotiations with teams up until March, when it shut teams out from the planning of the new charter’s terms. NASCAR then presented teams with a completed charter agreement to sign in September.

If teams did not sign that lawsuit, NASCAR alleged that they may lose their charters. Further, if a majority of teams refused to sign, NASCAR would kill the charter system altogether.

The antitrust lawsuit alleges that these are monopoly-like practices that have therefore created an environment where NASCAR thrives as a series, but where the teams hitting the track suffer.

23XI and FRM are the only two teams who did not sign the charter agreement.

Dig deeper into NASCAR:

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Still, both 23XI and FRM intend to compete in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, and both anticipate purchasing a third charter to continue growing their operations.

Speaking to RACER , 23XI co-owner Curtis Polk said, “Yes, 23XI Racing plans to race next year.

“We plan to continue to go through with all the things we were planning before this lawsuit. Our business model is going to move forward and we’re going to continue to grow and compete at the highest level.”

In the lawsuit against NASCAR, 23XI revealed its plan to purchase a charter from Stewart-Haas Racing, while FRM announced its plans for a third car in May.

RACER also reports that there are plans to file a preliminary injunction, which would effectively allow both teams to compete in 2025 under the charter agreement’s terms, but without having to actually agree to those terms.

Though neither team signed the 2025 charter agreement due to several fundamental disagreements with its content, there are still benefits to operating as a chartered team, including securing a guaranteed starting spot at each race, as well as earning a greater prize purse.

Further, if NASCAR were to strip away their charters, it would likely be used as further evidence against the series in this suit.

However, the lawsuit alleges that these terms stack the benefit in favor of NASCAR, and that teams like 23XI and FRM can still suffer. The goal of the suit is to seek financial compensation for damages but also to entirely reorganize the sport of NASCAR as a whole to take power away from the series itself and place more of it in the hands of teams.

It’s unclear exactly what will happen to 23XI, FRM, or NASCAR in the future, but this is a story that will develop over the next several years. Jeffrey Kessler, the lawyer representing the teams in this case, estimates that it’ll take a year or two before anyone sees a court room.

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