NASCAR moves to dismiss 23XI and Front Row lawsuit

As expected, NASCAR motioned to dismiss the lawsuit from both 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports and the newly refiled preliminary injunction request from the teams as they seek temporary charters over the duration of its lawsuit against the sanctioning body.

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In its motion to dismiss on Monday night NASCAR responded with, ‘Stripped of its bluster, Plaintiffs’ Complaint reflects nothing more than dissatisfaction with business negotiations that didn’t go their way.’

In other words, NASCAR argues in its response that 23XI and Front Row have neither proof on the merits that this is even a legitimate antitrust case and there would be a statute of limitations on the language of the charter written in 2016 in the first place.

23XI and Front Row have argued that the inaugural charter agreement in 2016 included owners who were the ‘most likely racing team owners to form a competing circuit,’ as the basis for NASCAR as a monopoly as the structure preventing those team owners from racing elsewhere.

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NASCAR says a claim the teams have made is that NASCAR’s exclusivity arrangements with tracks ‘deterred’ 2016 charter owners from ‘trying to form’ a competing stock car racing entity but that the four year statute passed when this was never brought to court.

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The sanctioning body has also continued to argue that the two teams have participated for multiple years under the provisions of a charter system and never made antitrust claims until failing to get the terms it wanted in the renewal negotiations process over the past two years.

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Also notable in the filing is that NASCAR confirmed that it would not consider approving the transfer of two purchased charters from Stewart-Haas Racing by 23XI and Front Row ‘purchased these Charters fully aware that they contained a release provision, which needed to be accepted for any requested transfer to be considered.’

See many more details, as well as a copy of the filing at Sportsnaut.

See earlier updates about the preliminary injunction here.

All posts about the lawsuit can be found on the antitrust lawsuit page.