Michael Jordan co-owned 23XI Racing faces NASCAR countersuit amid charter fallout

NASCAR is accusing 23XI Racing of “willfully” violating antitrust laws, court documents show. The company is co-owned by six-time NBA champion Michael Jordan.

A contentious two-year negotiation period on new charter agreements led to the lawsuit. Charters are NASCAR’s equivalent of a franchise model. Teams that have charters receive a minimum of 36 spots on every race weekend.

A 30-page lawsuit filed in the Western District of North Carolina argued that Jordan’s entity, more specifically business manager Curtis Polk, circumvented antitrust laws by orchestrating anticompetitive collective conduct in connection with the most recent charter agreements. Polk is listed as a defendant in the filing.

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Front Row Motorsports also declined to sign the new agreements, which were presented to the teams last September shortly before the start of NASCAR’s playoffs. Restaurant entrepreneur Bob Jenkins owns Front Row Motorsports. In addition to Jordan, Polk and driver Denny Hamlin are co-owners of 23XI Racing.

The charters were fought for by the teams ahead of the 2016 season and have twice been extended. The latest extension is for seven years to match the current media rights deal. 23XI and Front Row refused to sign and sued, alleging that NASCAR and the France family, who own the stock car series, are a monopoly.

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NASCAR was defeated in round one in court. The two teams have been recognized as chartered organizations for the 2025 season as the legal dispute winds through the courts. NASCAR has also appealed a decision to have the case dismissed.

“Today’s counterclaim by NASCAR is a meritless distraction and a desperate attempt to shift attention away from its own unlawful, monopolistic actions,” attorney Jeffrey Kessler, who is representing 23XI and Front Row, said in a statement.

“NASCAR agreed to the joint negotiations that they now attack. When those joint negotiations failed, they used individual negotiations to impose their charter terms, which most of the teams decided they had no choice but to accept.”

The counterclaim suggested that Polk was the ringleader in the fight against the current charter proposals. NASCAR attorney Christopher Yates told the Associated Press that Polk lacks a complete understanding of NASCAR’s business model.

“Curtis Polk basically orchestrated and threatened a boycott of one of the qualifying races for a major event, and others did not go along with him,” Yates said. “He got other teams to boycott a meeting that was required by the charter. When you have a threatened boycott of qualifying races that are covered by media, that’s not a good thing for other race teams, not a good thing when you are trying to collectively grow the sport.”

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The qualifying race in question was last year’s pair of 150-mile duels that set the field for the Daytona 500.

“I don’t think Mr. Polk really understands the sport,” Yates added. “I think he came into it, and his view is it should be much more like the NBA or other league sports. But it’s not. No motorsport is like that. He’s done a lot of things that might work in the NBA or might be OK in the NBA but just are not appropriate in NASCAR.”

Meanwhile, Jordan has previously stated that he is suing NASCAR on behalf of all the teams so everyone can be on equal footing in terms of benefits as a participant in the top motorsports league in the U.S.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.