A lot of what 23XI Racing and Entrance Row Motorsports provided in a Friday evening authorized submitting in response to a NASCAR movement for abstract judgement was a rehash of earlier defenses to a countersuit from the Sanctioning Physique.
NASCAR countersued 23XI and FRM, who sued the league on antitrust grounds in October 2024, by arguing that it was the 2 groups that have been in reality appearing in violation of federal antitrust legal guidelines.
Along with the lawsuit and countersuit, each side have filed motions for abstract judgment in opposition to one another that have to be resolved earlier than the trial scheduled for December 1 can happen. A abstract judgment will be issued when there aren’t any points past authorized reality — permitting a decide to render a verdict with out a jury.
The proof NASCAR has put collectively contains an alleged conspiracy from 23XI investor Curtis Polk to steer a Cup Sequence groups boycott of the 2024 Duel at Daytona qualifying races and joint negotiating ways spearheaded by Polk as frontman for the Groups Negotiating Committee — all within the identify of securing higher phrases for the constitution settlement that oversees income sharing throughout the sport.
NASCAR additionally argues that the groups have a market energy benefit over the Sanctioning Physique, which mirrors 23XI and Entrance Row’s personal abstract judgement claims that NASCAR has market energy over the groups.
There’s a listening to set for October 23 for the court docket to contemplate these arguments if a court docket mandated settlement mediation assembly scheduled for October 21 doesn’t produce such an consequence.
The quick model, which has been filed elsewhere, is that 23XI and Entrance Row Motorsports defend the usage of collectively negotiating with all the opposite groups with NASCAR as a result of there are quite a few authorized precedents in doing so.
Along with negotiating collectively, NASCAR additionally efficiently negotiated with groups on a person foundation and weren’t prevented from doing so.
What did they are saying in new submitting?
Bubba Wallace, 23XI Racing Toyota
Photograph by: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Photos
From the submitting, daring emphasis from Motorsport.com:
“NASCAR’s newly submitted declarations from the groups additional affirm that groups negotiated individually with NASCAR on substantive points. (‘Through the negotiation course of, NASCAR listened to enter from Hyak Motorsports, despite the fact that we’re one of many smaller Cup Sequence groups.’); (‘I additionally participated within the negotiation course of main as much as the 2025 Constitution Settlement. LEGACY MOTOR CLUB obtained and reviewed a number of drafts in late 2023, Might 2024, August 2024, and September 2024. Our staff offered feedback and enter[.]’). Tellingly, NASCAR’s opposition doesn’t establish a single occasion of a staff refusing NASCAR’s request to barter individually, and there may be none.”
23XI and Entrance Row declare NASCAR has no proof of a boycott conspiracy led by Polk. And Entrance Row particularly claims there was no cause for NASCAR to particularly cite their group on this explicit counterclaim or abstract judgment movement as a result of they don’t have anything to do with these claims past taking part in joint negotiations.
From the submitting:
“There is no such thing as a proof that Entrance Row did something aside from take part within the joint negotiations of its commerce affiliation, the Race Staff Alliance, and make statements of encouragement throughout the negotiations. Each Entrance Row and 23XI engaged in particular person negotiations with NASCAR when requested to take action.
“As for Mr. Polk, NASCAR’s settlement to joint negotiations with RTA members, and its creation of the constitution system, predated 23XI’s entry into NASCAR by seven and 4 years, respectively. His statements to different RTA members to help the joint negotiations by no means led to any boycott or uniform staff negotiating positions, as illustrated by the truth that 13 different groups accepted NASCAR’s last proposal—which achieved not one of the 4 core aims advocated by Mr. Polk or the TNC.”
What’s new inside this doc is a response to NASCAR together with written declarations inside its abstract judgement movement from 10 Cup Sequence staff homeowners who expressed help for the constitution system and urging each side to settle.
Regardless that the staff homeowners wrote these letters on the request of NASCAR, they every mentioned they have been doing so with out taking a aspect within the matter.
23XI and Entrance Row have used the wording in these letters to color an image of how NASCAR used its alleged market authority to pressure the 13 of 15 groups that signed the settlement to simply accept below-value phrases.
From the submitting, daring emphasis from Motorsport.com:
“The staff declarations NASCAR submitted with its abstract judgment papers underscore the existential menace the groups confronted when NASCAR made its take-it-or-leave-it constitution demand.”
…
“NASCAR’s high executives acknowledged that the groups needed to take any last supply introduced to them as they may not afford to lose their charters. The brand new declarations submitted by NASCAR in help of its abstract judgment movement affirm this reality. See, (‘Hyak Motorsports accepted NASCAR’s last Constitution supply on September 6, 2024 as a result of I believed that signing the brand new Constitution settlement . . . made extra sense than probably dropping the Constitution that we owned[.]’); (‘We signed the 2025 Constitution as a result of … we didn’t need to threat dropping what my household has labored so exhausting to create through the years.’-Entrance Row Motorsports) (‘Had we not [agreed to the 2025 Charter Agreement], Joe Gibbs Racing would have put in danger its 4 Charters, which in flip, would have put in danger the group as a complete, and the staff and households that depend on us.’). NASCAR executives knew the supply being pressured upon the groups was a ‘fuck the groups’ proposal with ‘zero wins for the groups’ and a return to the previous.”
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