NASCAR has accused Michael Jordan’s race team of being part of an “illegal cartel” in a fiery lawsuit.
Jordan’s 23XI Racing, Jordan’s longtime business manager, Curtis Polk, and another team, Front Row Motorsports, allegedly schemed to “pressure” NASCAR during negotiations of charter agreements, “including by engaging in media campaigns, interfering with NASCAR’s broadcast agreement negotiations, threatening boycotts of NASCAR events and engaging in a group boycott of a NASCAR Team Owner Council Meeting,” according to legal documents reported by The Athletic.
NASCAR’s Wednesday countersuit follows a federal suit filed by 23XI and Front Row in October, which accused NASCAR of “anticompetitive and exclusionary practices.”
Jeffrey Kessler, an attorney representing 23XI and Front Row, slammed the countersuit in a statement, calling it “a meritless distraction and a desperate attempt to shift attention away from its own unlawful, monopolistic actions.”
“My clients’ lawsuit has always been about transforming NASCAR into a more competitive and fair sport for the benefit of drivers, fans, sponsors and teams because of their love of the sport,” Kessler added. “Every major sport goes through a transition to competition when antitrust claims are asserted, and that moment has come for NASCAR. Today’s baseless filing changes nothing. We are confident in the strength of our case and look forward to presenting it at trial.”
The contentiousness began after more than two years of negotiations on new charter agreements — NASCAR’s equivalent of a franchise model — and the 30-page filing contends that Jordan business manager Polk “willfully” violated antitrust laws by orchestrating anticompetitive collective conduct in connection with the most recent charter agreements.
23XI and Front Row were the only two organizations out of 15 that refused to sign the new agreements, which were presented to the teams last September in a take-it-or-leave-it offer a mere 48 hours before the start of NASCAR’s playoffs.
The charters were fought for by the teams ahead of the 2016 season and twice have been extended. The latest extension is for seven years to match the current media rights deal and guarantee 36 of the 40 spots in each week’s field to the teams that hold the charters, as well as other financial incentives. 23XI and Front Row refused to sign and sued, alleging NASCAR and the France family that owns the stock car series are a monopoly.
NASCAR already has lost one round in court in which 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.
In the counterclaim, Polk is repeatedly singled out as the ringleader against the current charter proposals. NASCAR attorney Christopher Yates went so far as to tell The Associated Press that Polk, who in addition to being Jordan’s business manager is a co-owner of 23XI along with three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, does not understand the NASCAR 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.”
The qualifying race in question was the 2024 pair of 150-mile duels that set the field for the Daytona 500.
“I don’t think Mr. Polk really understands the sport,” Yates told the AP. “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.”
