Ahead of the championship race in Phoenix, 23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin shared the harsh reality of his race team in case the injunction appeal didn’t land in their favor. Hamlin was asked about his team’s preparations for the Daytona 500 and the Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, to which he replied, “I think it’s all TBD.” This sent shockwaves across the NASCAR world, as it was seen as a hint of 23XI Racing losing its ground against NASCAR in the court.

This came after a federal judge dismissed the request for a preliminary injunction as the teams couldn’t prove irreparable harm. It was all hypothetical of what could be the case if both 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports didn’t have charters for the 2025 season. Despite being up against the odds and potentially losing out on their charters’ ownership, 23XI Racing announced the signing of Riley Herbst as their third driver for 2025. Well, this development certainly was a head-scratcher for a lot of fans. But former Xfinity Series driver Landon Cassill could read between the lines and felt that Denny Hamlin tried to manufacture chaos and uncertainty.

Landon Cassill believes Denny Hamlin and 23XI Racing were working on Herbst’s signing despite the legal battle with NASCAR

It was an open secret that 23XI Racing wanted to expand to a three-car lineup for the 2025 season. There’s a reason why they built a new racing facility, “AirSpeed,” to get in the extra hands to work with their third car. Little did they know that the charter negotiations would turn into a legal battle, thus somewhat derailing their ambitious expansion plans. Unlike the 13 other teams in the Cup Series garage, 23XI Racing declined to sign the new charter deal. Rather, they took NASCAR to court and sued them on anti-trust grounds. They doubled down by filing a preliminary injunction motion that would retain their status as chartered teams for 2025. But the tides aren’t exactly in favor of 23XI and FRM, as their initial request for an injunction was declined by a federal judge.

While they are preparing to appeal this decision and continue their fight, the signing of Herbst certainly came at an odd time. Is 23XI Racing milking the current situation to gain brownie points in the court? Landon Cassill believes this to be true, as he shared his opinion on Hamlin’s flip-flopping that could prove detrimental for his team in the court.

“I think it just shows that there’s some disingenuous communication from Denny to the public in the last month. Over his intentions to race next year and all this stuff because a week ago he was saying they have no idea if they can have cars ready for Daytona. And then they sign Riley Herbst. It’s like, okay, that happened overnight. I think it’s interesting.” Cassill said this while speaking on the Money Lap podcast with Parker Kligerman.

Giving Denny Hamlin a benefit of the doubt, he also added, “I think that’s all posturing, and maybe he had to do it right? Maybe it’s their only chance with this injunction was to prove to the court that they had irreparable damage to the team and organization if there was no charter… But the entire time behind the scenes, they were working on a deal with adding a third car and had a driver probably already signed if not ready to sign.”

With that said, 23XI still needs a third charter for Herbst. Their plans to buy one from SHR came to an abrupt halt with the lawsuit. At the moment, they are waiting for the green light from NASCAR to secure the third car.  On the other hand, NASCAR is trying to play hardball against the two teams in getting their preliminary injunction plea.

NASCAR is intentionally trying to delay the injunction hearing

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Last time around, when the team filed for an injunction, they were unable to prove irreparable harm given the current circumstances. But now the team has officially re-filed their injunction plea with new evidence that explains the change of circumstances. The key highlight here is their purchase of the Stewart Haas Racing charter and how they have roughly three weeks to get a confirmation on the purchase.

Moreover, the teams state that they also need to fulfill their commitment to their drivers and sponsors, who are linked with them on the basis of charter agreements. Tyler Reddick has a clause in his contract that he could 23XI Racing if the #45 team is not a chartered entry. NASCAR will have a chance to respond to this argument, but currently, with no specific deadline, teams have responded to a request from NASCAR by December 6.

NASCAR responded that the deadline be set to December 9. The team wants to expedite the proceedings and wants the court hearing set for December 12 or 13th. While NASCAR is in no hurry and has left it up to court to decide the date. In short, NASCAR is trying to drag this case as long as they can. Their goal is to see through the end of the 2024 year without a ruling in favor of teams, whereas teams wish to get a judgment before the end of the year.

It will be interesting to see how NASCAR responds to the team’s claim in their re-filed motion for the preliminary junction.