NASCAR has a history of being embroiled in legal drama. In fact, they have dealt with an antitrust lawsuit well before 23XI Racing and FRM’s rebellion over the charter system. The Ferko lawsuit was filed by the minor shareholder of Speedway Motorsports against NASCAR for not providing a second date on their racing schedule. Well, the sanctioning body could settle the dispute outside the court, and this was the case with pretty much every legal dispute.

However, NASCAR wasn’t able to clean its dirty laundry after being embroiled in a legal conflict with former driver Jeremy Mayfield. The former Penske driver had a successful racing career spanning 17 years, but his dream run came to a halt on May 9, 2009, when NASCAR suspended him for violating their substance abuse policy. At least that’s what everyone from the time believed was the primary reason for his racing career getting derailed, but in reality, it was because of NASCAR’s monopolistic policies.

Jeremy Mayfield shares his take on 23XI Racing’s legal dispute against NASCAR

Like 23XI Racing and FRM, Mayfield also cleared his name by taking NASCAR to court after wrongfully suspending him. At Richmond Raceway, the driver tested positive for methamphetamine, but this accusation didn’t hold up in the court as they provided Mayfield with an injunction. But despite the constant back and forth, Mayfield had to bend the knee and distance himself away from NASCAR.

While the situation is similar with NASCAR facing the antitrust lawsuit, he thinks that he didn’t have the might or muscle to go against an entity like NASCAR. “I’m sure for Michael and Denny it’s going to be a lot easier just because they got the money to pay their attorneys and not have to worry about it too much and let them handle it. But we were kind of staying on top of everything and drug testing and all things going on; it was just a lot of stuff for us.” He said this to Chase Holden via his YouTube channel.

Interestingly, his defamation case from 2009 and the 23XI Racing antitrust lawsuit have something in common. And that is that they challenged NASCAR’s monopolistic policy and structure. Mayfield’s injunction was revoked by the appeals court, which stated that Mayfield waived his right to sue NASCAR for defamation when he signed up to compete in their races.

“I didn’t lose it on the drug test or any of my tests I’ve done. We started fighting with them; we thought it would all come out of everything that went down. But what the judge threw out the case was on that basically saying that we can’t sue NASCAR for any reason. I signed the paper when I signed my license, my NASCAR license. It says that on there,” he added.

But unlike Mayfield, the two teams are making good progress in their legal battle. Their first priority was to secure a preliminary injunction, which they managed to secure after a small hiccup. US District Judge Kenneth Bell granted the two teams’ request to run as chartered organizations in 2025.

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Having retained their chartered team status, next on the agenda for the teams was to secure the third charter from Stewart Haas Racing. Well, after the injunction was granted, the judge also ordered NASCAR to transfer the SHR charter to Front Row Motorsports without any delays. Despite trying to play hardball with an emergency motion, the sanctioning body had to obey the court’s rule.

Front Row Motorsports yesterday made an official announcement that they had expanded to a three-car team for the 2025 season. “FRM has finalized the purchase of our third charter from Stewart-Haas Racing. Announcement on driver, car number, and additional partners will be coming soon.” FRM shared this update on social media.

However, 23XI Racing hasn’t made an official announcement regarding the same. The judge stated that 23XI Racing didn’t request the transfer of SHR charters in their injunction request. But they were open to doing so, and given that the precedent was already set, their request is likely to have a similar outcome. This is why before Michael Jordan and Co. could file the injunction request, NASCAR agreed to transfer the charter to them.

This isn’t a done deal just yet, as NASCAR is going to appeal the decision in the hope of reversing the transfer of SHR charters to the two teams.