“I did not have the b—ls to do what 23XI and FRM are doing because I was afraid I’d lose my charters.” – That’s what an anonymous team owner told Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic after news broke that both those teams had filed an anti-trust lawsuit against NASCAR last Wednesday.

Now, the whole sport’s split down the middle. Some quietly support the plaintiffs’ grievances, while others predict a swift downfall for their collective. But for now, only 23XI and FRM are willing to go head-to-head with NASCAR’s 76-year-old “monopoly” on the legal battleground. So, opinions from the sidelines feel more like noise in the shadow of what could be a landmark moment in stock car racing. For that reason, when someone like Richard Childress says, “I didn’t have a choice… we had to sign,” some roll their eyes. Because, ultimately, if Denny Hamlin and his team prevail in their battle for an equal footing, the entire garage stands to gain from the struggles.

Richard Childress’ ‘forced’ admission stirs the pot for Denny Hamlin

To summarize why 23XI Racing and FRM have filed a 46-page lawsuit in one sentence: They believe NASCAR has operated “like a closed-door shop, wheeling and dealing its monopoly in smoke-filled back rooms,” for far too long. However, as per the legal jargon, “This is a case about the unlawful monopolization of premier stock car racing by the France family in order to enrich themselves at the expense of the premier stock car racing teams that the fans come out to see and that sponsors and broadcasters value…”

23XI Racing provides more specific details on its official website regarding the list of “anti-competitive practices” they believe NASCAR is currently employing to maintain the “unlawful monopolization.” In that list, 23XI have accused the governing body of:

• Buying a majority of the premier racetracks that are exclusive to NASCAR races;
• Imposing exclusivity deals on NASCAR-sanctioned racetracks;
• Acquiring Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA), the only notable stock car racing series competitor;
• Preventing teams from participating in any other stock car races, while also retaining ownership over Next Gen parts and cars; and
• Forcing teams to buy their parts from single-source suppliers chosen by NASCAR.

On closer look, these grievances look like those often passed on as rumors that echo around the confines of the NASCAR community. But the lawsuit makes all of it officially legal, fanning the flames of an already-existent disharmony that has been prevalent in the sport since the early days of the pioneers. Essentially, Denny Hamlin, Michael Jordan, Bob Jenkins (FRM owner), and their renowned legal counsel, Jeffrey Kessler, are fighting for drivers ‘rights’–the kind that got NASCAR Hall-of-Famer, Curtin Turner heavily persecuted in the early ’60s. Back then, after a failed attempt to “unionize” the drivers, the sport banned Mr Turner rather harshly, before reinstating him four years later. Hopefully, that was a different time.

However, Richard Childress recently let slip how stringent NASCAR policies are in the 21st century while talking to Bob Pockrass in a recent video interview. For those unaware, frustrations for the anti-trust lawsuit to come through have stemmed from the new “monopolistic” charter agreement that NASCAR sent to race teams on September 6th. Although 23XI & FRM held out, the remaining 13 chartered teams signed the dotted line, RCR being one of them. Some team owners felt “coerced” to put pen on paper, but in the words of Richard Childress, “We got our Docusign that evening, 6:37… And we had to sign by 12:00, or we’d lose our charters. I didn’t have a choice because we had to sign. I got over 400 Employees, OEM in contract, contracts with sponsors, and I gotta take care of my team.”

Well, according to numbers floating online, Denny Hamlin & Michael Jordan have over 100 23XI employees in their newly built Airspeed facility in Mooresville. Hence, Childress’ blunt assertions drive Hamlin “up the wall”, as he explained on the October 7th episode of Actions Detrimental. “You obviously saw Richard Childress, you know. He stated his opinions on it, which just drives me up the wall,” fumed Denny Hamlin. He doesn’t understand “Why these talking heads say: ‘Well, all these other people signed it….” because “they’re telling you why‌. Why are you ignoring them, saying, ‘I didn’t want to. But I had no choice’?” 

“I know, it’s easy to look in the short-term and say: ‘Oh we’re fine! Everything’s fine!’ it’s not fine and the 2025 agreement binds the teams in such a way that there is no upside whatsoever.” Instead, Hamlin emphasized that “all the upside goes to one side (NASCAR). And all of our (team owner’s) rights are taken away.”

Outlining his thoughts better, Denny elaborated, “Jeffrey Kessler definitely stated it very perfectly that there’s always more victims than the plaintiffs. It happened in NIL. It happened in different sports that it only takes one to stand up for what they believe in. And this is something I stand up for and I believe in. I want this for my kids. They deserve to carry on the legacy of what I’ve invested back in the sport. So be careful what you wish for.” The team owner/driver concluded, “It should be fair for everyone, and when I say everyone, I mean everyone. That’s teams, drivers, sponsors, and fans.” Indeed, that is one commendable rallying thought. However, Denny Hamlin has an even more intricate picture to paint for everyone concerned.

Is the current state breeding a ‘broken system’?

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Since the turn of the previous decade, NASCAR has seen a mass exodus of some of its major sponsors. In 2008, out of all Fortune 500 companies, 150 were involved in a financial association with NASCAR. There’s almost half that number remaining in 2024. A few weeks ago, NASCAR lost an integral partner in insurance giants, GEICO. Days after, FedEx announced they would ‘reduce their presence’ with Denny Hamlin and the #11 team at Joe Gibbs Racing, with rumors of a permanent exit in the future. This rapid loss that the sport has faced with sponsorships has been very detrimental to its proceedings. After all, 60-80% of most team’s income depends on financial backing from their sponsors. But the fact remains that the teams are losing money.

Sure, the new $7.7B media rights deal over seven years, might provide some respite to the 13 teams that have signed the new charter agreement. As per Forbes, teams could earn around $275 million per year under the new model, which technically means the numbers will be up by over 40% compared to the previous charter agreement signed in 2016. But Denny Hamlin shed light on the flip side of the coin when he said, “We heard NASCAR say, ‘Well, we don’t want big investment companies coming into our sport. We want old drivers being car owners.’ They tried it and it failed for one reason or another. So when’s it stop? When does it stop? We came and when we brought out facts that in 2016, there were 19 charter members. 11 of those are gone. They’re gone…”

“So anyway, we did have in the past, a way or an avenue, to at least use our rights. Our rights that we created,” distinguished Denny Hamlin. “Brands that we created. IP that we created. To then go get other revenue to supplement this thing called a racing team. Those got taken away.” And for that, Hamlin deems it a “broken system.” Regretfully, he adjusted his thoughts and said, “I wish people understand how broken this system is. I think as time goes on and things get discovered, you will see more specifics on why we believe that this is an unfair system and an unfair agreement…”

The collective NASCAR community will wait duly for those said specifics. However, for the sport to grow, both parties must find a way to settle their differences quickly.