Is NASCAR a monopolistic sporting series? This is the question that has been the talk of the town after 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports filed an anti-trust lawsuit against NASCAR. Although the France family has yet to put out any official response to this step, the lawyer representing the two teams feels NASCAR will have to change its course.

The charter negotiation in all rights was supposed to be done and dusted. But prolonged negotiations and a firm stance by NASCAR have now forced the issue, ultimately resulting in a legal battle. While the anti-trust law filed by 23XI Racing and FRM can lead to different interpretations, Jeffrey Kessler, the lawyer representing the teams, argued their case.

NASCAR has total control over stock car racing

“This is an anti-trust case. An anti-trust case is a case that argues that the rules of competition are being violated. We have anti-trust laws that regulate competition. What we are arguing here is that NASCAR is a monopoly.” Kessler argued that NASCAR has control over the racetracks, does not allow the teams to participate in other racing series, and has also sealed the intellectual rights of the Next Gen car.

However, when it comes to sharing this similar model with the teams and their intellectual property, they have been hesitant. Without the structure, they are forced to give in to the demands of NASCAR. “There were 15 teams in 2016, nine of them are already out of business and had to be replaced because they can’t afford to put in ten and millions of dollars a year into teams and pay the drivers, and all the money goes to the France family,” the lawyer added.

Not only that, Jeffrey Kessler went on to share the details of how the governing body bullied the teams into signing the charter agreement before the start of the playoffs. And this only goes to show how NASCAR isn’t looking to share the fruits of the economic prosperity they enjoyed for so long. After all, the teams and the drivers are the lead characters who put on the show on a weekly basis, not Jim France.

“They’re gonna file this lawsuit so that NASCAR can come into the 21st century and give these teams and drivers a fair economic chance to match the fact that NASCAR fans do not go to see these races to watch Jim France they got to watch these races for these teams and these drivers,” Kessler revealed this on Dirty Mo Media.

But NASCAR isn’t the one forcing the teams to stay. They are volunteering to invest and compete in the Cup Series on the terms set by NASCAR. But it’s the terms and the structure that are put in place that have forced the teams into accepting an unfair deal.

NASCAR’s unjust power and control over the sport have gone unchecked

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Now we’ve all heard this rhetoric that NASCAR isn’t the sporting giant it once used to be. And that it’s well past its heyday. And yet, they were able to strike a TV rights deal worth $7.7 billion only for Cup Series racing. Not only that, NASCAR is also expanding well across its traditional boundaries, going to Mexico for an international points-paying race. So is NASCAR racing truly in decline, and if yes, why would they expand so aggressively?

Not every team is as brave as 23XI Racing or FRM. They have built a legacy over decades of racing in the sport. They have employees working for them, and no one would want their multimillion-dollar investment to just vanish overnight. And according to Jeffrey Kessler, this is how NASCAR is casting its monopolistic control over the teams.

“Either you accept this really bad deal which gives all the economics to us and you just deal with it or to find your own racetracks, right? Where are you going to go compete? How are you going to exist? That monopoly power, that’s what the anti-trust laws are designed to prohibit and prevent, that kind of abuse.” He concluded.

Although things look to be in favor of the two teams, a rebuttal by NASCAR could flip the dynamics of this situation.