NASCAR has tread a fine line between being profitable and keeping its crown as the world’s top stock-car racing series for 76 years. A legacy that rich is bound to have its fair share of triumphs—and controversies (emphasis on the latter). Regardless, how folks handle themselves when things get messy speaks volumes about their character. For example, when Curtis Turner tried to unionize the drivers in 1961 to demand ‘better purses, a share in broadcasting rights, and retirement benefits’, NASCAR banned him for life.

Sure, they let him back four years later, but he was severely out of favor. And his big break? It never came. In 2024, the sport and the France family now face an ‘Anti-Trust Lawsuit’ from Michael Jordan’s race team for somewhat similar demands. And the question looms: What happens if this renewed push for equality gets bulldozed in a legal showdown? Kenny Wallace might just have an eye-opening take on the matter.

The “worst-case scenario” for Michael Jordan & 23XI Racing

For those wondering what all the uproar is about, the most recent proposal sent to teams on September 6th for a renewal of the charter deal set to expire at the end of this season wasn’t well-received by 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports. Out of the 15 teams that received the contract, only 13 signed the dotted line. The rest, as no surprise, were 23XI and Front Row Motorsports. Whispers floated of a legal battle throughout September after their refusal. But it all went down this past Wednesday when the owners of those two organizations sued NASCAR for anti-trust violations in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina.

Representing them will be renowned lawyer Jeffrey Kessler, a specialist in sports labor and antitrust disputes. Named one of ‘The 50 Most Influential People in Sports Business’ by Sports Business Journal, Kessler had a name for himself fighting and winning landmark anti-trust cases. One notable example would be the McNeil vs NFL case that helped establish ‘free agency’ in the National Football League.

Since its inception in 2016, the charter system has been a major point of contention for many stakeholders. 23XI Racing was just the most vocal about it. To begin with, in the current charter deal, teams get only 25% of TV revenue, race tracks get 65%, and NASCAR gets 10%. According to a recent statement by Curtis Polk, co-owner of 23XI Racing with MJ & Denny Hamlin, under the proposed charter agreement, “the teams are only sharing in the neighborhood of 13% of the overall pot that the sport is generating”. That comes in the foreground of a new 7.7 billion dollar media rights deal which will rake in 40% more money than the previous one for the sport starting from 2025.

Hence, the lawsuit; but 3x Busch Series Most Popular Driver, Kenny Wallace has never seen this part go well. Wallace explained what he meant to say in a video address through his social media: “Because, in the past, it’s harder to get through tech inspection. All of a sudden you got a little bit of smoke coming out of the car.” Although Wallace termed 23XI and Front Row Motorsports “big boy stuff,” he believes he’s “seen this movie before”, and “It don’t play out real good.” In his own words, “Can you imagine Tyler Reddick, who drives for 23XI, can you imagine Bubba Wallace? They’re out there leading the race… I just see some things going wrong right there…”

“So, you know, pit road speed, it’s supposed to be pit road speed,” cautions Wallace. However, “I just think this is gonna be a deal where 23XI, and Front Row have to walk on eggshells because if this don’t go good, the worst-case scenario is, those two can’t race anymore. And they have to sell their shops and get out of racing.” Indeed, that would not be a pleasant day in the name of a ‘worst-case scenario.’ History has been witness to the France family’s stringent hold over the world’s premier form of stock car racing.

The 43-page filing on behalf of the plaintiff very vehemently reads, “The France family has realized monopoly profits through its ownership and control over the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), which has exploited its economic power as the sole premier stock car racing organization in the United States.” How much of that is true will only reveal itself in the ensuing weeks as the parties come to a settlement under the jurisdiction of federal law. However, to back up his statement, Kenny Wallace referenced an old interaction with someone whose disillusionment with NASCAR slowly led to his NASCAR team’s closure earlier this year — Tony Stewart.

The Tony Stewart connection: a dark warning

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After well over a decade of electrifying the top two tiers of the NASCAR National Series, Stewart-Haas Racing shut down its doors in May of this year. Tony Stewart’s association with Gene Haas birthed two championships with over 100 wins. Yet, at the time of closure, a joint statement by the team informed fans of their heartbreaking reasons for departure: “Racing is a labor-intensive, humbling sport… The commitment needed to extract maximum performance while providing sustainability is incredibly demanding, and we’ve reached a point in our respective personal and business lives where it’s time to pass the torch.”

With the exit of eight important sponsors at the end of 2023, it wasn’t surprising that SHR was on course suffering severe losses if things did not get better. Well, things did not. And instead of losing any more money, Gene Haas and Tony Stewart pulled the plug, making them the twelfth team from that original charter agreement in 2016 to exit NASCAR. Could 23XI Racing and Front Row be following SHR’s weary path soon? After all, even Tony Stewart was vocal about his grievances against the sport in the past. Today, he is no longer a part of it in any shape or form. The heavy feelings must have overpowered Smoke’s love of stock car racing.

In an earlier conversation with Kenny Wallace dated 26/4/2023, Stewart had emphasized some of that, and the context could not be more eerie if you connect them with the potential fallout from the present circumstances plaguing the sport. “When I started there were two guys in the tower that had a stopwatch in each hand… to sit there and time 43 cars for pit road speeding… If you or I pissed off NASCAR the week before or we get under their skin or ruffled their feathers, guess what happened? The very next week–a pit road speeding penalty…”

“And that’s how NASCAR kept the etiquette and kept the drivers in line and kept control, and we all understood that,” remembered Tony Stewart. The 3x champ had noted, “Now you got all this gambling, and betting on the score. Well, they can’t sit there and give you a speeding penalty if it’s not warranted… You’re controlling the sport from that standpoint and screwing up the betting. So they don’t do that anymore.” So, how does NASCAR keep these guys under control in the present day?

“They take their cars back to the shop, and they fined it… They tear it down until they find something they don’t like. And every car is going to have something that they can find”, revealed Stewart. There is no way to verify that unless you’re a blind believer in Tony Stewart. But those words leave a lot to the collective imagination. For instance, could the timing of this lawsuit be detrimental to 23XI Racing, a team with a potential contender for the final four? Tyler Reddick will surely hope not. And neither will his non-Playoff teammate Bubba Wallace, but it seems the biggest target is about to be on the back of none other than his employer, Denny Hamlin.