{"id":55772,"date":"2025-12-11T19:57:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T01:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=55772"},"modified":"2025-12-11T20:04:48","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T02:04:48","slug":"nascar-settles-lawsuit-with-race-teams-grants-form-of-evergreen-charters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/11\/nascar-settles-lawsuit-with-race-teams-grants-form-of-evergreen-charters\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR settles lawsuit with race teams, grants form of \u201cevergreen\u201d charters"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

CHARLOTTE, N.C.\u2014Moments after Judge Kenneth D. Bell announced a settlement agreement and dismissed the jury Thursday in the case of \u201c23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports v. NASCAR,\u201d the healing already had begun.<\/p>\n

NASCAR president Steve O\u2019Donnell was smiling as he slapped Michael Jordan on the back. The co-owner of 23XI, one of the plaintiffs in the case, smiled back and the two men\u2014adversaries in the antitrust litigation just a day earlier\u2014talked pleasantly for a moment.<\/p>\n

In a joint statement issued after the settlement was reached, NASCAR and the two race teams indicated that a form of evergreen charters, a major issue during the trial, would become a reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a condition of the settlement agreement, NASCAR will issue an amendment to existing charter holders detailing the updated terms for signature, which will include a form of \u2018evergreen\u2019 charters, subject to mutual agreement,\u201d according to the statement. \u201cThe financial terms of the settlement are confidential and will not be released.\u201d<\/p>\n

After negotiations that lasted two-and-a-half years, 13 NASCAR Cup Series teams signed the 2025 charter agreement. Front Row and 23XI did not and ultimately filed the antitrust litigation that went to trial on Dec. 1.<\/p>\n

Under Wednesday\u2019s settlement, 23XI and Front Row will retain their charters.<\/p>\n

Roughly 40 minutes after Bell thanked the jury for its service and told the nine jurors that the trial was over, the opposing parties stood together on the Western District of North Carolina courthouse steps to talk about the settlement.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike two competitors, obviously we try to get as much done in each other\u2019s favor,\u201d Jordan said, \u201cbut I think, collectively, and I don\u2019t think (NASCAR chairman and CEO) Jim (France) was any opposite of me, the fans have always been the best solution to this whole problem and to the sport itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only way\u2014and I\u2019ve said this from day one\u2014the only way this sport\u2019s going to grow is that we have to find some synergy between the two entities. I think we\u2019ve gotten to that point. Unfortunately, it took 16 months to get here, but I think level heads have got us to this point to where we can actually work together and grow the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very proud about that, and I think Jim feels the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI do feel the same,\u201d France responded. \u201cWe can get back to focusing on what we really love, and that\u2019s racing. We\u2019ve spent a lot of time not really focused on that so much as we need to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like we\u2019ve made a very good decision here together, and we have a big opportunity to keep growing the sport. We\u2019ve got (23XI co-owner) Denny Hamlin getting ready to go for a championship, and we need to focus on what we all love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what the impetus was that brought the parties to agreement on the ninth day of the trial, Jordan replied, \u201cLevel heads. In all honesty, when you get to the finish line sometimes, you have to think not just for yourself, but you\u2019ve got to think about the sport as a whole.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think both parties got to that point, and we realized that we could have an opportunity to settle this, and we dove in and we actually did it. Unfortunately, it took us that long, but we got here, and that\u2019s all that matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though he didn\u2019t discuss specifics of the agreement, Hamlin clearly was pleased with the result.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like everything within this settlement is going to grow the sport,\u201d Hamlin said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s going to be better for everyone\u2014no doubt about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Early Thursday morning, it was clear that the ninth session of the trial would not be like the preceding eight. The video screens that display court documents on either side of the courtroom were nowhere to be seen.<\/p>\n

Plaintiffs lead attorney Jeffrey Kessler huddled with Hamlin, Jordan, Front Row owner Bob Jenkins and 23XI co-owner Curtis Polk on the left side of the courtroom. Soon thereafter, NASCAR outside counsel John Stephenson conferred with France and NASCAR executive vice chair Lesa France Kennedy.<\/p>\n

Later, Bell entered the courtroom, called for the jurors and immediately dismissed them after telling them, \u201cWe need an hour so we can save you several hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

The resolution took longer than that, as lawyers for the parties prepared the settlement agreement.<\/p>\n

Finally, NASCAR outside counsel Lawrence E. Buterman produced the document, and Bell began to read.<\/p>\n

\u201cHave the parties agreed to settle all issues before the jury?\u201d Bell asked. The respective lawyers affirmed the agreement.<\/p>\n

Bell then summoned the jurors for the final time, thanked them for their service and told them the case was over.<\/p>\n

Bell concluded with the statement that “I wish we could’ve done this two months ago (during a settlement conference). I believe this is great for NASCAR, great for the future of NASCAR, great for the entity of NASCAR, great for the teams and ultimately great for the fans.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service CHARLOTTE, N.C.\u2014Moments after Judge Kenneth D. Bell announced a settlement agreement and dismissed the jury Thursday in the case of \u201c23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports v. NASCAR,\u201d the healing already had begun. NASCAR president Steve O\u2019Donnell was smiling as he slapped Michael Jordan on the back. The co-owner […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":55775,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-55772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2025-oct30-nascar-cup-series-1-main-image-625x340-1.jpg?fit=625%2C340&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-evy","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55772"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55774,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55772\/revisions\/55774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}