NASCAR signals intent to transfer disputed charter

NASCAR has an agreement with someone to acquire one of the ownership charters currently wrapped-up in active litigation as part of the 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports mutual antitrust lawsuits.  

The Sanctioning Body filed a legal notice on Monday notifying the court and the two teams that ‘it plans to issue a charter’ to a redacted entity should a district court judge not issue a ruling to prevent the agreement.

A previous court order mandates that NASCAR must notify all involved parties should it reach an agreement to transfer one of the disputed charters previously held by 23XI and Front Row to another entity.

Legally speaking, 23XI and Front Row gave up the charters they’ve held the past several years when they failed to reach an agreement with NASCAR on the charter agreement extension. They won an injunction decision in December that forced NASCAR to recognize 23XI and Front Row as having de facto charter status this season but an appeals court in April overruled that outcome.

Thus, NASCAR began entertaining conversations with teams from other motorsport disciplines and private equity groups to obtain those charters. The district court judge then ruled that NASCAR couldn’t move those charters until a decision had been rendered on that matter, with a hearing scheduled for Thursday in Charlotte, North Carolina.

NASCAR was also mandated to notify the court, 23XI and Front Row of any impending agreement, which it did on Monday with its latest filing.

From NASCAR’s filing:

“NASCAR previously agreed that NASCAR would not ‘sell any Charters before the Court can rule on Plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary injunction.’ The Court ordered that NASCAR ‘immediately inform the Court prior to undertaking any transaction with respect to Charters.’

The Court later ordered that NASCAR ‘promptly inform Plaintiffs and the Court’ of updates regarding NASCAR’s representation that NASCAR ‘will not effectuate any sale or transfer or otherwise convey in any manner the six 2025 Charters offered to the Plaintiffs or purchased until the Court rules on the Motion for Preliminary Injunction.’”

It’s also worth noting that this is regarding one of the four charters that 23XI and Front Row gave up, two apiece, in not agreeing to terms with NASCAR on the 2025-2031 charter extension period and not the ones that each team purchased from Stewart-Haas Racing.

The December injunction forced NASCAR to recognize and approve the purchase of those two charters, one apiece, but the Appeals Court also rendered overruled the district court on that decision. Those two charters are effectively held in limbo until this legal matter is resolved entirely.

From the Monday NASCAR legal filing:

“In the interest of full transparency, NASCAR makes this filing in order to provide notice of its intent to convey a Charter for the 2026 Cup Series season. For avoidance of doubt, this Notice of Intent does not relate to the Charters that were previously issued to Stewart-Haas Racing and subsequently assigned pursuant to the District Court’s Order to Front Row and 23XI Racing teams.”