Speaking on his SiriusXM NASCAR Radio show, veteran crew and analyst Larry McReynolds offered an emotional response earlier in the week to the decision made by 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports to sue the sanctioning body on antitrust grounds.
The lawsuit claims, in addition to monopolistic business practices, unfair enrichment and a business model that does not appropriately reward the race teams for its contributions to the financial success of the league.
McReynolds was read the line from lawyer Jeffrey Kessler that ‘the France family has treated NASCAR likes its personal piggy bank,’ and he said ‘that’s right.’
“We don’t want to be like other sports,” McReynolds said. “We don’t want to be Major League Baseball. We don’t want to be the NBA. We don’t want to be the NFL. The NHL. We are NASCAR. The France family built this from scratch and a lot of us have made a lot of good livings doing it in their sport.”
Kessler described the teams as victims.
“Victims? Victims,” he said. “Give me a break. A victim.”
McReynolds really took exception to 23XI Racing’s decision.
“It’s a hideous statement in my book. He used the word ‘unfair’ … what do you mean unfair? Could you clarify a little bit on unfair,” McReynolds said.
He also suggested the team had no standing on the grounds that every other team signed NASCAR’s charter agreement extension contract.
“We’ve got an organization that’s been here not even four years that all of a sudden is saying, ‘We got to change the way NASCAR’s run.’ I’m all about change. Change is what makes you better,” McReynolds said. “But you know what? When I see Richard Childress, Jake Roush, Rick Hendrick, and Joe Gibbs that’s been here longer than some of these guys have been pooping yellow… and they signed off and said this is good… we’re okay.
“There’s things we don’t like about it but we’re going to do what’s best for the sport and best for our business. And they signed off on it and these people that have been either not competitive or only been here for four and a half years have been saying the way we’ve done business for 76 and a half years is wrong.”
It’s worth noting that team owners are saying privately that NASCAR coerced or strong-armed teams into signing an unfair deal with Childress even saying publicly that he felt forced and that not taking a take it or leave it final offer would have destroyed his business.
But McReynolds also went after Front Row Motorsports owner Bob Jenkins, saying he didn’t understand why an owner that had been in the sport since the 90s would join with ‘outsiders’ like Michael Jordan.
“I see black helicopters flying through the air. So 23XI, you have a couple of guys involved that came from other sports and they want to see things done like the world they came from. I’m not agreeing with it but I kind of get it. But to me, what just makes me tip my head is why Bob Jenkins and Front Row Motorsports. Where does this come from? Where does this come from?
“A guy that has been in this sport for 15 years, 20 years, tried to build a race team, has become more competitive, has won four Cup races with three drivers going back to David Ragan at Daytona and Chris Buescher at Pocono and now the Daytona 500 and Indy Road Course with Michael McDowell.
“Where do this come from? That’s what has me so confused. Is it because 23XI felt like they needed an ally and they couldn’t stand alone on this island by themselves. I don’t know. Again, I see a lot of black helicopters flying through the air.”
For his part, McDowell took exception to what McReynolds said, when asked about it on Saturday at Talladega.
“You know, honestly, I tried to stay out of the noise as much as I could this week,” McDowell said. “Because obviously, I’m moving on next year [to Spire Motorsports]. I don’t want to be collateral damage in any of this. But I think one of the things that I didn’t love was just Larry Mac’s take on us being the ‘not competitive’ team and why would we have skin in the game or say so. And that’s something I took offense to because I feel like we’re pretty darn competitive.
“This is our sixth pole, yep, we haven’t got to victory lane this year but we’ve been really close. I’m really proud of everybody at Front Row and how competitive we are. So, that was probably the only dagger that cut me deep and cut my guys’ deep, but you know, there’s a lot of noise and we try to ignore it. But that one was, a low blow.”