NASCAR will oppose the preliminary injunction sought by 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports to run as chartered teams while its lawsuit against the sanctioning body continues.
The filing was made at 10:29 p.m. on Wednesday night in advance of a hearing currently set for Wednesday.
The filing includes the following passage:
“Defendants are working to prepare oppositions that provide argument, applicable law, and, evidentiary support to demonstrate Defendants positions: l) Plaintiffs are seeking a mandatory injunction that is only warranted in the most extraordinary circumstances (which are not present here) since they are seeking to alter the status quo through an injunction requiring NASCAR to provide Charters for 2025 and beyond notwithstanding that the time to sign Charters for 2025 has expired; 2) Plaintiffs cannot establish irreparable harm since Plaintiffs and their counsel have confirmed that Plaintiffs’ teams will compete as open teams in 2025, which means that money damages can compensate Plaintiffs even if they were to ultimately prevail; and 3) Plaintiffs cannot establish a likelihood of success on the merits for multiple reasons, including that this is a dispute over contract terms, not an antitrust case.”
NASCAR is also asking for a delay in the hearing due to its Daytona Beach offices likely being closed due to Hurricane Milton. The teams have asked for the end of October but the league has asked for November 4.
Front Row Motorsports owner Bob Jenkins filed the aforementioned willingness to run as an open team earlier in the day.
“Because of our love for the sport and our determination to maintain the race team we have built, we are determined to race next year even if we have to do so on an ‘open’ basis,” Jenkins said. “But at some point, the losses may become so severe that we simply cannot continue — causing irreparable harm to our business, our employees, and the communities and fans we are associated with.”
Curtis Polk, who co-owns 23XI with Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan has articulated the same.
“We have the resources that if we want to race, we’ll race,” he said.
Should the teams fail to win the injunction, it’s unclear what NASCAR would choose to do with the six combined charters those two teams were set to field teams with.