Insider predicts potential legal feud between $3.2B worth Michael Jordan's 23XI Racing and NASCAR
Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin owned 23XI Racing issued a statement on Friday revealing that their team hadn't signed NASCAR's proposed charter agreement. 23XI Racing, which debuted in the sport less than four seasons ago, was the only other team apart from Front Row Motorsports that didn't accept NASCAR's terms.
Following this, NASCAR journalist Jeff Gluck spoke about what 23XI Racing could be thinking with their decision to not sign the proposal, unlike the 13 teams that did. Gluck said on the Teardown podcast that 23XI won't be playing the hold out game because NASCAR would no longer enter another negotiation phase.
He further shared his thoughts based on the recent comments of Curtis Polk as he said:
"In theory, they could be going, 'You know what, we're going all the way with this. We're going to stretch this all the way out. Because if they say we're now going through the legal system, 'Go ahead, you take our charters.' Number one,what's going to happen if NASCAR takes away the charters is headline is going to say, 'NASCAR takes away $100 million worth of charters from Michael Jordan's team.' That would be the good thing. And then it would be, 'Michael Jordan's team suing NASCAR in the Federal Court,' would be the next thing, some antitrust suit. And if that is not settled, NASCAR would suddenly have to go and open their books and there'll be all these financial revelations coming out." [54:45]
Gluck claimed that NASCAR has angered the $3.2B worth Michael Jordan (according to Forbes) and 23XI Racing with how they treated the team. He pointed to the team's public stance regarding the charter negotiations in the past.
23XI Racing could be eyeing to kickstart a revolution in the sport as per Jeff Gluck
On the same podcast, Jeff Gluck mentioned that 23XI Racing could potentially run open cars. He backed his claim by mentioning the financial background of the team's leadership, particularly that of the multi-billionaire Michael Jordan.
The NASCAR insider spoke about Curtis Polk's hesitancy in revealing whether the organization intends to make this conflict a legal affair.
"If they think, 'Hey we can drag NASCAR into court and either get a settlement from this or get NASCAR to make the concessions we're asking for, or take it all the way and change the model of the sport essentially,' maybe that's what they're trying to do and they feel like they're trying to do it for other teams as well," Gluck said. [57:28]
He remarked that he didn't think this conflict between teams and NASCAR over the charter agreement would get to this point. But now that it has, Jeff Gluck claimed that he predicts a "long, long protracted battle" if 23XI Racing and FRM don't reach a common ground with NASCAR.