"'They're dictating all of these things'" - Michael Jordan's 23XI Racing could win against NASCAR in court, as per insider
With 23XI Racing deciding to sue NASCAR, many questions have come up. 23XI, co-owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan and veteran NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin is one of the two teams in the garage, along with Front Row Motorsports, that have refused to sign the proposed charter agreement.
This left the picture around the two organizations shrouded in uncertainty, with many wondering what their next step would be. On Wednesday, it was announced that the team co-owned by the $3.2 billion-worth Jordan would take NASCAR to court, along with FRM.
This leads to another question, which is what chances the two teams resisting NASCAR have of winning the lawsuit. Jordan Bianchi discussed this question on the latest episode of "The Teardown" podcast. He said,
"What is the only thing we can do? And that is go to court. You go convince 12 people on a jury that this is a monopoly and have them decide what the penalty is. I don't see what else they can do.
"I mean they can continue to run as an open car but that doesn't do anything because you're going to lose millions of dollars. So this was the play. This is the Hail Mary. This is it. Everything comes down to this."
The NASCAR journalist further spoke about how a team owner he spoke to was convinced that if the teams could avoid going into too much detail, it could look like NASCAR bought "a bunch of series and a bunch of racetracks," referring to NASCAR's buyout of the ARCA Menard series as an example.
Bianchi added that 23XI Racing and FRM would need to pitch the narrative the right way in court. He said,
"A lot of the tracks they bought, if you spin it the right way in court and you say to the jury, 'Well, they bought all of these tracks and they brought them in-house and they can do whatever they want,' and you can show, 'Hey we took a date away from this track and we took a date away from this track, and they're dictating all of these things.' They look at this, the totality of this and they'd go, 'Oh they did X,Y, and Z,' yeah I could see that."
23XI Racing's lawyer Jeffrey Kessler shares team's gameplan for competing in NASCAR for 2025
During an appearance on the DJD Reloaded, Jeffrey Kessler, the lawyer handling the case of 23XI Racing and FRM against NASCAR, addressed the future of the two teams in 2025. Kessler said both organizations are determined to race and compete in the forthcoming season, "no matter what."
He added the outcome of the lawsuit would only determine how they compete in NASCAR and not if they'd compete. Kessler said,
"If we get our injunction, they'll be able to take our charters and compete as a charter team. If they don't get the injunction, they will have to compete as open teams next year. But they will be there no matter what, they're not giving up on NASCAR, at least for next year."
The lawyer added he wasn't sure how long the teams could compete as open cars and was perhaps only an idea for "some time."
Despite that, the lawyer representing Michael Jordan's 23XI Racing was hopeful that the situation wouldn't come down to them competing as open cars. He added that he was optimistic about getting an injunction and for the teams to compete as charter teams in 2025.