Arya News - The settlement comes after NASCAR CEO Jim France testified the past two days.
The trial between Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing and NASCAR is over.
Jeffrey Kessler, the attorney representing 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports in the teams’ antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR, told Judge Kenneth Bell that the parties had reached a settlement “in a way that will benefit the industry going forward.”
The trial was in its second week and the settlement comes as NASCAR was in the midst of its portion of the proceedings. NASCAR CEO Jim France had been on the stand on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Terms of the settlement have not been announced.
23XI and Front Row were the only two teams to not sign the charter agreement that NASCAR presented to its teams in the fall of 2024. The charter agreement is NASCAR"s version of franchising and guarantees 36 teams entry into every race of the season and a larger share of purse money than "open" teams.
The old charter agreement expired at the end of the 2024 season in concurrence with NASCAR"s previous media rights deal. 23XI and Front Row raced as open teams for much of the 2025 season after various court rulings but were never in danger of missing a race thanks to the number of cars attempting to qualify each week.
The two teams accused NASCAR of monopolistic and anticompetitive behavior as NASCAR gave teams just hours to sign its final charter offer in September of 2024. Jordan said on the stand that he felt he needed to challenge NASCAR and that attorneys advised him that the charter agreement could be in violation of antitrust laws. The charter agreement included a non-disparagement clause that teams needed to agree to.
Teams had also asked NASCAR for permanent charters, but NASCAR and the France family, the sanctioning body"s longtime owners, didn"t acquiesce to that request. The existing charter agreement only runs through the current media rights deal NASCAR has with Fox, NBC, Amazon and TNT through 2031. Heather
NASCAR granted teams a larger portion of media rights money in the current charter agreement, however the sanctioning body and its tracks continue to receive the majority of revenue. Teams have said that costs have skyrocketed in recent years and especially since the implementation of NASCAR"s "NextGen" car in 2022. Teams are forced to use NASCAR-approved single-source suppliers to build their cars instead of building many of their own parts in-house.
23XI Racing is one of NASCAR"s newest Cup Series teams. The team, co-owned by Jordan, his longtime business manager Curtis Polk and current Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin, began in 2021 with Bubba Wallace and has since expanded to a three-car team.
Front Row Motorsports is also a three-car team and has fielded cars in the Cup Series since 2005.
This story will be updated.