NASCAR garage responds to lawsuit: ‘It’s another edition of the soap opera’

TALLADEGA, Ala. – While Denny Hamlin was processing the reaction to his racing team filing an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR this week, fiancée Jordan Fish sent him a clip from the movie “Moneyball.”

“The first guy through the wall, he always gets bloody,” says the actor who portrays Boston Red Sox owner John Henry in the film. “Not only does this threaten the way we do business, but in their minds it also threatens the game. What it really threatens is their livelihood, it threatens their jobs. It threatens the way they do things.”

Hamlin found that clip relatable after 23XI Racing, the team he co-owns with Michael Jordan, joined Front Row Motorsports on Wednesday to accuse NASCAR of being a monopoly in federal court. The response has been positive, Hamlin said, from people who want to see the status quo challenged — and it has been a weight off his mind as he makes his way to Round 3 of the playoffs.

“It’s not like we woke up one day and said, ‘This is going to happen,’” said Hamlin, who drives for Joe Gibbs Racing, before qualifying eighth for Sunday’s NASCAR playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway. “This has been on the board for a while. It has given me relief to put more focus on (driving) car No. 11 and everything I have to do there since (the lawsuit) has been concluded and now there are other people who want to speak about it from a legality standpoint .”

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While it may have been a long time coming for Hamlin, others in the NASCAR garage were still processing the new news and what the outcome could mean for the future of NASCAR and its racing teams.

“It’s clearly the biggest story in the sport,” said RFK Racing driver/owner Brad Keselowski. “It’s another edition of the soap opera ‘As The World Turns: NASCAR’. We will all find out (how it ends) together.”

Keselowski said he “didn’t expect” his team to join the lawsuit, a sentiment echoed by six-time championship owner Richard Childress. RFK and Richard Childress Racing both signed the 2025 charter agreement last month, which includes a provision prohibiting teams from taking antitrust action against NASCAR. (23XI and Front Row declined to sign it.)

But Childress said teams were pressured into signing the new agreements, an allegation made in the lawsuit.

“We had no choice to sign them,” Childress said. “It was just, ‘You sign it or you lose your charters.’ I couldn’t take that gamble, period. And I know a lot of owners I talked to felt the same way.”

So does he think NASCAR is a monopoly?

“I’ll put it this way: If you want to race, if you want to race NASCAR, you race in their park,” Childress said.

NASCAR again declined comment Saturday and has not yet issued a public response to the lawsuit. According to a court filing, 23XI and Front Row will file for a preliminary injunction next week, after which NASCAR must respond in its own filing within two weeks.

Meanwhile, drivers said they were closely following the story in the media, with several acknowledging it was the biggest story to happen in NASCAR for years.

“This is huge for our sport, no matter what happens,” said Team Penske driver Joey Logano. “It’s obviously big because we’ve never seen it before.”

But many said they weren’t sure what the outcome would be, so they didn’t have a strong opinion one way or another.

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“I would like to see our sport become more prosperous,” said Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron. “When I look at other professional sports and where we could be, I’m excited about that. So hopefully that will get off the ground.”

23XI co-owner Curtis Polk caught the attention of some drivers this week after he said their salaries are a fraction of what other athletes make compared to the total revenues of various sports leagues. Driver salaries, which are not publicly disclosed, have fallen dramatically since their peak in the mid-2000s, those within NASCAR have said repeatedly.

“If not, we are probably one of the few sports the only sport where athlete salaries have declined in recent decades,” said Hendrick driver Kyle Larson. “Obviously we would like to see it trend upward rather than the opposite. But the teams probably need to make a lot more money to make it feasible to pay the people who work for their organizations.”

23XI drivers Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick expressed full support for the actions their team owners were taking, as did Front Row driver Michael McDowell.

“Being an advocate for change and standing up for change is what I look at,” said Wallace, the only Black driver in the Cup Series. “It’s a crazy time to be in NASCAR, but I’m behind my team 100 percent and we’ll see where it takes us.”

McDowell, who won the pole position for Sunday’s race, said he was confident there was no leaner and more efficient organization than Front Row – and yet team owner Bob Jenkins still has “millions and millions and millions” of dollars in it team must stop. to be even remotely competitive.

“If he has to spend his own money, there’s a problem,” McDowell said.

As for Hamlin, he was asked if he thought 23XI’s financial commitment to the sport was appreciated by NASCAR. He pursed his lips and waited for ten long seconds before finally answering.

“Probably not,” he said.

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(Photo of Denny Hamlin during Saturday’s qualifying at Talladega: Sean Gardner/Getty Images)