CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A federal judge urged NASCAR and the two Cup Series teams suing the stock-car sanctioning body to settle their increasingly acrimonious legal fight that spilled over into tense arguments during a hearing Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell of the Western District of North Carolina grilled both NASCAR and suing teams 23XI Racing (which is co-owned by Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin, retired NBA star Michael Jordan and Curtis Polk, the basketball great’s longtime business partner) and Front Row Motorsports (which is owned by entrepreneur Bob Jenkins) on what they hoped to accomplish if the lawsuit continues. A trial is scheduled for December if a settlement is not reached before then.
“It’s hard to picture a winner if this goes to the mat — or to the flag — in this case,” Bell said. “It scares me to death to think about what all this is costing.”
Front Row Motorsports is owned by entrepreneur Bob Jenkins and has three full-time Ford entries — Noah Gragson in the No. 4, Todd Gilliland in the No. 34 and Zane Smith in the No. 38 — while 23XI Racing, which is co-owned by Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin, retired NBA star Michael Jordan and Curtis Polk, the basketball great’s longtime business partner, has three full-time Toyota entries: Bubba Wallace in the No. 23, Riley Herbst in the No. 35 and Tyler Reddick in the No. 45.
These were the only two organizations in the top-tier Cup Series that refused to sign a nonnegotiable offer last September on a new agreement for charters, which are NASCAR’s equivalent of a franchise in other professional sports leagues. Each charter guarantees entry to the lucrative Cup Series races and a stable revenue stream. Thirteen other organizations — most of them with multiple cars — signed the agreements last fall, although some felt they had little choice.