Following a lengthy legal battle with the sport itself, NASCAR Ford team Front Row Motorsports (FRM) announced that it has officially secured a third charter for the 2025 season. This allows FRM to field three chartered Cup Series entries next year, a significant development in its dispute with the sport’s governing body.
FRM dropped the news on December 31st, 2024, posting the announcement on its social media, saying, “FRM has finalized the purchase of our third charter from Stewart-Haas Racing. Announcements on driver, car number and additional partners will be coming soon.”
The fight to get to this point has been anything but easy. As a reminder, NASCAR sells a finite number of charters to participating teams that guarantees them a spot on the grid for every race. Unchartered teams are still permitted to participate in races, but they must qualify for each event and run the risk of being shut out.
FRM has been planning acquire its third charter from the recently disbanded Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), the NASCAR Ford team that shuttered at the end of the 2024 racing season, for quite some time. However, when NASCAR presented teams with an updated charter agreement set to go into effect for the 2025 season, FRM dug its heels in and refused to sign it, feeling that the proposal was unfair.
Big news for 2025. pic.twitter.com/8HlYzoolw3
— Front Row Motorsports (@Team_FRM) December 31, 2024
FRM then joined forces with Toyota team 23XI Racing to file a joint antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR, arguing that the proposed agreement was monopolistic. NASCAR threatened to revoke charters from FRM and 23XI, but killed off a clause that would have prevented them from racing while actively suing the sanctioning body.
FRM and 23XI were fully prepared to race as unchartered entries in 2025 when the court ruled in their favor, granting them charters for the forthcoming season. NASCAR is fighting this decision, however, and there is a chance that the teams could find themselves without charters if a settlement is not reached ahead of the 2026 season.
The three NASCAR Ford Mustang Dark Horse entries to be fielded by FRM in 2025 will be driven by Todd Gilliland, Noah Gragson, and Zane Smith.
Comment
‘A notable victory in the FRM v. NASCAR fight’? Not really. These two teams have to realize that they have picked the wrong company to fight with. Wait for it.