NASCAR Ford team Front Row Motorsports (FRM) and Toyota outfit 23XI have been locked in a heated fight against the sport’s sanctioning body over its charter system for over a year. The battle is still ongoing, and in the most recent development, FRM and 23XI argue that the sport is unfairly leveraging its monopoly on stock car racing in the U.S.
According to a report from Motorsport, FRM and 23XI have urged the judge overseeing the case to recognize that NASCAR has stock car racing firmly in its grasp, and that its teams have no other place to compete. The teams argue that the sanctioning body is the only buyer for top NASCAR teams, which gives it total control – control that it has been abusing.
“Indeed, it was because the chartered racing teams had no alternative purchaser for their services that NASCAR’s executives concluded the teams would have no choice but to accept whatever charter terms NASCAR offered or not compete at all,” reads the latest filing packet. “The Court should grant partial summary judgment on the issues of relevant market and monopoly power because there is no material dispute that the input market for premier stock car racing is the relevant market or that NASCAR is the sole purchaser in that market – a durable 100 percent market share from which monopsony power should be inferred.”
NASCAR fought back, saying that FRM and 23XI are free to join other motorsports disciplines like IndyCar or F1 if they’re unhappy with the Cup Series charter agreement. However, the teams argue that there are no other purchasers of the services of a top-level stock car racing team outside of NASCAR.
This latest argument comes hot on the heels of inflammatory texts between involved personnel that surfaced in the ongoing fight between the NASCAR Ford and Toyota team versus the sanctioning body itself.
Designed to look like a '90s Rusty Wallace racer.
Turns out, size doesn't matter so much.
A truly loaded example of the luxury sedan.
Imagine getting pulled over by an interceptor named PUG.
