NASCAR Lawsuit: NBA Comes to Michael Jordan’s Rescue as Judges Starts to Flip on 23XI

Michael Jordan and 23XI Racing aren’t exactly out in the clear when it comes to their status of running as a chartered organization in 2025. Last year, both 23XI and FRM secured a preliminary injunction, and this allowed them to focus on the racing along with their antitrust lawsuit. But NASCAR wasn’t going to go down without a fight, and they filed an appeal against the injunction ruling. And all of a sudden, things are starting to look a little gloomy for MJ and Denny Hamlin.

To make matters worse, any help the two teams were supposed to get to solidify their case against NASCAR isn’t reaching them. And it’s not NASCAR that is playing the role of the spoiler here, but rather their own legal representation from Winston & Strawn.

NBA tried its best to provide aid and support to Michael Jordan

If you’ve followed the lawsuit closely, you’d know that the two teams have filed subpoenas in the Colorado District Court to the governing bodies of prominent sporting series. The list included F1, IndyCar, NBA, NHL, and NFL. The purpose behind this was to compare the revenue splits between the governing bodies and the teams, but needless to say, not all the parties agreed to this appeal.

In fact, the teams themselves dropped the quest in their appeal against Liberty Media. But, as far as other sporting bodies were concerned, there was no confirmation about NASCAR teams dropping their quest through legal means. Well. The NBA and NFL were willing to help out MJ & Co., but Jeffery Kessler’s law firm, Winston & Strawn, “NBA/NFL says they’d be giving atty Jeffrey Kessler’s law firm info that could be used against them in other matters. The firm states they have the info from other matters but can’t use b/c confidentiality orders in those cases.” Bob Pockrass shared this on X.

Kessler was leading the team that represented the NBPA during the collective bargaining negotiations in 2017. There was a list of points on which both the NBA and the NBPA had to come to terms. But after the negotiation process, Kessler and his team finalized: no hard upper salary limit imposed, new licensing revenues included in the shared revenue pool, and player investment opportunities. So, you see why the NBA wouldn’t want this information to be out in public, as they might be on the ropes next time they are dealing with such a situation.

Interesting in 23XI/FRM filings for financial info: NBA/NFL says they’d be giving atty Jeffrey Kessler’s law firm info that could be used against them in other matters. The firm states they have the info from other matters but can’t use b/c confidentiality orders in those cases. https://t.co/FykC2Oe4Ti

— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) May 9, 2025

To make matters worse, the recently concluded court hearing in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va. gave another jolt to the two teams who rebelled against NASCAR. And going by the initial reports, it seems like the injunction that 23XI Racing secured last December might not be intact.

23XI Racing FRM could lose their charters

NASCAR attorney Chris Yates argued that the teams shouldn’t have the benefits of the charter system when they haven’t signed the new deal. While they are reaping the benefits of the injunction, they are also suing NASCAR. What’s worrying for the teams is that Judges Steven Agee, Paul Niemeyer, and Stephanie Thacker all pushed back on Kessler’s arguments in the court, particularly labeling NASCAR as a monopoly.

“There’s no other place to compete. It will cause havoc to overturn this injunction in the middle of the season.” Kessler was quoted this via FOX Sports. Bob Pockrass even shared an update that the drivers from both the teams could leave in case their chartered status gets canceled. “Team contract with drivers require a charter car, so theoretically, the drivers could leave.”

So, for the time being, both 23XI Racing and FRM are in a precarious position and could potentially lose out on their charters before the antitrust lawsuit hearing begins in December.

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