The two teams suing NASCAR over antitrust issues stated in a filing on Wednesday that NASCAR’s countersuit against 23XI Racing, Front Row Motorsports, and Michael Jordan’s manager is “an act of desperation” and asked for it to be dismissed.
NASCAR’s countersuit claims that Jordan’s business manager, Curtis Polk, “willfully” broke antitrust laws by organizing unfair group actions related to the most recent charter agreements.
23XI and Front Row were the only teams out of 15 that refused to sign the new agreements, which were given to the teams last September, just 48 hours before the NASCAR playoffs started.
The charters were fought for by teams before the 2016 season and have been extended twice. The latest extension lasts for seven years to match the current media rights deal and ensures 36 of the 40 spots in each race for the teams that hold the charters, along with other financial benefits.
23XI, co-owned by Jordan, and Front Row chose not to sign and filed a lawsuit, accusing NASCAR and the France family, which owns the stock car series, of being a monopoly.
In Wednesday’s filing, the teams argued that NASCAR’s counterclaim is “retaliatory” and “does not allege the facts necessary to state a claim.”
“NASCAR is using the counterclaim to engage in litigation gamesmanship, with the transparent objective of intimidating the other racing teams by threatening them with severe consequences if they support Plaintiffs’ challenge to the unlawful NASCAR monopoly,” the filing said.
23XI and Front Row have asked for NASCAR’s counterclaim to be dismissed because they believe it “fails at the threshold because it does not allege facts plausibly showing a contract, combination or conspiracy in restraint of trade.”
“The counterclaim allegations instead show each racing team individually deciding whether or not to agree to NASCAR’s demands through individual negotiations — the opposite of a conspiracy.”
Michael Jordan and Bob Jenkins in the NASCAR Cup SeriesThe filing also defends Polk, who was specifically targeted in NASCAR’s counterclaim as the main person behind the two-year dispute between the teams and NASCAR. NASCAR’s countersuit claimed that Polk threatened a boycott of the Daytona 500 qualifying races, but the teams argued on Wednesday “there is no allegation that such a threatened boycott of qualifying races ever took place.”
“None of NASCAR’s factual claims fit into the very narrow categories of blatantly anti-competitive agreements that courts summarily condemn as per se unlawful,” the teams said.
Jordan, through a spokesperson, told The Associated Press that Polk speaks for him and that the NBA star views any attack on Polk as “personal.”
NASCAR’s lawyer has warned that if 23XI and Front Row win the lawsuit, it could lead to the complete removal of the charter system — NASCAR claims this would be a consequence, not something they actually want to happen — and said 23XI made it personal by naming NASCAR chairman Jim France in the original antitrust lawsuit.
However, the teams fought back against the threat to remove the charter system in Wednesday’s filing. They argue it’s an empty threat meant to scare the 13 teams that signed the charter agreements.
The filing also says Front Row should be removed from NASCAR’s counterclaim because “NASCAR does not allege any specific conduct by Front Row or its owners or employees to support a claim that it participated in the alleged conspiracy.”
“The other allegations in the counterclaim against Front Row are all entirely conclusory or improper group pleading that seeks to lump in Front Row with 23XI Racing, Mr. Polk, and ‘others,’ while never identifying what — if anything — Front Row Motorsports itself has done to supposedly participate in the alleged conspiracy.”
There is no deadline for when a judge will make a decision.
