• 23XI and FRM will compete as open entries for at least two weekends
  • Nascar will not sell the charters until court has ruled on preliminary injunction
  • Nascar also claims the teams have misled court with their declarations

Nascar has called out 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports (FRM) for presenting ‘manufactured’ evidence, with the rebel teams now confirmed as open entries for this weekend’s Cup Series race at Dover Motor Speedway.

The teams’ last-ditch attempt to avoid competing as open entries has proved unsuccessful as the court ruled against their request for a temporary restraining order (TRO) on Monday. 

As a result, the pair will now earn around a third of what a chartered team makes per race and will not be guaranteed to start races. The Nascar Cup Series has a limit of 40 cars per race, so open entries must qualify for their place when this is exceeded.

That said, the judge said the TRO would be reconsidered if the teams were ever in danger of missing a race weekend. Only 37 cars have entered this weekend’s race in Dover, hence the appeal being unsuccessful.

Nascar has also confirmed that it will not sell the teams’ charters until after the court has ruled on the preliminary injunction, which was requested at the same time as the TRO.

As part of the injunction, the teams cited new evidence that Nascar planned to ‘immediately move to sell or issue Plaintiffs’ charters to other entities – putting Plaintiffs in irreparable jeopardy of never getting their charters back and going out of business’. The pair claim to have received a letter from Nascar confirming this intention.

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In a 32-page response, Nascar noted that the charters do not belong to 23XI and FRM as they vacated their rights to them when they refused to sign the charter agreement for this season.

Further to this, the series raised questions over the validity of the teams’ claims.

‘Discovery has revealed that evidence Plaintiffs submitted to the Court in connection with their second (preliminary injunction) motion was manufactured,’ the documents read.

‘It has also shown that declarations submitted under penalty of perjury suggesting that Plaintiffs had no involvement in the creation of that evidence were false.’

Nascar also stated: ‘Plaintiffs manufactured evidence of harm to support their second (preliminary injunction) motion, and misled the Court in declarations. This means that Plaintiffs’ latest submissions should, at the very least, be viewed skeptically [sic].’

Nascar pointed out that 23XI co-owner Michael Jordan, the National Basketball Association (NBA) legend, had previously stated his team would complete this season even without charter status. Jordan originally began legal action against Nascar in the pursuit of permanent charters.

23XI and FRM will now compete for at least the next two weekends as open entries, something that will have major financial ramifications if that continues for the remaining 16 races.