If 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports don’t get their desired outcome in court this week, it’ll mean a lot of money for Cup Series teams, NASCAR says — to the tune of $1.5 million per charter.
In a letter obtained by The Charlotte Observer, NASCAR commissioner Steve Phelps directly addressed the 13 Cup Series teams that signed the charter agreement that went into effect at the beginning of the 2025 season. The document spelled out how those teams could stand to benefit should 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports — which declined to sign the current charter agreement and thereafter sued NASCAR on the grounds that it is a monopoly — be forced to race as “open cars” for the rest of the year.
Among the ways the current chartered teams could stand to benefit, Phelps wrote, was that each currently chartered team will receive “an average additional payment of approximately $1.5 million per charter.” This is what NASCAR expects will happen, at least, should the two Cup teams that NASCAR is in litigation with not be granted the preliminary injunction request they’re seeking and be forced to return the money earned as chartered teams early in the 2025 season.
NASCAR has said in multiple filings amid this antitrust lawsuit that it will reallocate any money received from 23XI and Front Row Motorsports to “the teams that signed a 2025 charter.” The sanctioning body even appears to include the money totals in NASCAR’s 34-page filing from Aug. 18 — but those totals are redacted.
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That $1.5 million figure mentioned in Phelps’ letter to the teams is the sum of two parts, Phelps wrote.
The first part deals with the amount of money NASCAR paid 23XI and FRM for the first 20 races of the season, of which they maintained charter status. The commissioner disclosed that NASCAR paid the two teams $25,146,300 in “fixed owner’s payments and performance payments.” Once that money gets redistributed to the 30 charters not belonging to 23XI or FRM, the letter says, each chartered car/team will receive $838,210.
The second part deals with how much money the teams will receive if the teams fail to have their charter status restored for the rest of the 2025 season — which will be decided this week, according to what district judge Kenneth Bell said in a hearing on Thursday. If the teams’ preliminary injunction request is denied, each chartered team will receive approximately $670,000.
See much more at Charlotte Observer.