Court leaves crack in door for 23XI, FRM charters after ruling in favor of NASCAR

23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports (FRM) will compete as open teams for the next two weekends, but the judge could make a change to the ruling. Per Bob Pockrass of Fox Sports, the judge noted that NASCAR said there won’t be more open entries than spots in the field at Dover and Indianapolis. If that changes, the judge would “immediately reconsider its denial of a TRO.”

In another social media post, Pockrass wrote, “The judge said because they will make races over the next couple of weeks and because they won’t lose their drivers or sponsors before a decision on preliminary injunction, there isn’t irreparable harm and therefore teams can’t get temporary restraining order.”

Originally, 23XI and FRM were granted an injunction in December of last year, which allowed them to compete un the 2025 charter agreement while suing NASCAR over the said agreement. Both teams purchased a charter from the now-defunct Stewart-Haas Racing, expanding to three-car teams for the new season. But the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals revoked the injunction on June 5.

Will 23XI and FRM get their charters back?

Now, the question is, can 23XI and FRM get their charters back? Before the ruling, Pockrass recently appeared on Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour and explained the situation.

“Some would say, do they have them at all, right? Because they didn’t sign the agreement. So, you could theorize that 23XI and Front Row don’t have charters anymore because they didn’t sign the agreement for this season,” Pockrass explained on Monday. “But I think the big question will be, what happens with the charters that they each bought from Stewart-Haas? And so, do they get to keep those? I think as of right now, the feeling is that when it comes to Dover, that both 23XI and Front Row will have three open cars a piece and kind of what happens with that Stewart-Haas charter that each bought will kind of get determined down the road.”

23XI has Bubba Wallace, Riley Herbst and Tyler Reddick as its three drivers. FRM fields Noah Gragson, Todd Gilliland and Zane Smith. 23XI is co-owned by NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin and NBA legend Michael Jordan. FRM is owned by Bob and Brad Jenkins.