Denny Hamlin reacts to latest NASCAR filing, team statements in 23XI, Front Row lawsuit

Late last night, NASCAR submitted a new filing with the district court along with statements from team owners. Denny Hamlin didn’t mind it. In fact, the 23XI Racing team owner believes the latest filing helps his side’s argument.

Multiple team owners, including Open teams, submitted declarations as part of NASCAR’s filing. In those statements, team owners echoed the same sentiments regardless of charter status. Essentially, teams like charters, charters save them money, and they want charters to become long-term or permanent.

Denny Hamlin responded on Twitter last night. However, today, he spoke to the media at Charlotte. He was asked directly about the latest move in the NASCAR lawsuit.

“You know, for them, I thought that it was truthfully more helpful for us than it was for them,” Hamlin explained, via Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports. “But I mean, [the team owners] said they were asked to do it.”

So, it doesn’t appear that the latest filing is going to shake 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports. NASCAR is looking for summary judgment to more or less get the case thrown out. It will be difficult to see that happening given what we have heard from the court already in these proceedings. But anything can happen if the court is swayed one way or another.

Denny Hamlin remains confident amid lawsuit update

The thing that was strange about the NASCAR filing last night was the team statements. Not that the statements were strange, but they are explicitly arguing against what NASCAR has at times argued in this lawsuit.

For NASCAR, the charters are take it or leave it. In fact, as Denny Hamlin pointed out last night, NASCAR has expressed a desire to return to a non-charter system. A return to the old way of doing things, which the team owners have said is not a sustainable model.

Hamlin posted a screenshot of a quote from NASCAR’s attorney, Christopher Yates. Yates stated, “NASCAR would be perfectly fine going back to that (pre-charter) model.”

In no way has 23XI and Front Row asked for charters or the charter system to be revoked or altered. The teams did not sign the charters due to the clause forfeiting their rights to do what they are doing now – sue NASCAR. In arguments about how and why NASCAR is a monopsony, the teams have never argued that the charters are anticompetitive and an issue at hand.

Instead, Denny Hamlin’s team and its attorneys are arguing that things such as single-source parts, owning a bulk of major racetracks, buying up ARCA, limiting Cup drivers from racing in lower series or a different stock car series, Next Gen car intellectual property rights, and other business practices are in violation of antitrust law. We will see how the court rules later this year.