• Ryan McGee

Nov 28, 2025, 06:16 AM ET

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Front Row, going back to the start of the charter system, saw revenues rise from $12.8 million in 2016 to $23.6 in 2024, operating at a loss every year, from $6 million down in ’16 to $9.9 million in ’24.

As the very old racing saying goes: You want to know how to make a small fortune in racing? Start with a big one.

In late October, NASCAR’s financial statements from 2015 to ’24 were made public. In 2024, the sanctioning body’s net income was $103 million. During his State of the Sport address ahead of the season finale race at Phoenix, Phelps explained: “NASCAR’s balance sheet has more than $1.2 billion in invested capital, meaning the vast majority of what we make is invested back into the sport, our race teams and our people.”

Who are the lawyers?

The lead attorney for 23XI and Front Row is Jeffrey Kessler, a name that college sports fans will recognize from his representation of athletes as they fought for revenue vs. the NCAA and their schools. NFL fans know him as the lawyer who repped Tom Brady in the quarterback’s “Deflategate” controversy. Up front for NASCAR is litigator Chris Yates, who has represented everyone from the ACC and UFC to the Hollywood Foreign Press.

These two know each other very well, essentially the Richard Petty vs. David Pearson of sports antitrust legal battles. Kessler has long been the chosen legal counsel of those seeking to break up the powers of sports leagues, and Yates has emerged as the preferred attorney to oppose him.

Over the years, their combined impact on the business of sports and antitrust law in general has been immense. They most recently faced off earlier this year, as Yates helped MLS and the U.S. Soccer Federation prevail in a civil antitrust case filed by the defunct North American Soccer League, which accused the USSF of illegally overstepping its powers to control American professional soccer.

How long will this go on?

The initial trial is slated for 21 days, but whatever the outcome, appeals will be inevitable. So buckle up for more in 2026 and beyond.

How contentious will this become?

Oh, it already is. The Kessler vs. Yates battle alone was going to guarantee that, but there is no community in all of professional sports like the NASCAR garage, a relatively small group of people who travel together every weekend from Valentine’s until nearly Thanksgiving, and when they aren’t on the road, all live within the same Charlotte, North Carolina, metro area.

Hamlin is the perfect representation of it all, living in a neighborhood surrounded by NASCAR colleagues as he drives for one team, owns another and also hosts a wildly popular podcast discussing the sport. Even while he has been in the process of suing the sport, he has also been a member of NASCAR’s exploratory panel for potential changes to its postseason championship format, and less than a month ago he came within two laps of winning the Cup Series title in the season finale.

Among the documents already made public are text message transcripts from the phones of Phelps and O’Donnell that have proved to be embarrassing, including exchanges about the now-shuttered SRX summer short-track series that involved many NASCAR drivers, including Hamlin, and a rather raw description of six-time Cup champion team owner Richard Childress from Phelps.

The texts will not be used in court, but rather were a part of potential exhibits that were unsealed after their removal from trial. So while the jury will not see them, they have certainly done plenty of damage when it comes to the court of public opinion and the close-quarters world of the NASCAR paddock.

“Are there things that Steve [O’Donnell] and I said that we would like not to have made public? Yes,” Phelps confessed in October. “I’m sure there are things that 23XI and Front Row also feel that way. What I do know is this is an amazing sport. We are a very resilient sport. We have asked our employees, all of them, to put their head down and grow this sport. That’s what we’ve done.”

What is the endgame for each side?

The 23XI/Front Row lawsuit doesn’t list much in terms of specifics, other than damages, a restoration of what they see as fair competition, and fundamentally, more transparency from NASCAR. Among the testiest topics throughout the last year of suits, countersuits, hearings and depositions has been the idea of NASCAR and its race teams being forced to open their financial ledgers and even the contents of text messages — as demonstrated by those that have already been revealed. For a garage full of privately owned corporations, that’s uncomfortable.

Charters vs. cash, it’s an either/or scenario: If 23XI and Front Row win and do indeed seek monetary damages, the amount will be determined by a jury and they will not be awarded charters. If they instead choose to pursue charters as their reward, it would supersede damages.

The longer task of determining how to break up a NASCAR monopoly would be determined by the judge, who will likely preside over another round of negotiations between the sanctioning body and owners to sort that out, focusing on a resorting of revenue and likely a more formal representation for owners in the NASCAR boardroom. For NASCAR, the goal is protecting the current model of business, but also using this unasked-for platform to prove that their leadership works. They will argue that it has since 1949, with an approach that has evolved at a much faster pace during the post-2016 charter era, and thus there is no reason not to keep that charter era going.

If NASCAR wins, it is likely that 23XI Racing would cease to exist, refusing to surrender in the fight for permanent charters. Even if 23XI wins but does so without the reward of charters, it would also likely no longer compete.

So no matter the outcome of this trial, a stock car sea change is inevitable. Either NASCAR loses an entire team, co-owned by arguably the biggest star in the history of sports, or its nearly 80-year-old business structure is thrown in the shredder. Or perhaps even both.

“The charter system is a critical part of the sport, something we created with and for the teams,” Phelps said one month ago. “We will continue to defend and preserve it, but make no mistake, the lawsuit puts this at risk.”

“I don’t know. I think both sides probably feel strong about their case,” Hamlin said at Martinsville Speedway in late October, having just spent a week amid his prep for a near-miss Cup Series championship in failed court-ordered negotiations hoping to avoid the trial that is about to begin. “I think one of us is on a suicide mission.”