- AP/Charlotte, North Carolina The two teams suing NASCAR on antitrust claims claimed in a filing on Wednesday that a countersuit against Michael Jordan’s manager, Front Row Motorsports, and 23XI Racing is “an act of desperation” and requested that it be dismissed.
According to NASCAR’s countersuit, Curtis Polk, the business manager for Jordan, “willfully” broke antitrust laws by planning anticompetitive collective behavior related to the most recent charter agreements.
In September of last year, the teams were given a take-it-or-leave-it offer 48 hours before the start of NASCAR’s playoffs, and only two of the 15 organizations, 23XI and Front Row, declined to sign the revised agreements.
The teams fought for the charters before the 2016 season began, and they have been extended twice. In addition to other financial incentives, the most recent renewal is for seven years, matching the current media rights agreement and guaranteeing 36 of the 40 seats in each week’s field to the teams that hold the charters. Jordan’s co-owner 23XI and Front Row sued, claiming NASCAR and the French family that runs the stock car series are monopolies, after refusing to sign.
The petition on Wednesday asserts that the counterclaim from NASCAR is “retaliatory” and “does not allege the facts necessary to state a claim.”
“NASCAR is using the counterclaim to engage in litigation gamesmanship, with the transparent objective of intimidating the other racing teams by threatening them with severe consequences if they support Plaintiffs´ challenge to the unlawful NASCAR monopoly,” according to the response.
The counterclaim from NASCAR has been dismissed by 23XI and Front Row, arguing that it “fails at the threshold because it does not allege facts plausibly showing a contract, combination, or conspiracy in restraint of trade.”
The idea of a conspiracy is refuted by the counterclaim charges, which show that each racing team independently determines through separate conversations whether to comply with NASCAR’s instructions.
As the originator of the bitter two-year conflict between the teams and the stock car series, Polk was singled out in NASCAR’s complaint, but the filing also defends Polk. Polk threatened a team boycott of Daytona 500 qualifying races, according to NASCAR’s countersuit. However, the teams countered on Wednesday that “there is no allegation that such a threatened boycott of qualifying races ever tooclassificationsk place.”
Jordan told The Associated Press through a spokeswoman that Polk represents him and that the NBA legend considers any criticism of Polk to be “personal.”
The lawyer for NASCAR has cautioned that the 23XI and Front Row lawsuit may result in the complete elimination of the charter system. NASCAR contends that this is merely a consequence and not what the organization truly desires, and that 23XI initially took this personally by naming NASCAR chairman Jim France in the initial antitrust case.
In the submission on Wednesday, however, the teams retaliated against the threat to do away with the charter system. It claims that the 13 organizations who did sign the charter agreements were frightened by the fictitious threat.
Additionally, the lawsuit claims that Front Row should be dropped from NASCAR’s countersuit as “NASCAR does not allege any specific conduct by Front Row or its owners or employees to support a claim that it participated in the alleged conspiracy.”
“The other allegations in the counterclaim against Front Row are all entirely conclusory or improper group pleading that seeks to lump in Front Row with 23XI Racing, Mr. Polk, and” others, “while never identifying what – if anything – Front Row Motorsports itself has done to purportedly participate in the alleged conspiracy.” The judge’s decision has no time limit.
