NASCAR planning for 2025 Cup season with 32 charters, court filing says
CONCORD, N.C. — NASCAR is planning for a 2025 Cup Series season with 32 charters, instead of 36, according to a motion filed in federal court Wednesday.
“The deadline for Plaintiffs to sign 2025 Charter Agreements expired weeks ago, and NASCAR has taken steps, consistent with its contractual obligations to other Charter Teams, to plan for a season with only 32 Charters,” NASCAR stated.
NASCAR filed the motion in response to 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports asking the court to order NASCAR to release certain documents. The documents, they say, are relevant in the antitrust case that they brought against the sanctioning body Oct. 2 over the 2025 charter agreement.
In the motion, NASCAR stated that the sanctioning body is “working on reallocating funds that Plaintiffs would have received.” Instead of the two teams receiving that money, NASCAR stated they are looking to “increase prize money and other special awards for the 2025 season for the benefit of teams that timely executed 2025 Charters, as well as Open teams who can compete to win the increased prize money and other special awards.”
NASCAR alleges 23XI and Front Row wouldn’t need their charters to compete. They stated, “Plaintiffs do not need these Charter Agreements to race, and indeed have stated publicly that they will be racing in NASCAR regardless.”
NASCAR added that running as an open car would “be nothing new” for the two teams, citing their open entries in the 2023 Daytona 500. In that race, Travis Pastrana finished 11th in an open No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota while Zane Smith finished 13th in an open No. 36 Front Row Ford.
In Wednesday’s filing, NASCAR also said that, even after the Sept. 6 deadline to sign the charter agreement, they continued talking with the two teams about their concerns and extended both teams’ time to sign the agreement to Sept. 17 for Front Row and Sept. 20 for 23XI.
Then, once they didn’t sign by those deadlines, NASCAR stated they went to work on preparing for a 2025 season with 32 chartered teams.
Front Row and 23XI filed their antitrust lawsuit Oct. 2 against NASCAR. They also filed for an injunction to sign the 2025 charter agreement without having to adhere to an alleged clause, Section 10.3 of the agreement, releasing them of antitrust claims against NASCAR.
NASCAR stated in the new filing that this never came up during the over two-and-a-half years of discussions surrounding the agreement.
“Despite their representations to the Court in their motion, Section 10.3 of the 2025 Charter Agreements was not one of those stated concerns. In fact, in the two-and-a-half years of negotiation, NASCAR does not believe that Section 10.3 was ever raised as a concern by either Plaintiff, Charter Members, or their attorneys. Tellingly, Section 10.3 is nowhere mentioned in the long correspondence sent by Plaintiffs to NASCAR just a month ago,” NASCAR said.
If the court grants the motion of discovery in favor of 23XI and Front Row, NASCAR argues the court should also order the same type of discovery for the two teams. They say it would be relevant “to show discussions regarding the meaning and the purpose of Section 10.3 of the 2016 and 2025 Charter Agreements and the reciprocal release of NASCAR’s claims against Charter Teams in Section 10.4.”
MORE: 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports sue NASCAR over charter agreement
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com