NASCAR accused of monopolizing stock car racing for over 60 years

Renowned antitrust and sports attorney Jeffrey Kessler has called NASCAR the “poster child of the illegal monopoly,” citing its long-standing anticompetitive behavior dating back to 1961. He represents the NASCAR 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports teams in their lawsuit against NASCAR and its owner, Jim France, in connection with alleged monopolistic practices.

Big news rocked the NASCAR world on Wednesday after Front Row Motorsports and 23XI Racing, co-owned by basketball icon Michael Jordan, Denny Hamlin and Curtis Polk, took legal action against the sport for wielding power in an “unfair manner.”

The lawsuit comes after 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports refused to sign off on NASCAR’s final charter proposal at Atlanta Motor Speedway last month. The teams had been in negotiations for two years, with the main issue being NASCAR’s refusal to grant permanent charters.

The lawsuit alleged that NASCAR, still owned by the France family, had established an anticompetitive monopoly on stock car racing. The claim is supported by several examples from the sport’s long history, including two significant events from the 1960s.

In 1961, NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. imposed a lifetime ban on Curtis Turner, then the sport’s most popular driver and two-time Cup Series champion Tim Flock. Eight years later, in 1969, Bill France Sr. hosted the inaugural race at Talladega Superspeedway without many of his best drivers. Ultimately, drivers from the Professional Drivers’ Association boycotted the event after France rejected their concerns about track safety.

Kessler didn’t hold back in explaining what had been done to the sport in its 76 years of existence, and even criticized the France family for treating NASCAR like their “personal fiefdom.” Speaking on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on Wednesday about the lawsuit, as reported in the X, Kessler said:

“NASCAR is a childish poster child for an illegal monopoly. It is the only leading stock car racing track in the country, and perhaps in the world. He achieved this position not by being the best, investing money or having the best thing that no one competes with.

“He got there by taking over competitors, blocking racetracks, going to all the teams that are independent contractors and saying, ‘You can’t race anyone else’s races,’ and putting restrictions on cars where teams can.” not even take a new generation car and enter it in another race. All this gives them this monopoly power.”

Asked whether the France family’s ownership of NASCAR from the beginning was a violation of the law, Kessler said:

“Not in itself, but it is a motivating factor as to why (NASCAR) was organized this way.

“When you look at what the France family has done, they run it as if it were their own fiefdom, where all the revenues, profits, TV deals and money should mostly go to them. Teams and drivers get exactly what is left of the economy. survive, and some of them cannot survive.”