23XI Racing, which is owned by Denny Hamlin, Michael Jordan, and Curtis Polk, and Front Row Motorsports, which is owned by Bob Jenkins, explained why they chose not to sign the NASCAR Charter agreement.

In a post to X, 23XI Racing stated, “23XI decided to not meet a NASCAR-imposed deadline last night to sign Charter agreements for its two cars for 2025-2031. 23XI’s position, as stated in a letter for NASCAR, is that we did not have an opportunity to fairly bargain for a new Charter contract.”

The team continued, “We notified NASCAR what issues needed to be addressed, in writing, at the deadline. We are interested in engaging in constructive discussions with NASCAR to address these issues and move forward in a way that comes to a fair resolution, while strengthening the sport we all love.”

“At 23XI Racing, we remain committed to competing at the highest level while also standing firm in our belief that NASCAR should be governed by fair and equitable practices,” 23XI concluded.

Statement from 23XI ownership pic.twitter.com/z0z5rjRjEP

— 23XI Racing (@23XIRacing) September 7, 2024

Polk provided more details while speaking to the media on Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. As reported by Matt Weaver at Sportsnaut, Polk said, “While other teams may have signed the charter agreement, 23XI Racing faces our own challenges that make these terms particularly harmful to our operations and our ownership groups, interests and intellectual property rights.”

“This isn’t the 1960s and these predatory practices will not withstand scrutiny and be accepted in 2024,” he added. “This is a business, and we’re not going to be coerced into signing something that we’re not comfortable signing.”

As for whether he plans to take legal action against NASCAR, he said, “I’m not going to speculate as to what we’re going to do. We’re going to protect our rights, and whatever we have to do to protect our rights is what we’ll do.”

Regarding the contact itself, he said, “It is a very one-sided contract that is going way backwards from the charter that we’ve currently been operating under, and we just cannot sign something and do business in an environment where one side has so much power over the other side.”

 

Bob Jenkins made similar comments. He said, “You know, I don’t think you can give somebody a 105-page document at six o’clock on a Friday night and expect them to sign it by midnight.”

“I think it’s very unreasonable and there, you know, there been some things that have happened through the negotiation process that quite frankly, we just don’t agree with. And, you know, we’re obligated to negotiate in good faith and we feel like we did and I don’t know that everything on the other side happened that way. But you know, my hope is that we’ll continue the conversation. We’ll get it figured out,” he added.

Despite not liking the way NASCAR handled the Charter, Jenkins was optimistic about finding common ground, “I don’t know that it’s necessarily bad. I mean, you think about over the years, there’s been a lot of disagreements and you know, you learn to just work through them and as you know, as I was saying, I’m friends with those guys.”

“You know, I’ve been doing this, I think,17 years now and I’ve become friends with Steve Phelps and Steve O’Donnell and all those guys,” he pointed out. “So I think we’ll figure it all out, hopefully. And you know, it’ll be fine. I’m not that concerned about it.”

Speaking specifically to the contract, Jenkins noted that he did not think that contract that was offered to the teams by NASCAR met their demands.

He explained, “There are four things that were really the four objectives that we had. So here we are almost two years later and we didn’t get any of those objectives. So, in areas where we had hoped to move the ball forward and do some things, we actually regressed and it’s just been tough.”

“I think it’s been a concerted effort to pull back a lot of the teams’ rights as far as governance and we just feel like it was kind of repressive,” he elaborated.

Furthermore, he shared his surprise that NASCAR came down so hard on the teams, “I don’t think anybody expected that NASCAR would take such a strong stance and we don’t understand why.”

“I honestly don’t understand what the, what the motives are because we felt like we could grow this sport, together. And really, when you look at it, you know 23XI and Front row Motorsports, we’re probably two of the more bullish teams in the garage as far as wanting to expand and buy another charter and grow,” he noted.

“So, like, we’re passionate about it. We love the sport,” Jenkins said. “We love the people involved in the sport. You know, we want to continue on. There’s nothing about the sport that we don’t like that I don’t want to be a part of. It’s just we just need a contract that works for everybody because that’s ultimately how the sport is going to succeed and we need to figure a way to make the sport bigger, not keep it small and not keep the teams where they are powerless. And so that’s all our goals ever.”

Finally, he reiterated his optimism of working it out with NASCAR, “I don’t know what or where they stand but I think there’ll be some conversation. I don’t, you know, hopefully it’s not over. Like I said, I don’t want to see this thing dragging into 2025 or beyond. We’ve got to get to a resolution, right?”

“And so, I’m hopeful the next week, or so, we’ll be able to sit down and talk about it and I know the folks at 23XI, their interests are similar to ours. And I think there’s a way to get there. And like I said, I want to take the high road and do it in a positive way. I don’t think, you know, mudslinging or dragging people into this as a way to get it resolved and my hope is we can sit down, have some constructive conversations and look forward to next year,” he concluded.

What do you make of 23XI and Front Row Motorsports not signing the NASCAR Charter agreement?