Michael Jordan Celebrates Win Over NASCAR In Antitrust Lawsuit

After a long-fought court battle, six-time NBA champion Michael Jordan has secured yet another victory.

Jordan went up against NASCAR in a nasty antitrust case, accusing the racing behemoth of acting as a monopoly. Now with the new settlement, NASCAR’s been forced to give all the sports teams what they were fighting for: permanent charters.

In major sports terms, it’s the equivalent of franchises in the NFL or NBA that participate in a larger league and benefit financially from the shared competition.

After the court reached a decision, Jordan spoke atop the courthouse’s steps, satisfied that more power was being put into the team owners’ hands, not NASCAR, which the France family has owned since its 1948 inception.

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“Like two competitors, obviously we tried to get as much done in each other’s favor,” Jordan said. “I’ve said this from Day 1: the only way this sport is going to grow is we have to find some synergy between the two entities. I think we’ve gotten to that point, unfortunately it took 16 months to get here, but I think level heads have gotten us to this point where we can actually work together and grow this sport. I am very proud about that and I think Jim feels the same.”

81-year-old CEO Jim France stood by Jordan and echoed his sentiments, relieved to get things back to focusing on the track.

“I do feel the same, and we can get back to focusing on what we really love, and that’s racing, and we spent a lot of time not really focused on that so much as we needed to be,” France said. “I feel like we made a very good decision here together, and we have a big opportunity to continue growing the sport.”

The previous structure, introduced in 2018, still included charters, but NASCAR could remove them at any time, and teams felt the revenue sharing was imbalanced. Jordan’s 23XI team and Front Row went back and forth in negotiations, but with no solution in sight and NASCAR implementing a “take-it-or-leave-it” strategy, they went the legal route. 

An economist even testified that NASCAR owes 23XI and Front Row a combined $364.7 million in damages, and that NASCAR shorted 36 chartered teams $1.06 billion to other charter teams, but the financial terms of the settlement have not been released.

A text between Jordan and 23XI co-owner Curtis Polk even came out in the proceedings, referring to the cost of the legal fight.

“Only can play but so much golf,” Jordan texted Polk. “I have lost that in a casino. Let’s do it.”

See social media’s reaction to Jordan’s win.