Michael Jordan's 23XI racing drags F1 into NASCAR legal dispute

Dominika Jordan
Apr 12, 2025, 5:59 PM ET

Michael Jordan's 23XI Racing includes F1 in antitrust battle with NASCAR for financial data

Red Bull Racing/Red Bull Content Pool

A high-stakes legal clash in the world of motorsports has escalated, summoning the prestigious Formula 1 into a confrontation involving NASCAR and two of its teams, one co-owned by NBA legend Michael Jordan.

Michael Jordan’s 23XI Racing, which he helped establish in 2020, and Front Row Motorsports (FRM) have been locked in a legal battle with NASCAR since October 2024. The teams allege NASCAR has engaged in anti-competitive and monopolistic practices, leading them to file an antitrust lawsuit against the stock car racing organization.

In a dramatic twist, a recent filing in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado revealed that 23XI and FRM have implicated Formula 1 by pursuing a subpoena directed at Liberty Media, F1’s parent company. The racing teams are pressing the court to mandate Liberty Media to provide crucial financial information.

According to the court submission, "Plaintiffs [23XI and FRM] subpoena to F1 seeks financial information relevant to proving antitrust injury and calculating the damages incurred by Plaintiffs under the well-accepted 'yardstick' measure of estimating damages in an antitrust litigation." The plaintiffs argue that obtaining this financial data is essential to benchmark against NASCAR’s practices and substantiate their claims.

The filing indicates that 23XI and FRM are requesting five specific categories of information from F1. Four of these categories pertain to documentation sufficient to demonstrate the distribution of team and league revenues. The fifth request targets the Concorde Agreement, the binding contract delineating the commercial relationship between F1 and its participating teams.

The courts documents further assert that this information is crucial for making comparative analyses between NASCAR and other major professional sports leagues. However, despite attempts at reaching a compromise, F1's management has reportedly resisted these demands. "Despite Plaintiffs’ substantial compromise offer, F1 has refused to produce the requested information," 23XI and FRM stated in the court filing. "The Court should compel F1 to produce the requested documents. The requested financial documents are squarely relevant to the underlying litigation."

Beyond Formula 1, 23XI and FRM have also dispatched subpoenas to other prominent sports leagues, including the NFL, NBA, NHL, and IndyCar, signaling the far-reaching implications of this legal challenge. As the legal battle intensifies, the intersection of these racing and sporting giants underscores the broader tensions within the competitive landscape of professional sports.