Denny Hamlin blasts NASCAR for forcing 23XI into antitrust lawsuit: "They took away all rights"

Denny Hamlin blasted NASCAR for the alleged “unfair” terms and conditions of the new charter deals. He believes the stock car racing league took away the rights of the team, which led him and the 23XI team to file an antitrust lawsuit.

Hamlin is one of the co-owners of 23XI along with NBA Hall of Famer Michael Jordan. While managing the Huntersville-based outfit, he drives the No. 11 Toyota Camry at Joe Gibbs Racing.

In a recent episode of his Actions Detrimental podcast, Denny Hamlin talked about how NASCAR tried to take away the rights of the teams, including prohibiting them from suing the league.

“You get this document, that, by the way, your lawyer just had the first opportunity to talk 24 hours before that, and then all of a sudden you must sign this and we’re done,” Hamlin said.

“When NASCAR put that clause in the very, you know, I’m not speaking out of turn here because I know these things are now public… they put in there, ‘If you sign this you cannot sue us for anything basically that we have done through this process. You can’t sue us for anti-trust.’ They took away all of our rights. All of our rights.”

Denny Hamlin continued by sharing why the team decided to contest the charter contracts.

“So at that point, we said, ‘Hold on, stop. We can’t sign this’, because we know this is wrong. If we do, we release them of any wrongdoing, and they’ve had wrongdoings.”

23XI, along with Front Row Motorsports, tapped renowned antitrust, sports law, and trial lawyer Jeffrey Kessler to represent them in court. Kessler argued in an interview with former NASCAR Cup driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. that NASCAR is a monopoly, and illegally so.

On the other hand, NASCAR, spearheaded by CEO Jim France, will be represented by Chris Yates, a renowned attorney whose client list includes the U.S. Soccer Federation, the UFC, and Fanatics, among others.

---

Former crew chief turned NASCAR analyst slammed Denny Hamlin’s 23XI for filing a lawsuit

Larry McReynolds, a two-time Daytona 500-winning crew chief, slammed Denny Hamlin and the 23XI team for filing a lawsuit against NASCAR.

The now-sports analyst for FOX pointed out that 23XI wasn’t even in the sport for four years yet the team went after the league, which had been doing business for 76 years. He also brought up NASCAR veteran team owners Richard Childress and Rick Hendrick, who signed the deal.

Per Brett Winningham on X (formerly Twitter), McReynolds said:

“We’ve got an organization that's been here not even four years that all of a sudden is saying 'we gotta change the way NASCAR's run'. I'm all about change. Change is what makes you better. But you know what? When I see Richard Childress, Jake Roush, Rick Hendrick, and Joe Gibbs that's been here longer than some of these guys have been pooping yellow ... and they signed off and said this is good ... we're okay.”

He added:

“There's things we don't like about it but we're going to do what's best for the sport and best for our business. And they signed off on it and these people that have been A. either not competitive or only been here for four and a half years have been saying the way we've done business for 76 and a half years is wrong.”

With Denny Hamlin refusing to sign the documents, 23XI drivers Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace should compete next year without a charter or guaranteed entries in the 36-race calendar.