"I've no idea if that argument holds any weight" - NASCAR influencer reacts to Jim France's lawyer's claims against Michael Jordan's business partner

NASCAR influencer Eric Estepp has weighed in on the ongoing lawsuit between NASCAR and 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports 23XI Racing/Front Row Motorsports-NASCAR lawsuit battle. Estepp said he wasn't sure whether NASCAR's rebuttals, including a shot at Curtis Polk, against the two teams hold any weight.

In their new statement, NASCAR questioned why 23XI and FRM didn't file a lawsuit years ago regarding the controversial "you can't sue us" clause and the alleged monopolistic practices.

Estepp responded by saying:

"I'm no lawyer, I'm not even a fake lawyer. Don't know if that holds any weight but that's what NASCAR's arguing." [8:33]

NASCAR also criticized Curtis Polk, Michael Jordan's long-time business partner and investor in 23XI Racing, a team Jordan co-owns with Denny Hamlin.

Jim France's legal team claimed Polk led the Toyota-based team to take the fight to NASCAR regarding the charter deals. Polk allegedly tampered with the league, which negatively affected the stakeholders including the media and team owners.

Again, the NASCAR influencer questioned whether the said statement could work in favor of the league, saying:

"I'm no legal expert... have no idea if that argument holds any weight but I found it interesting." [10:44]

As it stands, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports don't have a charter deal for the 2025 season, meaning they would run as open teams. In turn, they don't have guaranteed entries to the 36-race schedule and would miss out on huge payouts.

The teams are currently fighting for a preliminary injunction for the second time with new evidence against NASCAR and Jim France. They will be allowed to respond to the league's statement on December 12.

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Jim France-led NASCAR's statement against 23XI Racing's Curtis Polk

According to NASCAR, 23XI Racing investor Curtis Polk devised various "coercive strategies" in a bid to provide more beneficial terms for the team. One of these strategies is a negative media campaign.

Polk notably stirred the tension during the Southern 500 at Darlington in September when he wore a note on his shirt that read, "Please don’t ask me about my Charter. I don’t want to disparage NASCAR and lose it."

NASCAR and Jim France's latest statement against Polk says:

"Curtis Polk led the TNC negotiations and devised various coercive strategies to extract favorable financial and non-financial terms in the 2025 charter negotiations. These strategies included, but are not limited to, boycotts and potential boycotts of ANSCSAR events, negative media campaign to affect the media rights negotiations and threats/coercion to other team owners to 'not break ranks."

"On information and belief, the establishment of the TNC, as well as the tactics used by Plaintiffs and spearheaded by Curtis Polk individually, were for the purpose to extort more beneficial terms, and this litigation is merely a continuation of this scheme," the statement further read.

While waiting for further developments on the lawsuit battle, 23XI co-owner Denny Hamlin said the team might skip the Clash. This non-points-paying race could help them set up their cars ahead of the 2025 season, especially with a new third car Riley Herbst will drive.