Unsealed court documents have provided an extensive amount of information about 23XI Racing, Front Row Motorsports, and NASCAR. This includes what these two Cup Series teams paid Stewart-Haas Racing for charters.
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According to one unsealed document, Front Row Motorsports initially paid Stewart-Haas Racing $5,900,000 in earnest money in April 2024. This became a credit towards the final purchase price of $29,500,000. Front Row Motorsports was then able to use this third charter to expand to a three-car team for 2025.
MORE: Front Row Motorsports charter purchase agreement
MORE: 23XI Racing charter purchase agreement
23XI Racing, for comparison, spent a little less on its charter from Stewart-Haas Racing. The team agreed to pay $28 million so that it could expand to a three-car team with Riley Herbst joining Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick in the lineup.
One interesting note about this agreement is that 23XI Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing broke the purchase up into four installments. Denny Hamlin's team had to pay the first $7 million installment before Aug. 12, 2024. The team then had to pay the other three installments before Sept. 21, 2024; Nov. 5, 2024; and Dec. 5, 2024.
This installment plan is not the only interesting aspect of the 23XI Racing charter purchase agreement. More unsealed documents showed that 23XI Racing co-owner Curtis Polk indicated in an email that he had a problem with the agreement amid the ongoing charter negotiations. This forced the other co-owners to take care of the purchase price.
"I spoke with MJ (Michael Jordan) and I told him how I couldn't in good conscience personally invest in a (third) charter based on the current draft of the Charter Agreement," Polk wrote in a May 2024 email.
"MJ understood and said if Denny is willing to invest his 40% share, he would cover the 60% and take the risk that this is the charter we live with for the next 7+ years."
Of course, these were not straightforward purchases. Neither 23XI Racing nor Front Row Motorsports signed the 2025 Charter Agreement. They then filed an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR and Jim France.
NASCAR and the two teams suing it reached a partial agreement in December 2024 that allowed the charter purchases to proceed. However, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports ultimately lost their statuses as chartered teams.
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a preliminary injunction forcing NASCAR to allow the two teams to race under the 2025 Charter Agreement.
The two teams closed out the season racing with Open entries, meaning they had to qualify for every race. They also received smaller portions of the prize purse.
