‘It’s another edition of the soap opera’

TALLADEGA, Ala. — As Denny Hamlin was digesting the reaction to his race team filing an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR this week, fiancée Jordan Fish sent him a clip from the film “Moneyball.”

“The first guy through the wall — he always gets bloody,” the actor depicting Boston Red Sox owner John Henry says in the film. “This is threatening not just a way of doing business, but in their minds, it’s threatening the game. Really what it’s threatening is their livelihood, it’s threatening their jobs. It’s threatening the way they do things.”

Hamlin found that clip relatable after 23XI Racing, the team he co-owns with Michael Jordan, joined with Front Row Motorsports on Wednesday to accuse NASCAR of being a monopoly in federal court. The reaction has been positive, Hamlin said, from people who want to see the status quo challenged — and it’s been a load off of his mind as he tries to race his way into Round 3 of the playoffs.

“It’s not like just one day we woke up and said, ‘This is going to happen,’” said Hamlin, who drives for Joe Gibbs Racing, before qualifying eighth for Sunday’s NASCAR playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway. “This has been on the plate for a while. It’s provided relief for me to put more focus on (driving) the No. 11 car and everything I have to do there since (the lawsuit) is out and now there are other people out to speak on it from the legality standpoint.”

While it may have been a long time coming for Hamlin, others in the NASCAR garage were still processing the fresh news and what the outcome could mean for the future of NASCAR and its race teams.

“It’s obviously the biggest story in the sport,” said driver/owner Brad Keselowski of RFK Racing. “It’s another edition of the ‘As The World Turns: NASCAR’ soap opera. We’ll all find out together (how it turns out).”

Keselowski said he “wouldn’t expect” his team to join in the suit, a sentiment echoed by six-time champion owner Richard Childress. RFK and Richard Childress Racing both signed the 2025 charter agreement last month, which contains a provision that bans teams from taking any antitrust action against NASCAR. (23XI and Front Row refused to sign it.)

But Childress said teams were pressured to sign the new agreements, a claim which was made in the lawsuit.

“We didn’t have a choice to sign them,” Childress said. “It was just, ‘You sign it or you lose your charters.’ I couldn’t take that gamble, period. And I know a lot of owners I talked to felt the same way.”

So is NASCAR a monopoly, in his view?

“I’ll put it like this: If you want to race, you race in their park if you want to race NASCAR,” Childress said.

NASCAR again declined comment on Saturday and has yet to issue any public reaction to the suit. A court filing said 23XI and Front Row will file for a preliminary injunction next week, after which NASCAR must respond in its own filing within two weeks.

Meanwhile, drivers said they were following the story closely in the media and several acknowledged it was the most significant story to come along in NASCAR for years.

“This is huge for our sport no matter what happens,” Team Penske driver Joey Logano said. “It’s obviously big because we’ve never seen it before.”

But many said they were unsure of what the outcome would be, so they didn’t have a strong opinion one way or the other.

“I’d like to see our sport be more prosperous,” Hendrick Motorsports driver William Byron said. “In watching other professional sports and where we could be, I am excited for that. So hopefully that comes to fruition.”

23XI co-owner Curtis Polk grabbed some drivers’ attention this week after he said their salaries are a fraction of what other athletes make compared to the overall revenue of various sports leagues. Driver salaries, which are not publicly revealed, have declined precipitously from their peak in the mid-2000s, those within NASCAR have said repeatedly.

“We’re probably one of the only sports, if not the only sport, where athlete salaries have gone down in the last couple decades,” Hendrick driver Kyle Larson said. “Obviously, we would love to see it trend upward instead of the opposite. But the teams probably have to make a lot more money to make it viable to pay the people who are working for their organizations.”

23XI drivers Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick expressed full support for the actions their team owners were taking, as did Front Row driver Michael McDowell.

“Me being an advocate for change and standing up for change, that’s what I look at,” said Wallace, the only Black driver in the Cup Series. “It’s a crazy time to be in NASCAR, but I stand behind my team 100 percent, and we’ll see where it takes us.”

McDowell, who won the pole position for Sunday’s race, said he was confident there was no more lean and efficient organization than Front Row — and yet team owner Bob Jenkins still has had to put “millions and millions and millions” of dollars into the team to be even remotely competitive.

“If he has to spend his own money, there’s a problem,” McDowell said.

As for Hamlin, he was asked whether he felt 23XI’s financial commitment to the sport has been appreciated by NASCAR. He pursed his lips and paused for 10 long seconds before eventually answering.

“Probably not,” he said.

(Photo of Denny Hamlin during Saturday’s qualifying at Talladega: Sean Gardner / Getty Images)