Basketball legend Michael Jordan is on the verge of a legal battle.
Per Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports, Jordan's 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports jointly filed an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR alleging that the league has used anti-competitive practices to prevent fair competition in the sport.
"Everyone knows that I have always been a fierce competitor, and that will to win is what drives me and the entire 23XI team each and every week out on the track," Jordan said in a release. "I love the sport of racing and the passion of our fans, but the way NASCAR is run today is unfair to teams, drivers, sponsors, and fans. Today's action shows I'm willing to fight for a competitive market where everyone wins."
Jordan and the other plaintiffs in the lawsuit retained Jeffrey Kessler as counsel, who Jones described as "one of the leading antitrust lawyers in the country." Kessler has previously represented NFL players in legal battles against the league.
NASCAR CEO Jim France was also named in the lawsuit. The release stated, "NASCAR and the France family operate without transparency, have stifled competition, and control the sport of stock car racing in ways that unfairly benefit them at the expense of team owners, drivers, sponsors, partners, and fans."
Among the anti-competitive practices highlighted were buying a majority of the premier racetracks that are exclusive to NASCAR races, preventing teams from participating in any other stock car races and forcing teams to buy their parts from single-source suppliers chosen by NASCAR.
Jordan founded 23XI Racing in 2020 alongside fellow part owners Curtis Polk and Denny Hamlin, who has won 54 NASCAR Cup Series races.
"It's actually pretty simple in my opinion," Hamlin said in the release. "When I look around, I see that the best and most competitive sports in the world understand that when teams thrive, fans benefit, and that everyone who invests in making the sport a success should share fairly in that success. With the right changes, we can certainly make that a reality in racing."
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