23XI, Front Row race into 2025 while NASCAR lawsuit looms

Denny Hamlin has learned a great deal about team ownership since 23XI Racing opened its doors in 2021, but he has received another crash course over the last five months.

As co-owner of one of the teams suing NASCAR on antitrust allegations, Hamlin has sat in courtrooms as a player in an intense, complicated legal battle.

"I kind of think of it like I think of architecture," Hamlin told FOX Sports. "I really didn't get into that until I built my house, built [the shop] AirSpeed and started getting into what architecture is all about.

"And now it's obviously on the legal side. I'm like, ‘Wow, it's very interesting learning the law,’ and it's certainly intriguing to me. And certainly very, very specific and detailed."

For 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, they embark on a 2025 season that included an offseason of uncertainty as they didn’t know until mid-January that each of their three cars would at least start the season as chartered teams.

The teams sought an injunction to be permitted to race as chartered teams without being subject to a clause in the new charter agreement that pretty much would release NASCAR of antitrust claims. Their first try at an injunction was denied Nov. 8 but then granted on Dec. 18. 

NASCAR asked the U.S. District Court to delay enforcement of the injunction pending appeal. When that request was denied, NASCAR was expected to ask the appeals court to delay enforcement but eventually opted not to ask the appeals court for a delay. The appeal will likely be heard on either May 9 or May 15, and a decision will come in the weeks or months following that hearing.

The district court judge is adamant that a jury trial in the case will begin in December, so that this is the only season where the