The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, better known as NASCAR, is the governing body that operates the famed stock car racing series. An American phenomenon that traces its origins to Prohibition-era bootlegging, NASCAR’s popularity has waned since the 2000s, but the motorsport series remains popular and culturally significant. The company is a family business, having been founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948 and his son Jim France currently controls the business.
NASCAR is currently at the center of a contentious antitrust battle. The case centers around NASCAR’s charter system, which provides guaranteed race entries (and thus winnings) for motorsport teams that hold charters. Before charters, each team would attempt to qualify for each race individually.
The lawsuit was brought by 2311 Racing and Front Row Motorsports, two chartered teams that refused to sign a new charter agreement proposed by NASCAR for the 2025 season. The teams allege that the charter system creates a monopoly. NASCAR also filed a counterclaim alleging that the plaintiffs (and the other NASCAR teams) themselves violated antitrust laws by acting as a cartel. Judge Kenneth Bell rejected those claims on Tuesday. Latham & Watkins represents NASCAR in this antitrust matter.
As the organization that merely operates the NASCAR series, NASCAR does not find itself in courtrooms frequently. However, NASCAR has recently begun bringing suit against anonymous entities that they accuse of selling counterfeit NASCAR-branded items, a trend that is expanding across the American legal system and is particularly concentrated in the Northern District of Illinois. In these IP matters, NASCAR is represented by JiangIP.
Other than these matters, the legal entity behind the multimedia titan of NASCAR spends very little time in federal court, especially in comparison to other leagues like the NFL, which have a much more structured franchise system.
