Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / The Latest On The Explosive NASCAR Lawsuit | Matt Weaver Reports

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The Latest On The Explosive NASCAR Lawsuit | Matt Weaver Reports · Kenny Wallace Media

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  So incredibly much to get to. I don't even know where to
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  start. The short version is, is that if
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  there was any doubt that this trial scheduled for December 1st
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  was going to go the distance, if it would be settled, you could
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  throw that out the window. And in fact, and his closing
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  remarks, Judge Bell, who is overseeing this case since
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  October, said it was clear to him that this was going the
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  distance. And it has gotten very ugly, the
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  things that have been uncovered in discovery, which is what
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  happens when both sides get to open their respective books and
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  look at text messages, emails, documents related to the case.
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  And both the 2311 in front row and the NASCAR sides have
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  uncovered some documents that are just absolutely downright
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  brutal about the other side. And this is not a very
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  professional video in the sense that I've got a lot to dig
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  through here and I'm just going to hit a lot of the keynotes
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  right. One upon reading the the NASCAR
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  filing last week, there was one one line that was redacted that
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  said, you know, Curtis Polk, how Curtis Polk, who is the co-owner
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  of 2311 Michael Jordan's long time business partner, how he
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  really feels about NASCAR. And he said, you know, Cup
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  racing is boring. That race last night was boring
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  as, uh, at one point Denny Hamlin said in a text message to
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  to Michael and and Steve that his despise quote despise for
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  the France family runs deep. Steve Loletta says that the only
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  way that we hope we move forward is when Jim France dies.
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  My point being, even before getting into a lot of the the
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  legalese and the the technical stuff involving this case is
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  that it is downright personal. The two sides do not like each
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  other at all. And Judge Bell, even at the end,
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  Judge Bell said there appears to be disputed material facts.
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  The the two lawyers, these guys are friends.
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  Jeffrey Kessler representing 2311 in front row, Christopher
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  Yates. They have argued sports
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  antitrust lawyer stuff cases for a long time, a very long time.
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  They they consider themselves good friends, but they're on
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  opposite sides a lot. And it got personal between
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  them. Chris Yates brought up case in
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  in January and I don't know if this is the UFC case or the the
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  swimming league case. I need to double check that.
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  But talking about how Jeffrey Kessler had lost that case and
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  Jeffrey Kessler was like, it's irrelevant to to this case.
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  But if you know, if, if, if my friend here, Christopher Yates
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  wants to get into the mud, we'll get into the mud and he lost
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  this case. And so the judge even says
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  talking about a trial in December, that quote, I have a
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  more lackadaisical position and I enjoy this.
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  I don't like having you 2 going at each other.
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  And when a jury is in the box, there will be none of that.
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  And he also told them that you better understand what a
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  Charlotte jury is because no matter what you think of your
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  case in your position and your likelihood of success, you need
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  to lean on your Charlotte area council.
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  Because he has tried most of his career in the Western District
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  of North Carolina, here in Charlotte.
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  And he says that there are some nuances about the Charlotte
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  juries that are just fundamentally different.
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  He says, I do not mean to lecture you, but I have a lot
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  more experience in this courtroom than you do.
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  And so I'm going to go write this up in a minute.
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  And there's just so much to get into, but I want to do to drop
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  this video in here really, really quickly.
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  But there's a lot of like material facts here too, right?
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  Like things that go beyond the personal animus that's going to
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  make the the headlines here. But basically what this thing is
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  about today is that 2311 in front row, they they want to
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  have their charter status back. Remember, there was a injunction
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  ruling in December that forced NASCAR to recognize 2311 in
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  front row as having charters this season.
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  NASCAR appealed that to the 4th Circuit in Richmond, VA, which
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  then overruled Judge Bell's ruling.
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  And so for the last month and a half, 2311 in front row have not
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  had recognizable charter status. That means NASCAR is no longer
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  paying them as if they're charter teams.
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  They haven't given the money back to NASCAR, but they are not
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  guaranteed entrance, although NASCAR did change their rules
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  right afterwards to basically lock in the two teams.
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  So to basically head off the ability for them to claim
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  irreparable harm because if they start missing races and then
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  that could be damages that NASCAR would owe, right.
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  So that was that was a case. That was a point made by Jeffrey
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  Kessler representing the teams to judge asked me or are you at
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  risk of missing races? And he said no, but only because
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  they changed the rules and and Judge Bell said that's
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  irrelevant for the sake of just getting to December.
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  The other issue is what becomes of all these charters, right?
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  The 4th Circuit no longer forced NASCAR to recognize 2311 in
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  front row as having charters. Therefore, they're going to try
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  to sell one of these charters and they of course released in
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  that affidavit or in their filing last week they've they've
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  reached an agreement with a currently unknown buyer or how
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  do I say buyer? We don't know if they're going
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  to sell it or just transfer or what have you.
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  And the 2311 in front row are asking the court to to enjoin
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  them from doing so to prevent them from doing so.
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  And the judge says he will have a ruling on that sometime next
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  week. So after the Southern 500, the
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  case, the the arguments they made on that case is quite,
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  quite thorough. I mean, Jeffrey Kessler said
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  that the cleanest path to get to the December trial is to just
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  maintain that status quo, which is where they were right before
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  the lawsuit was filed that 2311 in front row where charter
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  teams, where they were throughout most of this season
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  until the the ruling was overturned by the 4th Circuit.
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  Kessler's point is that we will be we will be irreparably harmed
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  if NASCAR is allowed to move those charters to this mystery
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  team, right? And so the rebuttal from NASCAR
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  is that they will be irreparably harmed if they are not allowed
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  to move forward approaching the 2026 season because they have
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  interested parties. Which by the way, they say that
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  2311 in Front Row's case is kind of moot because if they were a
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  proper monopsony and they were anti competitive, they would be
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  suppressing team value and team revenue.
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  So that's another point of it as well.
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  There is a lot to unpack here. And I know this video does not
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  do a great job of laying out all of this, and you really need to
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  look at it. And this is the power of written
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  word, right? But I think the key takeaways
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  here there are that these two sides do not like each other at
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  all. There are effectively wishes for
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  people to die, deep resentment, a complete mistrust and
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  disregard of how their businesses affect each other.
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  And this is going the distance. And we're going to be right back
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  here on December 1st to have a trial by jury to determine
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  whether or not if NASCAR has acted in a violation of federal
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  antitrust laws, but also if Curtis Polk has also violated
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  antitrust laws by affecting NASCAR's TV deals, threatening
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  boycotts, trying to undermine NASCAR business.
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  And there are so many different sub layers to this.
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  And I'm about to go over to a local coffee shop here in Uptown
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  Charlotte and we're going to break it down.
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  And I hope you guys will kind of peruse this and look forward
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  later.