Team Owners Forced To Hire “Michael Jordan Of Lawyers” After CEO Jim France’s Continued Ignorance On Charter Negotiations

While the racing side of things got off to an exhilarating start in NASCAR this past weekend, not much headway has been made when it comes to the new charter agreement. Due to the high costs of stock car racing, team owners are calling for an agreement that will help alleviate that financial pressure. However, the owners were recently disappointed by CEO Jim France as he declined an invitation from them. For the past several months, NASCAR and the Race Team Alliance (RTA) have been trying to come to a common ground over a new charter agreement. There is not a lot of time left for the parties involved to come to a new agreement as the current one expires at the end of this year. But instead of there being positive talks, quite the opposite has transpired with the RTA even hiring a lawyer to presumably safeguard their interests in the long run.

23XI Racing team owner reveals RTA’s decision to hire a lawyer against NASCAR

The lawyer in question is Jeffrey Kessler and he is a man quite popular and well respected in the legal circle. His work has primarily been in the sports industry and he hardly puts a foot wrong. Kessler is the lawyer who won in the US Supreme Court in the NCAA v. Alston (2021) case. He is also the man who helped the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team get equal pay as the men’s soccer team. Basically, Kessler does not mess around.

This was revealed in a recent episode of the Actions Detrimental podcast where Denny Hamlin (23XI Racing owner) and Jared Allen spoke about the current situation with the new charter agreement. Co-host Allen brought up Kessler’s hiring by the RTA, as he referred to the Winston & Strawn partner as the “Michael Jordan of lawyers.”

“There’s a story to be told on the owners’ part and obviously hiring Jeffrey is a big step for the owners. But I think a lot of it is protection for the team owners. Obviously, there’s a lot of language and so much red tape when it comes to charter agreements and whatnot that…you gotta make sure that you got all the protection you need because this is a big deal. The charter agreement is a big deal to us,” the 23XI Racing owner said while replying to his co-host.

The 43-year-old did not shy away from expressing his disappointment at the fact that NASCAR CEO Jim France declined an invitation from the RTA. He added all that the owners wanted from that meeting was to understand why NASCAR has been rejecting their needs in the new charter agreement.

Read More – 3-Time Daytona Winner Explains the Importance of Winning ‘NASCAR’s Super Bowl’

Denny Hamlin slams Jim France’s cold shoulder treatment to owners’ invitation

There is a lot of tension between the parties at the moment and seems unlikely that anything will be resolved anytime soon. Without a charter agreement in place, race teams will be able to leave NASCAR for other competitions where the financial pressure would be a bit less. But that also seems pretty unlikely, especially for the big teams.

“I do know that the team owners met on Saturday. I was there. The invitation was extended to Jim France..[..].. but he declined that invitation. So, I think it’s disappointing. I can’t think of a league or an owner of a league or a commissioner that would decline meeting with his team owners. That’s very disappointing. And a lot of the teams are wondering, you said no over and over and over to us, we’re just looking for an explanation why and we haven’t got that,” the 23XI Racing owner added.

It will be interesting to see how things pan out between the RTA and NASCAR in the coming months with the charter agreement. Considering that it is the last year of the current contract, something has to be worked out before the end of it.

Watch This Story: What Is The Story Behind Rick Hendrick And Jimmie Johnson’s Cookie And Milk History