Winston Takes the Checkered Flag After “Massive Win” Settlement

Winston squared off in the W.D.N.C. against lawyers for NASCAR in an antitrust lawsuit brought on behalf of racing teams Front Row Motorsports Inc. and 23X1 Racing LLC—the team co-owned by Michael Jordan and driver Denny Hamlin—alleging monopolization of the market for premier stock car racing teams. On December 11, 2025, nine days into trial and the morning after the plaintiffs rested their case, the parties jointly announced a settlement. Jeffrey Kessler, Jeanifer Parsigian, and Danielle Williams were recognized by American Lawyer with its top “Litigator of the Week” honors on December 19, 2025, for this historic settlement.

The settlement provides long-term stability for racing teams through evergreen charters, NASCAR’s version of a franchise system, which are now permanent assets that cannot be taken away and will have periodic renegotiation of economic terms between the teams and NASCAR. This change has reportedly doubled (or more) charter values overnight and is expected to set the teams up for continued increases in enterprise value and an influx of investment into the sport. The settlement also provides governance rights to teams, who will now have a vote on material changes affecting their costs, and revenue sharing for the use of their intellectual property rights and international races.

2311 Racing LLC, et al. v. National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC, et al. (Case No. 3:24-cv-00886, Western District of North Carolina)