U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell denied a request from NASCAR and its attorneys to dismiss the lawsuit filed against the sanctioning body and its chairman Jim France by 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports.

The two teams refused to sign the new charter agreement during the fall and filed an antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR and France on Oct. 2.

Bells ruling came Friday after he heard arguments from both sides during a Jan. 8 court hearing.

The parties to this action cast their existential dispute in starkly different terms. According to Plaintiffs, NASCAR (led by the dynastic France family) is the iron-fisted monopolistic ruler of premier stock car racing that has imposed anticompetitive take it or leave it terms on Plaintiffs and other top-tier racing teams, Bell wrote in his ruling.

In Defendants telling, NASCAR and the France family are the founders and guiding lights of a beloved and valuable racing series, who have fairly negotiated mutually beneficial Charter Agreements that reflect reasonable commercial terms between NASCAR and the race teams.

What is the actual evidence and how does it inform a correct legal conclusion? These questions cannot be determined on motions to dismiss in this action, where Plaintiffs have sufficiently alleged one or more plausible antitrust claims against Defendants within the applicable period of limitations.

Instead, the answers must be found when the parties have a full opportunity to pursue discovery of the relevant facts and then at trial, where the jury will be able to weigh the evidence and assess the credibility of the witnesses (unless the case is resolved sooner by the parties or the Court). Therefore, the Court will DENY the Defendants Motions to Dismiss.

The judge also denied a request from NASCAR that 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports post a bond of more than $10 million per car in order to compete during the coming season.