NASCAR’s season is entering its final six weeks under the shadow of an antitrust lawsuit filed by two of its teams

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – There is a scene in the NASCAR movie “Days of Thunder” in which the character Big John, modeled on series creator Bill France Sr., threatens two feuding drivers.

Tired of the on-track antics between drivers loosely based on Dale Earnhardt and a combination of Geoff Bodine and Tim Richmond, Big John warns of the consequences that will come if they don’t stop ruining each other.

“You change the paint again, if you so much as touch each other, I will black flag you both,” says Big John in the film, “and dismantle your race cars for 300 laps.” If you then pass the inspection and your Putting cars back together, I might let you get back into the race.”

There was some truth to this scene because NASCAR, its inspectors, race officials and executives are in charge and can interpret the rules as they see fit. It’s happened time and time again since the French family founded NASCAR in 1948: a car struggling to pass inspection for an infraction, or the same team discovering it was “randomly selected” to drive it week after week to be subjected to thorough disassembly.

Should 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports be worried?

Finally, the two teams just filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR, alleging “anti-competitive provisions” in the charter agreement reached last month. The lawsuit will be an issue for the rest of the season, which is now well into the playoffs and includes six more races.

23XI is owned by former NBA star Michael Jordan and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, who actively drives for Joe Gibbs Racing. The team fields cars for Bubba Wallace and regular season Cup Series champion Tyler Reddick. Hamlin and Reddick are both fighting for the Cup Series title.

Front Row has no drivers in the playoffs, but that doesn’t mean Bob Jenkins’ cars won’t face intense scrutiny starting Friday when the garage at Talladega Superspeedway opens for inspection.

Hamlin, who has already been handed a major penalty this season, said he is confident NASCAR will not retaliate against him, the cars he owns, his teammates at JGR or the drivers in the front row.

“I have so much confidence in them to become professionals,” Hamlin said. “You can separate Denny, the driver who is at the track on Sunday, from Denny, who is the owner Monday through Friday. Certainly there have been things in the past that were conspiracy theories, but you can’t get caught up in that.”

“Surely they will respect me and my (JGR) team because right now the most important thing for me is to compete for this championship in the next six weeks.”

Talladega is a tricky track with strict safety rules that can be applied arbitrarily. For example, a yellow line surrounds Alabama Superspeedway and drivers are prohibited from using it to gain position or force another driver below the line to maintain position.

It’s the officials on the NASCAR scoring tower who decide yellow line violations, and never has this been more scrutinized than in 2008, when Tony Stewart was declared the winner at Talladega even though Regan Smith beat him to the finish line. Smith had crossed below the yellow line and got ahead of Stewart, who had clearly forced Smith over the line with a blocking maneuver.

Smith believed he was robbed by NASCAR’s decision.

“I was always told the rule was, if you’re forced down there, you’re the winner of the race, and on the last lap anything is possible,” Smith said that day. “I was forced down there.”

Just a year earlier, Johnny Benson went under the yellow line in a three-way finish in a Truck Series race at Daytona International Speedway. NASCAR said at the time that Benson’s move was legal because the rule had leeway: If a driver can see the checkered flag flying, essentially everything goes beyond the last attempt to the finish line.

This Sunday, if Hamlin or Reddick or any of the drivers whose teams are embroiled in a lawsuit against NASCAR find themselves near the yellow line, who knows what the verdict will be?

23XI and Front Row have retained leading antitrust attorney Jeffrey Kessler to represent them. He said he wasn’t worried.

“It has been my experience that in many lawsuits against sports leagues and sports organizations, when I call them in court, their lawyers advise them, ‘Don’t mess with the other side because that’s the worst thing you can do.’ said Kessler. “We don’t typically see players retaliate, we don’t see our other plaintiffs experience retaliation either, and I would be surprised if it happened here. But if it happens, we certainly know what to do about it.”

Hamlin travels to Talladega, which is in fifth place in the playoff standings. Reddick, his driver at 23XI and a spring winner at Alabama, is ninth and could be eliminated from the playoffs if he doesn’t finish in the top eight after next week’s elimination race in Charlotte.