Co-owner of 23XI Racing Curtis Polk referred to the conflict between his team and NASCAR as “David facing Goliath,” implying that the company, together with co-owners Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan, was far from finalizing the planned renewal of NASCAR’s charter agreement with teams.

Polk, speaking to a small group of reporters Sunday prior to the NASCAR playoffs opener at Atlanta Motor Speedway, said 23XI would continue to try and seek terms that were acceptable to doing business. On Friday, 13 of NASCAR’s 15 charter-holding team owners signed the agreement under threat of losing their charters altogether if they did not meet a midnight deadline.

“They put a gun to our head and we had to sign,” one team owner, granted anonymity to speak freely about the contentious deal, told The Athletic. “It is what it is. We move forward.”

Polk said while other teams “may have felt pressured and compelled to sign the agreement under significant duress,” 23XI viewed the terms as “particularly harmful to our operations and our ownership group’s interests and intellectual property rights.”

“This isn’t the 1960s, and these predatory practices will not withstand scrutiny and be accepted in 2024,” Polk said.

The other holdout among owners, Bob Jenkins of Front Row Motorsports, said his team’s concerns “are very similar to those raised by 23XI” and said it wasn’t feasible for Front Row to sign the extension on short notice.

“It just was tough to get a 105-page contract at 6 o’clock on Friday night and then be asked to sign it by midnight,” he told The Athletic. “We just didn’t feel like it was the right thing to do. I don’t have anything against the guys who did sign it. I know a lot of people were uncomfortable but felt like they had to.”

Teams have been seeking more favorable terms from their charter agreement with NASCAR for several years, and NASCAR did concede on one major point by offering to share more revenue from its media rights deal. But teams said NASCAR chairman Jim France, the son of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., has been unwilling to move on some other key requests.

“Our concerns are based on specific one-sided aspects of the contract that we believe were not sufficiently addressed, and we are seeking a fair resolution,” Polk said. “Our concerns also lie with the fairness of the process itself. The contract offer took away essential rights, and we believe that all teams, including those who signed, may not have been given a true opportunity to negotiate or fully understand the implications of the contract terms.

“It’s important to fully consider the long-term implications of these terms, which could be detrimental not just to all teams but to the sport as a whole.”

Polk said he would not go into specifics on the terms of the deal, as NASCAR has asked no negotiations take place in the media. Polk said he had not met with France personally since May and felt 23XI’s requests had not been implemented or considered in any revised version of the deal.

“NASCAR has superior bargaining power and undue influence over the sport and the charter process,” Polk said. “They wielded this power continuously over the past few months and consistently rejected broad team requests on major issues while providing minor changes for pet issues that some teams requested in one-on-one meetings.”

So where does this leave 23XI and Front Row, after NASCAR threatened to revoke charters from those who did not sign by the midnight Friday deadline? That is unclear, and no decision has been reached by NASCAR, which declined to comment for this story.

Polk said 23XI sent NASCAR a letter on Friday before the deadline and is awaiting a response. He also would not rule out taking their case to the legal system, if necessary.

“I’m not going to speculate as to what we’re going to do,” Polk said. “We’re going to protect our rights, and whatever we have to do to protect our rights is what we’ll do.”