Rick Hendrick and Roger Penske have been ordered by the Western District of North Carolina to offer deposition interviews with attorneys representing 23XI Racing and Entrance Row Motorsports upfront of the antitrust lawsuit trial introduced by the groups in opposition to NASCAR set to start on December 1.
A deposition is a proper interview beneath oath that’s sometimes accomplished as a part of the actual fact discovery section the place either side get entry to pertinent paperwork and conversations like these earlier than trial.
The groups requested the decide overseeing this case for the prospect to depose Hendrick and Penske, a pair of Cup Sequence group house owners, after NASCAR indicated in a submitting final week that it supposed to place each outstanding racing personalities on the stand subsequent month.
As they identified, that was a little bit of a shock to 23XI and Entrance Row, and would wish to interview each males upfront of the trial as detailed in its request to the court docket on Wednesday afternoon.
“The late disclosure definitely comes as a shock to Plaintiffs, as NASCAR waited till nicely after the shut of truth discovery to reveal these witnesses, regardless that NASCAR was well-aware of their existence and data relating to the information at situation within the case. Certainly, NASCAR subpoenaed the Penske and Hendrick Cup Sequence groups looking for in depth discovery about their financials and paperwork associated to the 2025 Constitution negotiations, amongst different issues. But, it didn’t disclose these people as potential witnesses.
“Depositions are the one choice to keep away from unfair shock at trial and trial disruptions requiring counsel to waste court docket and jury time on foundational points that would have been explored throughout depositions.”
The 2 groups, via lead lawyer Jeffrey Kessler in its movement, additionally accused NASCAR of sandbagging the participation of Hendrick and Penske and steered they have been nicely inside their rights to ask that each not be allowed on the stand.
As a substitute, they’re solely asking the prospect to interview each males.
“As detailed above, NASCAR amended its preliminary disclosures a number of occasions, however inexplicably waited till greater than two months after the shut of discovery to reveal Messrs. Hendrick and Penske. Exclusion of their testimony can be acceptable beneath these circumstances.
“Nonetheless, Plaintiffs don’t search the exclusion treatment at this juncture. As a substitute, they ask that the Courtroom grant them go away to depose Messrs. Hendrick and Penske earlier than trial.”
NASCAR has not objected to the movement to depose them.
Simply hours later, Decide Kenneth D. Bell granted that movement, and each Hendrick and Penske can be deposed earlier than the trial.
“THIS MATTER is earlier than the Courtroom on Plaintiffs’ Movement for Discovery which seeks go away to depose Rick Hendrick and Roger Penske previous to trial. Plaintiffs’ movement states that ‘NASCAR has indicated it takes no place on this movement.’ For good trigger proven (NASCAR’s identification of Mr. Hendrick and Mr. Penske as individuals with discoverable data and more likely to be known as as witnesses at trial nicely after the shut of truth discovery), the Courtroom will GRANT the movement and allow Plaintiffs to depose Mr. Hendrick and Mr. Penske previous to trial.”
Penske can also be the proprietor of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and IndyCar Sequence along with his NASCAR group.
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