Rick Hendrick and Roger Penske, simply two days after they had been motioned for deposition over the 23XI Racing and Entrance Row Motorsports v NASCAR antitrust lawsuit have motioned again to restrict the scope of such conversations.
“Movants discover themselves, shortly and with out a lot warning, within the unenviable place of being compelled to offer expansive and pointless deposition testimony on account of wrangling between the events to a lawsuit that ought to have settled lengthy prior to now. As defined in larger element beneath, Messrs. Hendrick and Penske, in view of their decades-long relationship with Jim France, agreed to offer restricted testimony relating to non-confidential issues on the trial of this case, however in a manner that didn’t drive them to ‘take sides’ on this lawsuit – one thing which each males have made clear that they can not and won’t do. That has now morphed into an effort by the Plaintiffs to hunt testimony probably relating to HMS’ and Penske’s extremely confidential monetary and different enterprise info.”
Hendrick and Penske had been deposed earlier within the week, however solely after authorized representatives for 23XI and Entrance Row claimed that NASCAR has ‘sandbagged’ naming them to a witness record with out giving the 2 groups an opportunity to conduct due diligence and discovery on the 2 males.
Representing Hendrick and Penske, lawyer Adam Ross says NASCAR solely lately approached the 2 males to witness solely in relation to the statements they issued urging each events to achieve a settlement.
“In simply the previous few days (and in Mr. Hendrick’s case, on the NASCAR awards banquet following the championship win), Mr. France and his counsel approached Messrs. Hendrick and Penske (individually) and requested if they’d be keen to offer testimony at trial particularly restricted to the high-level contents of the Declarations that each males submitted various weeks in the past. Neither man desires to play any function on this lawsuit in any respect and have made clear that they won’t ‘take sides’ on this case. Nevertheless, in view of their decades-long relationship with Mr. France, they agreed to offer the requested restricted scope of testimony if required by a duly served subpoena.”
Merely acknowledged, Hendrick and Penske don’t want, nor do they really feel speaking about monetary information or the build-up to the 2016 constitution settlement is acceptable.
“Instantly after Plaintiffs filed their Movement for Depart on Wednesday, however earlier than this Court docket granted the Movement, counsel for the Events met and conferred with the undersigned counsel.
“The undersigned counsel defined that NASCAR had agreed to restrict the scope of trial testimony to the Declarations, and as long as the Plaintiffs restricted their questioning to that slender lane of questioning, a compromise might be reached permitting for the depositions to happen with out objection. Plaintiffs refused and made clear that they meant to ask quite a few questions of each males relating to their respective race groups’ extremely confidential enterprise and monetary information, personal communications relating to the negotiations main as much as the preliminary 2016 Constitution Settlement, and different extremely confidential subjects.”
Ross, by way of the movement, reminds the courtroom that an order on June 25, 2025 ‘considerably limits’ the knowledge that the non-party groups could be required to offer.
This was the settlement that led to groups, by way of a third-party, sending NASCAR broad information of common per automobile quantity financials however with out attaching figuring out info. That is what the non-party groups had prompt to the courtroom.
“Recognizing the restricted relevance of non-party groups’ monetary info to the events’ claims and defenses, in addition to the dangers and burden to the groups, the Court docket refused to require HMS, PRS, or some other non-party crew to supply to NASCAR any monetary info aside from in an nameless and untraceable format.
“The testimony that Plaintiffs now search will undermine everything of the Court docket’s choice as associated to HMS and PRS and probably permit the Events (or the media or normal public) to ‘reverse engineer’ the anonymized crew info to again out HMS and PRS in an effort to determine the sources of the opposite crew info.”
Hendrick and Penske additionally really feel just like the timing of those depositions, approaching each Thanksgiving and the trial is one thing of a burden, with the movement requesting that they be allowed to do that over Zoom and solely below the restricted scope that protects the knowledge protected by the June order.
“HMS and PRS compete immediately with each NASCAR and Plaintiffs for sponsors and staff, in addition to on the monitor. Disclosure of HMS’s and PRS’s monetary and enterprise info would thus be extremely burdensome and dangerous. Furthermore, HMS or PRS have little confidence {that a} protecting order would keep the confidentiality of any such info – whether or not in a deposition or in the end at trial – given the First Modification and customary regulation rights of entry already acknowledged by this Court docket. …
“According to the Court docket’s prior ruling, there stays no compelling want on this case for HMS’s and PRS’ confidential monetary and enterprise info. Furthermore, any query from Plaintiffs (or some other get together) to Mr. Hendrick or Mr. Penske about even the confidential, anonymized common per-car information would essentially require them to reveal some further details about the info that would allow the events – and the media – to find out which figures are related to which crew. Such a consequence could be inconsistent with this Court docket’s prior Order figuring out that HMS’s, PRS’s, and the opposite non-party groups’ rights.”
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