Recently in Racing Category

A nasty divorce may not necessarily remain a secret, as NASCAR chief Brian France has learned. Court documents unsealed Wednesday reveal details of his finances and his acrimonious divorce.

The documents were finally obtained by the reporters after a five-year court battle. France wanted the divorce files kept under seal, reports The Charlotte Observer.

With nosy media types scrutinizing celebrities and their personal lives, is there a way to keep the details of a divorce under wraps?

NASCAR star Danica Patrick's divorce has gotten the green light from an Arizona judge, who signed off on the racecar driver's split from (now ex-)hubby Paul Hospenthal last week.

Patrick put the pedal to the metal to complete her uncontested divorce. The couple's community property will be divided pursuant to a settlement agreement that's yet to be submitted to the court. But Patrick pre-emptively put the brakes on dishing out more money by signing a prenup.

So how do prenuptial agreements work in Arizona?

On the eve of the Daytona 500, a horrific multicar NASCAR crash at the Daytona International Speedway injured 28 fans.

The accident occurred on the final lap of a Nationwide Series race when Kyle Larson's car flew into the frontstretch catch fencing on the turn, reports ESPN. The front end of Larson's car was cut in half and pieces of the vehicle flew into the stands injuring fans.

Fourteen of the injured spectators were treated on site for relatively minor injuries. The other 14 injured spectators where were taken off-site including two fans who were in critical condition. As investigators continue to look into the accident, you may be wondering whether NASCAR bears any legal responsibility for the injuries.

The NHL lockout is finally over after 113 days. So hockey fans, all five of you, can rejoice.

While much of America may not have even noticed that there was no hockey, NHL players and team owners were busy working out a collective bargaining agreement through mediation that would meet players' demands and alleviate owners' concerns, Reuters reports.

Even if you are not a hockey fan, the process by which the two sides reached an agreement is common for workers everywhere. Here are three legal lessons from the NHL lockout and the mediation process:

IndyCar champ Dan Wheldon was killed over the weekend during a fiery crash at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The night prior, a number of racers, including Wheldon, raised concerns about the track's safety. The 1.5-mile oval is traditionally used for NASCAR races, which run at significantly lower speeds than an IndyCar that hits speeds of 220 mph.

With 34 drivers on the track, the IndyCars were just inches apart. As one commentator describes it, drivers who made a mistake had "nowhere to go."

A North Carolina judge revoked NASCAR driver Kyle Busch's license for 45 days on Tuesday as a result of a May incident during which he was cited for reckless driving when officers clocked him going 128 in a 45 mile per hour zone.

Busch, who at the time was test driving a $400,000 Lexus LFA lent to him by teammate Denny Hamlin, will be able to continue racing, but should plan to be watched by the Iredell County judge, who also sentenced him to serve 1 year of unsupervised probation.

Another Tuesday, another Kyle Busch speeding ticket.

Or shall we say another ticket for reckless driving?

Kyle Busch was cited on Tuesday afternoon after an officer near Mooresville, North Carolina clocked him going 128 in a 45 mph zone.

That's nearly three times over the legal limit.

Officers found Kyle Busch speeding in a 2012 yellow Lexus LFA, which Fox News reports is a concept car and production model that just begs for speed.

Sports betting may become Delaware's path out of a projected budget shortfall, or at least lawmakers in the state are hoping so. The AP reports that governor Jack Markell today signed a bill legalizing betting on sports in the state. Further, it looks like state officials aren't going to be stopping at just sports betting either, as the story noted they expect to also have "table games such as poker, blackjack, craps and roulette, in play in no more than six months."

Although a number of federal laws apply to regulate many forms and methods of gambling, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act is the federal law that covers sports betting. As noted by the AP, this law grandfathered in only 4 states (Delaware, Nevada, Montana and Oregon), and leaves the remainder out in the sports-betting-cold.

Considering the challenges facing pretty much all state budgets, it probably shouldn't be too surprising that other states have already thought about trying to hop aboard the gambling cash-train. For example, New Jersey filed a lawsuit earlier this year challenging the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, on the very grounds that it discriminates against the un-grandfathered 46 states. For those who prefer gambling from the comfort of their own home ... state ... we'll keep you posted.

A U.S. bankruptcy court is apparently holding a variety of professional athletes' equipment, mementos, and memorabilia hostage until the athletes pay up enough dough to establish their ownership over the goods, the Wall Street Journal reports.

In an article yesterday, the WSJ explained that the situation involves items on loan to the "Sports Museum of America in New York, a for-profit organization that recently declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy after opening to great fanfare in May." Obviously the "great fanfare" wasn't big enough, but the bigger problem (at least for the athletes involved) is that some of their stuff has been thrown into a storage facility in New Jersey. That doesn't sound too bad, but the athletes are reportedly being forced to pay some pretty sizeable sums of cash to get their items back.

Fans of racing and/or "Dancing With The Stars" may be happy to hear that a champion in both arenas, Helio Castroneves, was acquitted in his criminal tax evasion case today.

The jury did hang on one count of conspiracy, but Castroneves was acquitted on the rest (6) of the charges of tax evasion. This is great news for Castroneves racing fans as he had been "temporarily replaced on Team Penske by Australian Will Power pending the outcome of the case." The result opens the door for him to get back on the track and, in the words of his lawyer, do what is all he does, drive.

While prosecutors argued that Castroneves and his co-conspirators had set up a shell corporation designed as a tax shortcut, Castroneves' lawyer retorted:

"Does anybody really think Helio Castroneves really made a financial decision. All he did was drive - and drive he did," Black said.

And that, indeed, may well be where he's headed back now, literally. As noted by the L.A. Times, "Penske, owned by billionaire Roger Penske, promptly dispatched one of its Detroit-based jets to pick up Castroneves, 33, and fly him to Long Beach" to drive in Sunday's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Rival teams might just be wishing that the jury had taken the weekend to deliberate a bit more...