Going Off-Track: NASCAR, DraftKings And NBA Face Down Secrets Theft

As an owner of a National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) team and a three-time Super Bowl champion as a head coach in the National Football League (NFL), Joe Gibbs fully understands competition.

But while Gibbs undoubtedly knows that his adversaries may try to gain an advantage by studying or replicating the competition, he may not have expected that his NASCAR competitors would look for an edge by stealing IP. And that is exactly what may have just happened.

Formula 1's ‘Spygate'

NASCAR recently learned of allegations that an engineer for Joe Gibbs Racing accessed proprietary information and shared it with another Cup Series team. Reports indicate that the engineer in question–who is in a contract year—had discussed future employment opportunities with other teams and allegedly received a cash payment for the proprietary information. While the allegations appear to have made their way around the track, NASCAR cannot intervene until a lawsuit is