Yet another lawsuit in the NASCAR world has just dropped. This time, the lawsuit surrounds the O’Reilly team, AM Racing, and the ARCA team, Sigma Performance Services. 

AM Racing filed the lawsuit against Sigma Performance Services in the court of North Carolina on June 24th by AM Racing, as reported by Sydney Haulenbeek of Courthouse News on X.

According to the filing made available to the media, AMR has accused Sigma Performance of illegally possessing intellectual property that belongs to AMR, along with several of the chassis that belonged to the O’Reilly team. 

The court filings state AMR allegedly accused Sigma Performance Services  of “impermissibly utilizing, intellectual property that [SPS] gained access to during the Due Diligence period.” 

The document further revealed that "the Parties entered into a written agreement titled" around October 6th last year. The partnership was announced on November 24th, the same year. However, earlier this year, on January 30th, the deal was terminated. 

In addition to that, the document also mentioned that the ARCA team possessed several chassis that belonged to AMR, including a superspeedway chassis.

However, despite this setback, AM Racing announced in a statement that it would continue operating "independently and remain committed to competition in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series" for the 2026 season. 

The team continued its operations with Nick Sanchez and Daniel Dye in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. However, back in May, the organization announced that it was ceasing its operations. While Sigma Performances competed in the ARCA series. 

While both companies are yet to make any statements about the court filing, the lawsuit comes just weeks after the O’Reilly team ceased its operations. 

AM Racing shuts down its O’Reilly operations

Owning a team in the O’Reilly series is not as easy as it seems. With the costs running high, maintaining a team as small as AM Racing can get very expensive. 

After the team withdrew its entries from the NASCAR O’Reilly series at Rockingham on May 16th, Motorsport reporter Matt Weaver revealed that the team had formally ceased their operations. 

"AM Racing has notified employees that it has formally ceased operations and released everyone from their duties. VP/comp Matthew Lucas told employees that he made efforts to stabilize AMR, but the inability to continue normal business activity eventually resulted in its closure." Weaver wrote on his X account. 

The team made its O’Reilly debut back in 2023 and had a very successful first year in the series as they bagged nine top 10s and a 15th-place finish. However, things went south pretty quickly as Brett Moffitt left the team. 

And with the team exiting the competitions, Ford’s representation in the O’Reilly series also ceased to exist. 

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Chionia Libania Colaco

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason