Dodge and Bill Davis Racing have agreed on a settlement in their long-standing lawsuit, and all appeals in the case have been dropped. A filing in U.S. District Court in Michigan earlier this week indicated a settlement had been reached. Bill Davis, who had planned to appeal a $6.5 million judgment against his race team, confirmed Friday he has dropped all of the appeals and that the case is over but declined comment on the settlement. A federal jury decided in February that BDR owed Dodge $6.5 million in damages for breach of contract for giving confidential information to Toyota.. Dodge had sued BDR after it found the race team to be building trucks for Toyota in 2003. The courts decided that the actual building of trucks for Toyota did not violate the Cup contract, but the jury delivered its verdict based on the confidentiality clause that was part of a six-year, $18.425-million contract between Dodge and BDR that was scheduled to go through 2005. Dodge cut off support of BDR in May 2003. BDR, which has competed in Toyotas in trucks since 2004 and has been without manufacturer support on the Cup side since that time, will field Toyotas next year as the manufacturer debuts in Nextel Cup.(Scene Daily)(11-10-2006)
