Rick Ren, a former competition director and general manager at Kyle Busch Motorsports, is suing the team for $390,000. Ren was released from the organization following the 2013 season as KBM scaled back its operations to eliminate its Nationwide Series team. In a lawsuit filed last month in North Carolina Superior Court in Statesville (N.C.), Ren alleges he and his consulting company are owed a $35,000 bonus from 2012 and $355,000 in commissions from two sponsorships he landed for the organization. According to the lawsuit, Ren claims that his contract stipulated that he receive a 10 percent commission on any sponsorship he procured for KBM. He claims he was responsible for $3 million in sponsorship for Parker Kligerman from Central Kentucky Angus Sales (where Briggs Cunningham of Cunningham Motorsports, for whom Kligerman has driven for in the past, is an officer) to drive in the Nationwide Series in 2013, and $550,000 in sponsorship for Brian Scott from Sabala Whitetail (owned by Scott’s father, Joe) for select truck races in 2012. KBM attorney Adam Ross stated that the original contract Ren refers to in his lawsuit was amended with a new compensation structure and that KBM “does not owe Mr. Ren or his company a penny.”(Sporting News)(1-12-2015)
UPDATE: Kyle Busch Motorsports has strongly refuted the breach of contract claim by former competition director and general manager Rick Ren, who sued the team for $390,000 in December. In a filing with the North Carolina Superior Court this week, KBM says Ren submitted “fictitious and fraudulent” invoices requesting a bonus payment and commissions for procuring two sponsorships following his release from the team after the 2013 season. “I don’t see where Mr. Ren has any kind of claim,” KBM attorney Adam Ross told USA TODAY Sports. “”¦ Who knows? Maybe Mr. Ren’s lawyer is sitting on something I don’t know about, but from what I’ve seen so far, I don’t see any possibility of a case for him. I don’t know why he filed it.”
Ren’s suit was based off a contract he signed in 2009 and included terms such as a $35,000 end-of-year bonus and a 10% commission for any sponsorship he brought in. But KBM’s filing includes an amended contract from 2012 which laid out terms for a revised bonus structure. That agreement removed the commission language and capped bonuses at $25,000. Both documents were obtained and examined by USA TODAY Sports.
KBM says the bonus payment claim is not valid under the amendment and that the commissions would have never been considered because Ren wasn’t the one who brought in the sponsors. Ross said he plans to file a motion for dismissal. Ren’s lawsuit says he is owed $355,000 in commissions for bringing in sponsorships for Parker Kligerman (Central Kentucky Angus Sales) and Brian Scott (Sabala Whitetail, which is owned by Scott’s father). But KBM claims Ren “did absolutely nothing to procure (them).”
“(Ren) received phone calls from two different managers who had reached out to KBM in order to sign their respective drivers to the KBM team,” the team’s response said. “Central Kentucky and Sabala were preexisting sponsors of the two new drivers at the time they joined KBM.” Furthermore, since Ren never brought up the commissions while he was employed, KBM accused him of “bad faith conduct.”
“(Ren) submitted invoices to KBM with a hope and expectation that KBM would rely upon those invoices and pay them,” the filing said. Phone messages and an e-mail requesting comment from Ren attorney Eddie Gaines were not returned.(USA Today)(1-23-2015)
