U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Zachary Cacicia (public domain)
A Davidson County jury in Lexington, North Carolina, decided on Sept. 24 that former NASCAR Truck Series driver Jennifer Jo Cobb should pay Tracey Hughes $850,000 for her part in the end of Hughes’ marriage. Then it set Cobb’s punishment at $1 for each of the two claims.
Jurors put $800,000 on Hughes’ claim of criminal conversation, North Carolina’s civil name for sex with another person’s spouse, and $50,000 on her claim of alienation of affections. They found Cobb liable for punitive damages on both, WFMY reported, and wrote in $1 apiece, for a total of $850,002.
Cobb ran 265 races in what are now the Craftsman Truck Series and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series between 2004 and 2024, according to WFMY. No court has ordered her to pay any of it, and she wants that understood. She declined to discuss the evidence, but told WFMY that the court has not ruled on post-trial motions, no judgment has been entered, and she has not been ordered to pay anything. She asked that coverage keep the jury’s verdict separate from the final outcome.
She’s right about the procedure. A verdict is the jury’s answers to the questions on its form. A judgment is the court’s order, the thing an appeal is taken from and a collection effort would enforce. Under North Carolina law, though, most of the interest on this one would be counted from a much earlier date.
What Tracey Hughes alleged, and what the jury had to find
Hughes sued in Davidson County Superior Court on Jan. 5, 2024. According to the complaint as reported by FOX8 WGHP, she and Clayton Odie Hughes married on Sept. 4, 2003, and separated on Jan. 20, 2021. She alleged that for several months up to that date, Cobb knew the couple was married and “willfully, intentionally, and deliberately seduced, enticed, and alienated the affections of” her husband. The complaint says the conduct included sexual phone calls, text messages, and meetings in North Carolina “and in other states while traveling for racing competitions.”
Cobb denied the allegations in her answer, WFMY reported. Both Hugheses worked in NASCAR, and they have two children.
The two claims test different things. Criminal conversation needs proof of a valid marriage and sex between the defendant and the plaintiff’s spouse during it. Nobody goes to jail; it is a civil claim for money. Alienation of affections requires showing that the defendant’s wrongful and malicious conduct destroyed the love and affection in the marriage. Hughes’ attorney, John Vermitsky, told WFMY, “Alienation of affection is any wrongful act that a third party does to diminish the feelings of affection of one spouse for another, and it actually doesn’t require sex.”
That is why Vermitsky built the case around the marriage itself. He told the station that Clayton Hughes wrote his wife cards for birthdays, anniversaries, and Easter, and that he wrote her an anniversary card 11 days before the separation came up. An alienation plaintiff has to show there was affection to lose, and the cards were his evidence that there was.
A $1 punitive award, and interest dating back to January 2024
Those $1 awards required jurors to clear the highest bar in the case. Under G.S. 1D-15, a North Carolina jury can award punitive damages only if the plaintiff proves fraud, malice, or willful or wanton conduct, and proves it by clear and convincing evidence, a tougher standard than the more-likely-than-not test used for the rest of a civil case. By finding Cobb liable for punitive damages on both claims, jurors cleared that bar. Then they chose not to attach real money to it.
Hughes told WFMY the dollar amount was not the point for her: “It’s more important, I think, to be vindicated. The money figure was, I think, just a statement maybe by the jury.”
The money that adds up fastest is interest. G.S. 24-5(b) says that in a case that isn’t a contract dispute, any part of a judgment the jury designates as compensatory damages “bears interest from the date the action is commenced.” The rate is the state’s legal rate of 8% a year under G.S. 24-1. If the court enters judgment on the verdict as the jury returned it, the $850,000 in compensatory damages would carry interest from Jan. 5, 2024. By my count that’s 1,005 days through Oct. 6, 2026, or about $187,233, with roughly $186 more added each day until it’s paid. The two $1 punitive awards start earning interest only when judgment is entered.
Filed 15 days inside North Carolina’s three-year limit
The General Assembly narrowed these lawsuits in 2009 with G.S. 52-13. Nothing a defendant does after the spouses physically separate, with the intent that the separation be permanent, can support either claim. The suit must be filed within three years of the defendant’s last act. And it can be brought “against a natural person only,” so a spouse can sue the individual but not a race team, a sponsor, or any other business.
Because conduct after separation doesn’t count, the latest any qualifying act could have happened here is Jan. 20, 2021, the separation date in the complaint. Three years from that is Jan. 20, 2024. Hughes filed on Jan. 5, 2024, 15 days before that date.
Cobb’s constitutional challenge and the 2017 appeals ruling against it
Cobb tried to end the case before trial. In April 2024, WFMY reported, she moved to dismiss on the ground that the law allowing Hughes’ claims is unconstitutional, and asked that the challenge go to a three-judge panel in Wake County, where facial challenges to state laws are normally heard. Superior Court Judge Eric Morgan denied both requests in December 2024. Court-ordered mediation ended in an impasse in January 2025, and after several reschedulings, the trial opened Sept. 21.
North Carolina’s appellate courts have rejected that argument before. In Malecek v. Williams, a Forsyth County trial judge threw out both claims as facially unconstitutional. The N.C. Court of Appeals reversed on Sept. 5, 2017, holding that both claims survive First Amendment and due process challenges. Judge Richard Dietz wrote that “the State has a legitimate interest (indeed, a substantial interest) in protecting the institution of marriage, ensuring that married couples honor their vows, and deterring conduct that would cause injury to one of the spouses.” The court also wrote that “there may be situations where an as-applied challenge to these laws could succeed,” which leaves a narrow opening for a defendant who argues her own case is different.
Large verdicts have held up on appeal before. In Hutelmyer v. Cox, an Alamance County case, the Court of Appeals on June 1, 1999, affirmed a $1 million award split evenly between $500,000 in compensatory and $500,000 in punitive damages. The Lexington jury went the other way on punishment, but its compensatory figure is $350,000 higher than Hutelmyer’s.
This is not the first time a NASCAR dispute has come down to how North Carolina law works. Backfire News has covered how North Carolina law shapes the lawsuits over Greg Biffle’s plane crash and Joe Gibbs Racing’s contempt bid against Chris Gabehart and Spire Motorsports.
What comes next in Davidson County Superior Court
Cobb says post-trial motions are already before the court. North Carolina’s Rule 59 lists the grounds a judge can use to order a new trial, including “excessive or inadequate damages appearing to have been given under the influence of passion or prejudice” and evidence too thin to justify the verdict, and requires a new-trial motion to be served no later than 10 days after judgment is entered. Once the trial court rules and enters judgment, Cobb can take the case to the Court of Appeals. If the verdict holds through all of it, each month spent in motions and appeals adds about $5,600 in interest.
Hughes told WFMY she expected the case to stay in the courtroom. “Your most private parts of your life are out there,” she said. “I thought it would stop at the courtroom, but it’s gone a little bit more into the press.”
Under this law, Hughes could sue Cobb but not the husband, since the claims run only against the third party. Should North Carolina keep letting a spouse collect six figures from the outsider in a marriage, or is it time to join the states that have abolished these claims?
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