A Davidson County judge has ordered Truck Series driver Jennifer Jo Cobb, 53, to pay $850,000 to the ex-wife of a NASCAR spotter after finding she had an affair with him while he was still married.
The judgment, handed down last month, stems from a lawsuit Stacey Hughes filed in 2024 against Cobb over an affair with her husband, longtime NASCAR spotter Clayton Hughes, that predated the couple’s 2021 divorce by months.
Stacey Hughes brought two claims under North Carolina law: alienation of affection, a civil tort allowing a spouse to sue a third party for intentionally breaking up a marriage, and criminal conversation, which allows a spouse to sue a third party for having sex with their partner while the marriage was still intact. Each act of adultery can support a separate criminal conversation claim.
The judge ordered Cobb to pay $50,000 for alienation of affection and $800,000 for criminal conversation.
The private investigator’s testimony
The case turned in part on testimony from Jim Rorie, a private investigator hired by Stacey Hughes, who told the court he tracked Clayton Hughes to a Comfort Inn in October 2020 using a tracking device planted on his car.
According to a criminal complaint obtained by the Daily Mail, Rorie testified he heard the two having sex through the hotel wall.
“There was no doubt about what I was hearing,” Rorie told the court, adding that he heard “the squeaking of the bed, quite a bit of that, female tones moaning — and occasionally a male’s voice.”
“As the squeaking continued, the tones of a male moaning and saying, ‘Oh f–k’ and ‘Oh my God’ were distinctly heard,” Rorie continued. “I believe there was one point where I heard the female yell, ‘Don’t stop.'”
Stacey Hughes also alleged in a second claim that her husband “dishonored” the couple’s marital bed.
A rarely used law still on the books
North Carolina remains one of a small number of states where alienation of affection and criminal conversation claims can still be brought in court, allowing a spouse to sue a third party over the breakup of a marriage or over adultery committed while the marriage was intact.
Cobb has 31 NASCAR O’Reilly Series starts over a 15-year career and 234 Truck Series starts, including a sixth-place finish at Daytona in 2011.
