The NASCAR Driver Who Got Sued for $600,000 By Sponsor Over Poor Performance in $5 Million Deal Gone Wrong
In NASCAR, sponsors are really important to keep drivers in the sport. However, in the 2000 season of the Xfinity Series, the Bill Davis Racing team recruited Mike Borkowski. The driver only competed in a handful of races before the team decided to let him go. Unfortunately, he didn’t realize what would happen to him next, all thanks to his sponsors, who were quite unhappy.
During the 2000 campaign, Borkowski drove the No. 20 Bill Davis Racing car, sponsored by AT&T. Unfortunately, he put in a less than stellar performance, constantly crashing out on every run. However, at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the driver hit a new low.
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He just happened to set off four wrecks in the same run, and the team had had enough. This New Hampshire race was his last race, as the team fired him soon after.
DIVE DEEPER
Things got worse for the NASCAR driver
Bill Davis Racing General Manager Mike Brown was reported by BizJournals.com as saying, “This is one of those deals where, with hindsight being 20/20, we can say now that we don’t would not have entered into an agreement where the pilot had his own marketing company and had the direct contract with the sponsor. It was a unique situation.
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We were aware of the responsibility involved. But, at the time, everyone was on the same page and everything seemed to be going well. We now know it didn’t end that way.
In this case, AT&T took the driver to court because they were really mad at him. In their minds, the sight of an AT&T car constantly crashing was miscommunication for them. Understandably, the brand felt that Borkowski’s actions were detrimental to its image.
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Their demand was that the $600,000 they had invested over three months be returned to them. Eventually things seemed to calm down, and in 2001 AT&T filed a motion to dismiss the case.
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