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 for drivers to stick around in the sport. However, in the 2000 Xfinity Series season, the Bill Davis Racing team recruited Mike Borkowski. The driver competed in just a handful of races before the team opted to let him go. Unfortunately, little did he realize what was about to befall him next, all thanks to his sponsors, who were fairly displeased.

During the 2000 campaign, Borkowski drove the #20 Bill Davis Racing car, sponsored by AT&T. Unfortunately, he put in less than stellar performances, consistently crashing in every race. However, at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the driver hit a new low.

It so happened that he triggered four wrecks in the same race, and the team had had enough of it. That New Hampshire race was his final race ever, as the team fired him soon after.

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Things got worse for the NASCAR driver

Bill Davis Racing General Manager Mike Brown was reported by BizJournals.com as saying, “It’s one of those deals where, with hindsight being 20/20, we can say now that we wouldn’t have entered into an agreement where the driver had his own marketing company and had the direct contract with the sponsor. It was a unique situation.

We were aware of the liability going in. But, at the time, everybody was on the same page and it all seemed fine. We know now that it didn’t end up that way.”

As it happened, AT&T filed a lawsuit against the driver because they were really angry with him. In their minds, the sight of an AT&T car constantly crashing was bad PR for them. Naturally, the brand felt that Borkowski’s actions were detrimental to their image.

Their demand was that the $600,000 they invested for three months be returned to them. Finally, things seemed to calm down, and in 2001, AT&T filed a motion to dismiss the case.

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