NASCAR: Update On SHR Lawsuit Against Nature’s Bakery
The No. 10 NASCAR Cup Series team of Danica Patrick might have moved forward in 2017 without 2016 primary sponsor Nature’s Bakery, but Stewart-Haas Racing isn’t letting the company off of the proverbial hook.
SHR still contends that Nature’s Bakery breached their contractual obligations to the No. 10 team in the NASCAR Cup Series and as a result the lawsuit between the two sides continues to move forward. Nature’s Bakery contends that the breach of contract came from SHR and that is what led to the relationship between the two sides dissolving before the start of the 2017 season when Nature’s Bakery terminated the sponsorship deal with Patrick.
According to recent court filings that were made on Friday of this past week, both sides will be a part of a mediation hearing that is scheduled for Wednesday of this upcoming week. Should some sort of an agreement not be reached on Wednesday, SHR and Nature’s Bakery have agreed to hold a second mediation session 30 days after all summary judgment motions and briefs are filed.
The filings on Friday also make reference to the fact that Nature’s Bakery would like for a trial date on the matter to be set following the 2018 NASCAR season. In the filing the company states that not all evidence pertinent to the case will be available until this time. It’s also worth noting that the original contract with Patrick and her NASCAR team would have expired following the 2018 season. The filings on Friday also indicate that SHR is looking for a sooner trial date, possible as early as this summer.
A recent article on ESPN.com, contains the summaries of the issues from both sides. SHR feels that Nature’s Bakery never intended to maintain their part of the deal while Nature’s Bakery feels that SHR breached the contract first and that forced them to terminate.
SHR Summary
"Defendants repeatedly renegotiated the timing of payments because, despite promises to the contrary, they apparently could not afford to make the payments. After being bought (in part) by a private equity group, Defendants seemingly lost interest in the sponsorship. Immediately following the end of the 2016 race season, Defendants concocted a long list of fictitious reasons to try to justify terminating the contract, and then terminated the contract with two years and over $30 million remaining owed to SHR."
Nature’s Bakery Summary
"Nature’s Bakery would be one of the smallest, if not the smallest, lead sponsor in NASCAR history. In exchange, SHR and Ms. Patrick were to exclusively endorse Nature’s Bakery products and provide other services, including broad social media outreach to help promote the brand. Barely six months into the relationship, SHR and Patrick could not or would not fulfill their obligations under the Agreement. Ms. Patrick was endorsing confusingly similar brands and products, and SHR was unable to obtain her cooperation. … At trial, Nature’s Bakery will seek, inter alia, to void the Agreement based on SHR’s misrepresentations and for declaratory relief that it owes no further money to SHR based on SHR’s own breaches and failures to mitigate."
Lawsuit aside, 2017 has been filled with plenty of other struggles for Patrick and her No. 10 team. Heading into this weekend’s race in Texas, Patrick finds herself barely inside of the top-30 (29th) in the championship standings.
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In six races Patrick’s best finish is 17th, that also happens to be her only top-20 finish of 2017. Patrick’s other five finishes have all been 22nd or worse, including a pair of finishes outside of the top-30. While six races don’t make a season, being closer to 33rd in the standings (22 points away) than being inside of the top-20 (36 points away) is never a good thing.