The Worst Sponsors Team Owners and Track Promoters in NASCAR History

Well first off, Gene Haas was the one caught for tax evasion. Rick Hendrick's issue was officially bribery, but you could just as easily portray it as extortion against him. The AT&T issue was a victim of NASCAR signing Nextel as the series sponsor. To my knowledge, AT&T didn't do anything wrong. As far as the biggest thieves in NASCAR, I would think JD Stacy would be near the top of any list. Also don't forget about Speedblock that sunk Darrell Waltrip's team, Big Daddy's Barbecue Sauce that got Junie Donleavy and others or Fatemeh Karimkhani (a.k.a. Angela Harness) that effectively ended Mike McLaughlin's career. Also don't forget Tim Beverly, who also did time in the Graybar Hotel.
 
aunty dive said:
Ginn was, among other things, a crook.

Steve Wynn is something else altogether.
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Wynn was the casino owner, right? Picked somebody's team (Petree? DEI?) and mismanaged what was left into the grease pit?

No wonder I can't keep them straight; there was one of each.
 
Petron Plus. They were supposed to be the full-year sponsor for Jimmy Hensley in 1994, who finally had a full time ride in the #55 RaDiUs Motorsports car that Ted Musgrave vacated when he left for Roush. But they gave up on the venture about a third of the way into the season and stopped writing checks.
 
Then one that comes to mind for me is Gillett buying out Ray Evernham. Sounds like he still owes him money. Then they purchased or acquired Petty motorsports and ran the whole thing into the ground
 
Chris Vallo.

Following the factory withdrawals at the end of 1970 many of the top teams in NASCAR were left to scrap and claw for funds to keep running. Among those effected was the vaunted Holman-Moody Ford team with David Pearson. After parting company with that team in May of 1971(he was replaced by Bobby Allison) the Silver Fox was without a ride in the cup series. In steps Vallo, who offered to put up a million dollars to see a Pontiac(a GTO) run competitively and win in NASCAR. The team would be owned by legendary mechanic and car owner Ray Nichels and Pearson would be the driver. However the team wasn't very successful and it soon became clear that Vallo wasn't on the up and up and eventually he ran off without paying Nichels a single cent. Nichels later sued Vallo for non-payment per the terms of the contract but he was never able to collect any of the money he was owed. Pearson drove a Nichels Plymouth for a few races before leaving and early the next season hooked up with the Wood Brothers where he successfully redeemed his career.

You find out more about Vallo here http://www.legendsofnascar.com/Ray_Nichels.htm and here https://speedwaysightings.wordpress.com/2018/03/04/the-mirage-that-was-cv-enterprises-you-name-it/
 
wi_racefan said:
Then one that comes to mind for me is Gillett buying out Ray Evernham. Sounds like he still owes him money. Then they purchased or acquired Petty motorsports and ran the whole thing into the ground
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I hold him responsible for torpedoing Kasey Kahnes career
 
The worst promoter has to be the one that sold North Wilkesboro to Bruton Smith and Bob Bahre knowing those dates were going to each of them.
 
Formerjackman said:
Well first off, Gene Haas was the one caught for tax evasion. Rick Hendrick's issue was officially bribery, but you could just as easily portray it as extortion against him. The AT&T issue was a victim of NASCAR signing Nextel as the series sponsor. To my knowledge, AT&T didn't do anything wrong. As far as the biggest thieves in NASCAR, I would think JD Stacy would be near the top of any list. Also don't forget about Speedblock that sunk Darrell Waltrip's team, Big Daddy's Barbecue Sauce that got Junie Donleavy and others or Fatemeh Karimkhani (a.k.a. Angela Harness) that effectively ended Mike McLaughlin's career. Also don't forget Tim Beverly, who also did time in the Graybar Hotel.
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Thought Sticky Rick's issue was mail fraud for bribing Honda execs for the most sought after models to be directed to his dealerships? How was it extortion against him? He never did any time anyway with his cancer and miraculous cure once the home confinement went away.
 
Ford 222 said:
Thought Sticky Rick's issue was mail fraud for bribing Honda execs for the most sought after models to be directed to his dealerships? How was it extortion against him? He never did any time anyway with his cancer and miraculous cure once the home confinement went away.
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What was never answered to my satisfaction was whether Hendrick offered the bribes unsolicited to get the cars he needed, or whether the Honda USA officials let it be known that in order to get the cars, he would have to pony up the money and goodies. That is the difference between bribery and extortion. The mail fraud charge was just an easy way to put the squeeze on him without having to unravel the messy details of the case. Also VERY curious is if Hendrick offered the bribes and broke the law in doing so, what about the Honda officials who ACCEPTED them? To me, it's a greater crime to accept a bribe than it is to offer one, and the Honda guys were never charged. Why? I'm not naive enough to think that Rick didn't do ANYTHING wrong, but I also know that from the start, the authorities seemed to only want to make this about HIM, when it actually involved MANY people. What about people like Darrell Waltrip, who almost HAD to know what was going on, and benefited from the deal? As soon as the prosecutor got his "trophy" on the wall, everybody seemed to forget about the other wrong doers, and I think it was basically left to Honda Corporate to clean up the mess.
 
Formerjackman said:
What was never answered to my satisfaction was whether Hendrick offered the bribes unsolicited to get the cars he needed, or whether the Honda USA officials let it be known that in order to get the cars, he would have to pony up the money and goodies. That is the difference between bribery and extortion. The mail fraud charge was just an easy way to put the squeeze on him without having to unravel the messy details of the case. Also VERY curious is if Hendrick offered the bribes and broke the law in doing so, what about the Honda officials who ACCEPTED them? To me, it's a greater crime to accept a bribe than it is to offer one, and the Honda guys were never charged. Why? I'm not naive enough to think that Rick didn't do ANYTHING wrong, but I also know that from the start, the authorities seemed to only want to make this about HIM, when it actually involved MANY people. What about people like Darrell Waltrip, who almost HAD to know what was going on, and benefited from the deal? As soon as the prosecutor got his "trophy" on the wall, everybody seemed to forget about the other wrong doers, and I think it was basically left to Honda Corporate to clean up the mess.
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We’re the Honda Execs in the US? If they were back in Japan, probably outside the prosecutors reach.

Never knew DW had anything in it?
 
This was a Honda USA thing, which of course is a wholly owned subsidiary, but they were pretty much left to run themselves as far as this kind of stuff went. Whether the home office had any knowledge of what was going on, I can't say. Hendrick Automotive has pretty much run Darell Waltrip Honda from almost the beginning after Darrell kind of mucked it up. Darrell has said as much. Waltrip Honda was one of the dealerships that got the cars in question. Did he have any knowledge what was going on? I have no idea.
 
Formerjackman said:
This was a Honda USA thing, which of course is a wholly owned subsidiary, but they were pretty much left to run themselves as far as this kind of stuff went. Whether the home office had any knowledge of what was going on, I can't say. Hendrick Automotive has pretty much run Darell Waltrip Honda from almost the beginning after Darrell kind of mucked it up. Darrell has said as much. Waltrip Honda was one of the dealerships that got the cars in question. Did he have any knowledge what was going on? I have no idea.
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Did not know about the DW connection. Thought it was a Hendrick dealership. Thanks
 
Hendrick Automotive owns and or manages many Honda dealerships. It wasn't just one dealership, and there were other dealers Honda dealers involved too, but I don't believe ANYBODY but Hendrick ever got charged with a crime. I think the only reason the whole thing came to light was from the complaints of dealers who weren't playing ball with the crooked Honda officials. I will also point out that while some Honda USA people ended up getting canned, as far as I can tell, Honda Corporate did not sanction or pull dealerships from any other dealers involved in the payments, which gives you an idea of how seriously they were taking the whole thing.
 
Formerjackman said:
Hendrick Automotive owns and or manages many Honda dealerships. It wasn't just one dealership, and there were other dealers Honda dealers involved too, but I don't believe ANYBODY but Hendrick ever got charged with a crime. I think the only reason the whole thing came to light was from the complaints of dealers who weren't playing ball with the crooked Honda officials. I will also point out that while some Honda USA people ended up getting canned, as far as I can tell, Honda Corporate did not sanction or pull dealerships from any other dealers involved in the payments, which gives you an idea of how seriously they were taking the whole thing.
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Yeah, it sure does. You are correct, him being a briber is not as bad as soliciting the bribes. He was a big name so they made an example. Doesn’t excuse him though.
 
Formerjackman said:
What was never answered to my satisfaction was whether Hendrick offered the bribes unsolicited to get the cars he needed, or whether the Honda USA officials let it be known that in order to get the cars, he would have to pony up the money and goodies. That is the difference between bribery and extortion. The mail fraud charge was just an easy way to put the squeeze on him without having to unravel the messy details of the case. Also VERY curious is if Hendrick offered the bribes and broke the law in doing so, what about the Honda officials who ACCEPTED them? To me, it's a greater crime to accept a bribe than it is to offer one, and the Honda guys were never charged. Why? I'm not naive enough to think that Rick didn't do ANYTHING wrong, but I also know that from the start, the authorities seemed to only want to make this about HIM, when it actually involved MANY people. What about people like Darrell Waltrip, who almost HAD to know what was going on, and benefited from the deal? As soon as the prosecutor got his "trophy" on the wall, everybody seemed to forget about the other wrong doers, and I think it was basically left to Honda Corporate to clean up the mess.
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When you do business with foreign companies, you play their game or don't play at all. Rick was "doing business as usual" when dealing with the Chinese. Many companies do exactly the same today. I remember building the Honda plant in Allison back in 88 and the Ontario government signed a deal that the property was under Japanese control until completion. In other words Canadian government labor laws did not apply.
 
Ford 222 said:
Yeah, it sure does. You are correct, him being a briber is not as bad as soliciting the bribes. He was a big name so they made an example. Doesn’t excuse him though.
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He wasn't a briber, he was a dues paying dealership, just like many union guys are.
 
Ford 222 said:
Yeah, it sure does. You are correct, him being a briber is not as bad as soliciting the bribes. He was a big name so they made an example. Doesn’t excuse him though.
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Well, as I said, I'm not naïve enough to believe he didn't do some wrong, but I reserve judgment until I hear BOTH sides of the story, and especially after this length of time, Rick Hendrick has zero reason to dredge up old and mostly forgotten news, even though I'm dying to know what he would say. Even if the Honda guys were truly shaking him down, he COULD have taken the high road. Not to minimize their pain, but the only people really hurt were the dealers who didn't get AS MANY cars to sell. Regardless, I think if you look at his life as a whole, this is about the ONLY blemish you can find. Other than jealous race fans, you have to look pretty hard to find people that have anything bad to say about him, even his competitors, and people he let go. It seems to trickle down through his organization. I know that from my VERY limited dealings with HMS people, they could not have been any nicer or more accommodating.
 
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Team Penske said:
He wasn't a briber, he was a dues paying dealership, just like many union guys are.
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Not hardly. If the other dealerships turned his ass in for paying higher “dues” in exchange for high demand cars, he was paying bribes. He wasn’t in Japan doing this.
 
Team Penske said:
Nothing, just jealous people stirring the pot,justifies their lazy asses.
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How you friggin know me tough guy? Call me lazy? Justification? For what? Don’t like what’s being said, dispute it. But getting personal shows a hell of a lot more about you than I.
 
Formerjackman said:
Well, as I said, I'm not naïve enough to believe he didn't do some wrong, but I reserve judgment until I hear BOTH sides of the story, and especially after this length of time, Rick Hendrick has zero reason to dredge up old and mostly forgotten news, even though I'm dying to know what he would say. Even if the Honda guys were truly shaking him down, he COULD have taken the high road. Not to minimize their pain, but the only people really hurt were the dealers who didn't get AS MANY cars to sell. Regardless, I think if you look at his life as a whole, this is about the ONLY blemish you can find. Other than jealous race fans, you have to look pretty hard to find people that have anything bad to say about him, even his competitors, and people he let go. It seems to trickle down through his organization. I know that from my VERY limited dealings with HMS people, they could not have been any nicer or more accommodating.
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I will say this, his employees seem to love him. Mark Martin does so I struggle with it. I’m sure if I was a competing dealership, not sure I’d think too much of him. His teams are not above breaking rules, but then again, who isn’t? Doubt there isn’t one perennial winner that hasn’t been gigged.
 
Team Penske said:
When you do business with foreign companies, you play their game or don't play at all. Rick was "doing business as usual" when dealing with the Chinese. Many companies do exactly the same today. I remember building the Honda plant in Allison back in 88 and the Ontario government signed a deal that the property was under Japanese control until completion. In other words Canadian government labor laws did not apply.
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There is a difference between Chinese and Japanese......and WAIFC.
 
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