NASCAR team opens $4M lawsuit
Jesse Iwuji Motorsports has filed a lawsuit against one of their sponsors. The team is seeking $4 million from Equity Prime Mortgage.
Equity Prime Mortgage served as the primary sponsor for 14 races during the 2022 season.
The lawsuit claims EPM committed a breach of their sponsorship contract. Information was obtained from the United States District Court Southern District of Florida Fort Lauderdale Division.
The lawsuit claims EPM agreed to pay the team $187,500 a month for 12 months for a total of $2,250,000, which began in December 2021. Additionally, the team says the company had an agreement to sponsor the team in 2023 with a value of $3,750,000.
Two payments were missed for the 2022 portion of the contract. The team is also attempting to recoup funds from the 2023 portion of the agreement.
On or around September 27, 2022, EPM told the team that the company got ‘Margin called’. They also noted mortgage rate hikes as a reason they would be unable to continue to make sponsorship payments.
The team gave them 30 days to come up with the funds for the missed 2022 sponsorship. They claim that deadline was missed.
However, the company was on the car for the race at Talladega Superspeedway on October 1, 2022. EPM also made special requests for guests during the weekend.
At the same time, the team claims that the company continued to make social media posts that featured the company logo on JIM cars.
On Wednesday, a U.S. district judge dismissed the lawsuit for failing to “properly allege the parties’ complete diversity of citizenship”. The team was asked to file a new complaint no later than December 12th.
Jesse Iwuji Motorsports was founded by NFL Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith. The team finished 29th in the 2022 Xfinity Owners’ standings.
