![Chase Elliott]()
That's a lot of chicken wings.
Hooters has long had a presence in NASCAR, sponsoring the late, great Alan Kulwicki during his championship run in 1992 and up until his tragic death in a plane crash in 1993. In fact, two Hooters executives were onboard the plane with Kulwicki and were also killed in the crash.
More recently the restaurant chain has been a sponsor for Chase Elliott and his #9 car for Hendrick Motorsports, joining the team back in 2017 and serving as a primary sponsor for a handful of races a year.
This season, Hooters was the primary sponsor for Elliott during the NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway back in February, and at Texas Motor Speedway in April. And when Elliott won at Texas, he managed to get the breastaurant chain their first Cup Series win since Kulwicki won at Pocono in 1992.
But things haven’t been so perky lately for Hooters restaurants, after the company recently announced the closure of 44 “underperforming” locations across the country.
And earlier this summer, HMS confirmed that they have parted ways with Hooters after the team says the breasturant chain had failed to meet its business obligations to Hendrick :
“Hooters has been a valued partner of Hendrick Motorsports since 2017, contributing to our shared successes both on and off the track. In recent months, however, Hooters has not been able to meet its business obligations to our organization.
Due to these unfortunate and unexpected circumstances, and despite extensive efforts on both sides to identify a workable solution, it became necessary for Hendrick Motorsports to end the relationship. It has been a privilege having Hooters as a part of our team and we wish them the best.”
Well now we're getting a look at exactly what those obligations were, and what Hendrick is claiming Hooters failed to meet.
According to a report by the
Charlotte Ledger, Hendrick filed a $1.7 million lawsuit on July 30, alleging that Hooters signed a contract to pay the team $1.75 million across four payments for 2024. The $437,500 payments were allegedly due on March 10, June 10, August 10 and October 10, but Hendrick alleges Hooters made only a partial payment of $45,000 in March - and hasn't paid anything else since.
The complaint also states that HMS was told by Hooters that they do not intend to make any further payments.
The NASCAR team hasn't commented on the lawsuit yet, but it seems that the financial trouble for Hooters just keeps getting worse.
