Clint Bowyer files suit vs. 2016 team alleging missed payments
Clint Bowyer has filed a lawsuit vs. HScott Motorsports claiming that the team didn’t pay him in October and November.
According to the lawsuit obtained by ESPN, Bowyer’s suit says HSM didn’t pay him on Oct. 20 and Nov. 20. Those two payments total $1.2 million. The claim also says Bowyer is owed $1 million for bringing his former Michael Waltrip Racing team sponsors to the team, bringing the total in the suit to $2.2 million.
A spokesperson for the team told ESPN the suit was frivolous.
Bowyer alleges in the lawsuit that Scott, who is expected to shut down the Cup team, is using money owed to Bowyer to pay other creditors and “repeatedly failed to make the scheduled payments” owed on the 20th of each month.
“[Scott and the team] are in financial distress and in negotiations with various creditors to settle substantial debts … all the while [they] refuse to pay [Bowyer] for services performed,” the complaint states.
Bowyer signed with HScott Motorsports for the 2016 season after Michael Waltrip Racing shut down at the end of 2015. Bowyer needed a ride for a year before taking over for Tony Stewart in the No. 14 car at Stewart-Haas Racing in 2017 and HScott was a natural fit given its technical alliance with Stewart-Haas Racing.
The season was an abject disaster relative to Bowyer’s career performance.
Bowyer finished 27th in the points standings, his first-ever finish outside the top 20. His average finish of 23.6 was also the worst of his career and nearly four spots below the average finish of his rookie season in 2006 with Richard Childress Racing. He finished on the lead lap in just 15 of 36 races.
As the ESPN report noted, the future of HScott Motorsports in the Cup Series is considered to be pretty bleak. The team hasn’t announced any plans for 2017 and doesn’t have any drivers or sponsors publicly lined up. Michael Annett, Bowyer’s teammate in 2016, is moving to JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series for 2017 and taking sponsor Pilot/Flying J with him.
Bowyer’s longtime sponsor 5-Hour Energy is moving to Furniture Row Racing and Erik Jones in 2017.
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Nick Bromberg is the editor of From The Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
