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According to a report on ESPN.com, Kyle Busch and Kyle Busch Motorsports are suing former driver Justin Boston and sponsor Zloop. The lawsuit was filed last Friday at the North Carolina Superior Court in Iredell County.
The public court documents allege that Justin’s father Bob, who co-founded the company, missed $650,000 in payments as part of their $3.2 million annual deal. ESPN details that Boston and Zloop made their first five payments equaling $1.55 million, but missed the payments due in May and June. KBM also claims that its owed $4.025 million on an alleged default on the contract, which was originally a two-year deal worth $6.4 million.
Per ESPN, the contract stated that while Boston brought the sponsorship to the team, he was getting paid $3,000 per race, plus 40 percent of the purse. He would also get $50,000 if he won the truck title, $7,500 for a race win, $1,000 for a pole and $15,000 if he finished second through fifth in the points for the season.
Boston ran the first nine races this season, but left Kyle Busch Motorsports following Iowa Speedway, stating that he didn’t feel his team matched the potential of the other two teams at KBM. In those nine starts, Boston posted three top-10 finishes.
Zloop is a computer-recycling company. Notably, ESPN adds that Zloop filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in early August to reorganize its finances. According to that filing, Zloop owes Bristol Motor Speedway $131,250, Kentucky Speedway $75,000 and Pocono Raceway $36,601. As a result of the bankruptcy claim, all claims by KBM will be determined in Delaware bankruptcy court. Bob Boston is also dealing with $28 million lawsuit from a former investor that “claims Boston lied to him about the value of Zloop and did not use his investment as intended, including spending money on Justin’s racing career as part of a Zloop marketing program”.
