zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Racing
/
NASCAR Team: Subway Dropped Driver Sponsorship Because He Gave Out Donuts
NASCAR Team: Subway Dropped Driver Sponsorship Because He Gave Out Donuts-August 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:11:20

Oh, corporate America, the pettiest of all Americas. Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver Daniel Suarez played along with a seemingly innocent TV segment before a race in July, where he helped pass out donuts. Two months later, Subway dropped its sponsorship of him, effective immediately.

Suarez was on a pre-race NBC broadcast before the New Hampshire Motor Speedway race in the summer, which usually features pre-packaged segments with different drivers and people in the sport. His role this time was to help NBC analyst Rutledge Wood pass out donuts to fans for “Desayuno [breakfast] with Daniel,” conveniently provided by Dunkin’ Donuts.

The segment has been on NBC’s NASCAR Twitter and Facebook accounts since July 16, but is now gone. The posts appear for in Google’s cached, historic versions of the webpages at the time of publishing, but the videos aren’t able to be played and Jalopnik could not find a copy of the segment online.

As bad as it is, both social-media posts started with a similar quoted phrase: “Has Carl Edwards ever given you a donut?” Edwards drove the Subway car for years before , and Suarez got bumped up to the Cup Series to take his place. Hindsight is always 20/20 on those social-media posts, right?

And even though Subway does have breakfast items, passing out donuts when the TV crew asked you to isn’t as blatant as having a Pepsi-drinking contest when you’re a Coca-Cola driver. Let’s be real—the people who to go to Subway are probably not the same people who want to have donuts for breakfast.

But that didn’t matter to Subway, and reported over the holiday weekend that the company said it “had to terminate its sponsorship of Daniel Suarez” due to “circumstances beyond [its] control.” Suarez’s team, Joe Gibbs Racing, told ESPN the segment was Subway’s issue when it ended the deal.

It seems odd that it would take Subway so long to make that decision rather than doing the usual, knee-jerk pettiness reaction and announcing it the day the segment aired, but it’ll still impact the car. ESPN reports that Subway was the primary sponsor on four of Suarez’s cars this year, and that this means he’ll lose out on the final one.

Joe Gibbs Racing originally told ESPN that Suarez didn’t violate any morals clause to make Subway end its sponsorship so abruptly, but you know how . Who cares! It’s nothing compared to passing out some sugary bread with another company’s name on it.

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Racing
The Rally Champion Who Could Be FIA President
The Rally Champion Who Could Be FIA President
Yesterday, I talked about to be elected FIA President. Today, it’s time to discuss his opponent for the position, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, the first non-European to run for the presidency of motorsport’s international governing body. Mohammed Ben Sulayem is a 60-year-old retired rally driver from Dubai. He began rallying...
Aug 31, 2026
How To Watch Formula One, The Bathurst 1000, And Everything Else In Racing This Weekend; Dec. 3-5
How To Watch Formula One, The Bathurst 1000, And Everything Else In Racing This Weekend; Dec. 3-5
Welcome to the Jalopnik Weekend Motorsports Roundup, where we let you know what’s going on in the world of racing, where you can see it and where you can talk about it, all in one convenient place. Where else would you want to spend your weekend? December is here!...
Aug 31, 2026
The Biggest Red Flag At The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Was F1's Stewardship
The Biggest Red Flag At The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Was F1's Stewardship
Formula One’s took place on Sunday amidst criticism of the country’s , and it ended with a whole new problem that fell closer to home: The FIA’s stewarding courtesy of race director . As the penultimate race in the season, it was critical that the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix...
Aug 31, 2026
The Lawyer Who Could Be FIA President
The Lawyer Who Could Be FIA President
Two weeks from today, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile will have a new president for the first time in 12 years. The two candidates hoping to succeed Jean Todt as the leader of motorsport’s governing body are Graham Stoker and Mohammed Ben Sulayem. It isn’t surprising if you have...
Aug 31, 2026
Hamilton and Verstappen Collide During Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
Hamilton and Verstappen Collide During Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
The first-ever visit to Saudi Arabia for the FIA Formula One World Championship had everything someone could currently expect from modern Grand Prix racing but turned up to eleven. First, a new race in a country with a questionable record on human rights. Second, a new narrow, high-speed street...
Aug 31, 2026
FIA And FIM Jointly Launch World Rally-Raid Championship
FIA And FIM Jointly Launch World Rally-Raid Championship
Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile and Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme, the world governing bodies for automobile and motorcycle racing respectively, jointly launched a world championship for cross-country rallying last weekend. The World Rally-Raid Championship will be co-sanctioned by both organizations. After 117 years, this is the first time that both...
Aug 31, 2026
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved