Nature’s Bakery on Friday filed a counterclaim to Stewart-Haas Racing's $31M suit, stating that SHR "could not 'control' Danica Patrick and 'was more interested in cashing Nature’s Bakery checks than in making the sponsorship a success,'" according to Dustin Long of NBCSPORTS.com. Nature’s Bakery filed a counterclaim in North Carolina Superior Court for Cabarrus County, stating in court documents that it "did not see the return" it was promised by SHR. Nature’s Bakery also noted in court documents that it "relied on Stewart-Haas Racing for guidance with activating the sponsorship properly because of a limited staff and lack of experience in the sport." Among its complaints, Nature’s Bakery "claimed that Patrick did not properly promote its product and endorsed a competitive product." Nature’s Bakery stated in court documents that in "'roughly 475' messages she posted on her Instagram account in 2016 that 'only 15 or 3% referenced Nature’s Bakery.'’’ SHR in its suit stated that the sponsorship agreement "does not contain a requirement for such social media postings." Nature’s Bakery also cited that it "wanted Patrick to hold its fig bar while walking around the pit area on race weekends." But the company in the court documents noted that "rarely happened" (NBCSPORTS.com, 2/25). Nature's Bakery also said that SHR could not "guarantee exclusivity for Nature’s Bakery’s brand in category of on-the-go foods because Patrick was already endorsing a protein bar made by one of Nature’s Bakery’s competitors, Six Star Pro Nutrition." USA TODAY's Brant James wrote that scenario was "as if Michael Jordan decided to wear Adidas while being paid by Nike” (USATODAY.com, 2/25).
NATURE OF THE BEAST: YAHOO SPORTS' Dan Wetzel asked, "What the heck was Nature’s Bakery thinking in the first place?" Maybe Patrick and SHR "screwed over" the family-run firm from Reno, or maybe Nature’s Bakery "naively walked into a monster, three-season, $15 million per-year-deal without knowing the particulars of what they were getting into" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 2/25).
