Posted on by Jeff Gluck

Daniel Suarez unsure why Subway abruptly ended sponsorship

Daniel Suarez, walking through the Darlington garage with a patch over the spot where a Subway logo used to appear on his firesuit, claimed Saturday he did not know why the sandwich chain suddenly ended its sponsorship.

ESPN.com’s Bob Pockrass reported earlier Saturday that Subway had immediately ended its contract with Joe Gibbs Racing — this despite having been scheduled to sponsor Suarez’s No. 19 car at Talladega Superspeedway next month.

The company told Pockrass in an oddly worded statement the sponsorship “had” to be terminated “due to circumstances beyond our control.”

But Suarez said the decision wasn’t something he could control, either.

“That is nothing in my control and there’s not a lot I can do about it,” Suarez told me and Pockrass after qualifying.

The Cup Series rookie told us he found out about Subway’s decision on Friday. He had been out of the country for the NASCAR off weekend and “didn’t know a lot about” what was going on.

Asked if the decision was related to something he did, Suarez said: “I don’t really know. Like I said, I just found out yesterday — and on a race weekend, I don’t really have time to think about that. I have to think about the race.”

So was Suarez sad or upset about the decision?

“That’s part of racing,” he said. “Sponsorship comes and sponsorship leaves. There’s nothing we can do about it. I don’t really know the reasons, so there’s not a lot I can add to it.”

Subway, which had sponsored Suarez predecessor Carl Edwards, jumped on board with the Mexican driver at the start of the season. The company even featured Suarez in a commercial, which was part of its four-race sponsorship.

“We are excited about the future with Daniel Suarez!” Subway chief advertising officer Chris Carroll said in a February statement.

But by Saturday, Subway had pulled the commercial off YouTube and Joe Gibbs Racing had removed the company from the “Partners” section of its website.

JGR did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

26 Replies to “Daniel Suarez unsure why Subway abruptly ended sponsorship”

  2. Twenty plus years ago I was somewhat involved in sponsorship negotiation that didn’t go as smoothly as one might expect and ended abruptly with little or no explanation.

  3. what are you saying, jeff?
    https://www.poynter.org/news/ap-stylebook-2016-updates-include-normcore-kombucha-and-emoji-plural-emojis
    “claim This verb implies doubt, and its use in stories — Smith claimed — can imply the reporter does not believe something. Generally, said is a better term. Claim is most appropriate when an assertion is open to question and the story presents an alternative point of view: Pro-government forces claimed they seized the town, but rebels denied it.”

  9. There is a rumor that Subway is not doing as well as they hoped this year in sales..Other Sub Sandwich places like Jimmy Johns and Caseys General Stores Sub Sandwich addictions to many of there stores has cut into SUNWAY sales in many towns. Subway has not got bad just more places are selling Sub Sandwiches now…

  12. Daniel was suppposed to bring $15million with him to the car, he could only come up with 11 million so Subway said “See ya bitches. You violated your deal, thanks for the free publicity, have a nice life.

    Nascar is doomed.

  13. That’s bullshit,
    A activist group will have fun with this one I can see the race card in the making..
    Good luck Daniel Shares
    Subway just wants to go with american made stock cars!!

  17. I guess Daniel must have come out against child molestation . If they blame it on am an NBC promo then that’s effen ridiculous. Monster has said they have no issue with Pepsi being in victory lane when their cars win. You can’t get a donut at Subway, but you can get an equally bad sandwich there. I call it just looking for an excuse.

  18. Well, we know the reason now… and it’s ridiculous. Must be another underlying reason.

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