ITG Brands LLC is suing the Winston Cup Museum and its owner, Will Spencer, in a bid to take ownership of the NASCAR championship series artifacts stored and displayed there.
The museum at 1355 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive has had on display since 2005 physical copies and reproductions of Winston Cup images per a storage agreement with R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
Among the artifacts on display include: at least 20 race show cars; drivers’ racing gear; the outsized winner’s checks; videos; signage; graphics; and special one-of-a-kind Reynolds-generated exhibits featuring several NASCAR Hall of Fame members.
ITG wants to use the artifacts in potential sports or entertainment marketing initiatives.
Christy Cox Spencer, the museum’s president and Spencer’s wife, said Tuesday that the museum was created “as a way to preserve the rich history of stock car racing and the historical ties that Winston-Salem has to the motorsports industry in North Carolina.”
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ITG wants the District judge to rule that its control over the Winston traditional cigarette brand since June 2015 also covers the Winston Cup artifacts.
The company claims the museum, Spencer and third defendant JKS Motorsports Inc. are denying access to the artifacts for ITG’s reproduction purposes.
The lawsuit was filed Jan. 20 in Guilford District Court. ITG, based in Greensboro, is requesting a jury trial.
Christy Spencer called the ITG lawsuit “a disappointment to everyone involved with the museum.”
“We hope that the lawsuit will not have an impact on the museum’s day-to-day operations, and we look forward to continuing to honor the rich history the Winston Cup Museum celebrates.
“We plan to relay our position through our legal filings and our attorney. For that reason, we are not able to comment further at this time.”
Background
ITG controls the Winston traditional cigarette brand as part of parent company Imperial Brands Plc’s $7.1 billion purchase of the Winston, Salem, Kool and Maverick brands from Reynolds and Lorillard Inc. in June 2015.
ITG said in the lawsuit it “desires to incorporate the Winston brand’s historical connection to motorsports, including the brand’s historic connection to the Winston Cup.”
That would include age-restricted sections at racing venues that keep anyone under age 21 from entering. The federal minimum age for consuming tobacco products was raised to 21 in December 2019 by the Trump administration.
Most of those artifacts and images — featuring Hall of Fame drivers such as Dale Earnhardt Sr., Richard Petty, Jeff Gordon and Darrell Waltrip — were developed and collected while R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. was the title sponsor of the Winston Cup championship series from 1971 to 2003.
That 32-year period is considered as the Golden Era of NASCAR championships.
The museum also contains what it calls “never-seen-before photographs of the legendary Winston Cup Series era from the R.J. Reynolds Sports Marketing archives.”
According to the lawsuit, Spencer is alleged to have claimed that Reynolds “gifted them absolute title to the Winston Cup artifacts.”
ITG alleges that Spencer “attempted to extort ITG into providing him with a windfall profit for ITG’s use of the Winston Cup artifacts.” The parties negotiated over access to the artifacts before ending talks in March.
Clint Morse, an attorney with the Brooks Pierce law firm, said ITG has no comment about its marketing plans beyond those cited in the lawsuit.
Winston Cup
The Winston Cup proved to be Reynolds’ main and most successful marketing tool for reaching consumers during the 32-year life of the sponsorship, which ended with NASCAR opting for a new title sponsor in 2004.
During the sponsorship, Winston Cup imagery and memorabilia were created and copyrighted by Reynolds and its independent contractors.
Among those contractors was JKS in providing sports marketing services to Reynolds, which was one of its top clients. Those services allowed JKS access to store Winston Cup artifacts, such as race cars and driver’s apparel gear.
Once NASCAR opted out of Winston Cup title sponsorship, Reynolds de-emphasized Winston’s marketing after it had been supplanted by Camel cigarettes as the manufacturer’s top seller.
That included ceasing to use Winston Cup artifacts and the Winston brand as it eventually exited sports marketing.
Reynolds agreed to let Spencer and JKS continue to store the Winston Cup artifacts. Spencer bought and converted a building into the Winston Cup Museum in 2005.
ITG said it believes there is “no written agreement documenting any arrangement between any of the defendants and RJR concerning the ownership of the artifacts.”
When asked about allegations in the lawsuit, Reynolds said in a statement that “it is not involved in the litigation referenced, and therefore cannot comment.”
ITG said it has “never physically possessed any copies or reproductions” of the Winston Cup artifacts or images, including those in the museum.
ITG claims that as recently as March, it requested that the defendants permit it to copy and reproduce all of the Winston Cup images in their possession. ITG claims Spencer refused the request.
ITG also claims Spencer has breached its storage arrangement with Reynolds by using Winston Cup imagery for commercial purposes.
According to the lawsuit, Will Spencer filed in 2022 several trademark applications for Winston and Winston Cup.
ITG claims that Spencer’s applications shows he is “attempting to use the Winston Cup artifacts for purposes well beyond the operation of a museum,” such as entertainment services that could include racing.
ITG acknowledged it has pursued alternative “and equivalent” sources for Winston Cup images, videos and memorabilia “at significant expense.”
It wants the court to require the defendants to compensate ITG for those expenses. It said the exact damages amount would be set at trial if necessary.
The court also is being asked to prevent the defendants from further commercial use of the Winston Cup artifacts and imagery.
“ITG is undisputedly the owner of the goodwill built up in the Winston brand and the Winston Cup,” ITG claims.
“Thus, defendants are misappropriating goodwill for their own commercial benefit.”
Reactions
ITG appears to be looking to capture the nostalgic memories surrounding Winston Cup, particularly in age-restricted sites at racing venues, according to Roger Beahm, a marketing professor at Wake Forest University.
“While positioned as ‘entertainment,’ this historical messaging from Winston Cup sponsorship can still have some value by appealing on an emotional level with fans who still remember the days of Winston Cup racing,” Beahm said.
The nostalgia could be similar in note to local residents who continue to display Piedmont Airlines logos and memorabilia 35 years after the homegrown company was sold in 1987 to USAir Group Inc. for $1.6 billion.
Former employees of Piedmont Aviation Inc. still flock to www.jetpiedmont.com for historical archives and reminiscing.
Beahm said ITG “may see value through interest generated among those race fans who smoke, but were not around at the time of the Winston Cup series, yet still appreciate the heritage and appeal of commercial art from those golden days of racing.”
“While the Master Settlement Agreement took away the major tobacco companies’ sports sponsorships, there is still plenty of Winston Cup memorabilia around today, whether pictured on websites and social media, printed in old magazines and books, or hanging in antique malls.
“These materials all still communicate the Winston brand’s sponsorship of racing, often with much of the same emotional appeal as when they were created.”