Carter 2 Motorsports announced today that the relationship between the ARCA Racing Series team and driver Bobby Hamilton Jr. has been terminated, effective immediately.
Hamilton, Jr., acting on behalf of Precision MotorSports Limited, had signed a contract to drive for the team in February 2014, but was unable to uphold the financial terms of the agreement. Hamilton, Jr. along with his sponsor, St. Louis based Cherokee Charcoal, were equal partners in Precision MotorSports Limited.
Carter 2 Motorsports has been in negotiations with representatives of Cherokee Charcoal this week in hopes of modifying the original agreement. Those negotiations were terminated today and Trussville, Ala. native Dustin Knowles has been named to drive the number 40 Carter 2 Motorsports Dodge Charger at the March 22nd “ARCA Mobile 200” at Mobile International Speedway (Ala.).
“I really looked forward to working with Bobby and Precision MotorSports this season,” stated team owner Dana Carter, “I put a lot of money into our team for Mobile and now all I have is a lot of unpaid bills along with a worthless contract.”
Carter 2 Motorsports PR
UPDATE: Statement from Bobby Hamilton Jr.
“I hate the way things have transpired with C2M and really don’t know where things went wrong. The only agreement I made with them was to drive a car for them, which would be sponsored by someone I have been working with for a few years now trying to put something together.
“I heard about the Carters’ deal and after talking to the owner of the company that I had been working with, he felt it was something that fit his budget and would like to move forward with it, with the understanding he was just going to be a sponsor.
“Carter agreed to let him have the whole car, so that he could sell more associate sponsors to help with the cost, I did agree to help him try and sale associate sponsors and had some associates lined up but, when they found out about Mr. Carter being in jail, they backed out, so I don’t know if maybe his plan was depending on the associates to really pay the bill and when that fell thru, it maybe put the main sponsor in a bind.
“Everything was fine until the time that payment was due and then all of a sudden somehow, it got turned around that the sponsor thought I was the one that was going to pay for everything and just put his company on the car. I have never once agreed to pay anything to anyone for them to let me drive their car, plus I would be paying my own way, paying for all of my equipment, license, etc and then put someone else’s company on the car and the race team to keep all of the winnings, no one would agree to that. “As bad as I want to get back in a car, I’m not going to pay someone else, if I’m going to foot the bill for everything, I would just start my own team.”
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