In the combined world of driver-team owner there are more than enough situations that require careful navigation on virtually a daily basis. Kyle Busch is beginning to find that out. On the driver side Busch spent the beginning of this week celebrating last Saturday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup win in Richmond and is now preparing for upcoming events at Darlington with his Joe Gibbs Racing team.
But as the proprietor of Kyle Busch Motorsports the team owner side of the driver’s life has hit some major snags in recent days. Those situations involve a dispute over construction costs of the team’s new home, an alleged unpaid debt of $3 million and a mechanic lien filed by a carpet company that caused all of this to become public knowledge to begin with.
Team ownership seemingly was always a part of Kyle Busch’s master plan. It began in a modest sized shop located in Concord-North Carolina that prepared and raced late model race cars at premiere events around the country.
In the spring of 2008 Busch began laying the groundwork for Kyle Busch Investments with plans to construct a state of the art race shop to house his two team venture into the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. The $10 million facility included an 85,000 square foot shop on eight acres in Mooresville-North Carolina. The property is owned by LB Builders Construction Inc whose intent was to create a motorsports center that could accommodate up 35 tenants with land and building packages to suit the need of each individual. The Busch operation was going to be the lead tenant in the complex. The state of the art facility was to include geothermal heating and cooling as well as interior lighting that was activated by body heat from the building.
The plan called for Busch to drive his own #18 truck when his schedule allowed it with west coast driver Brian Ickler in the seat when Busch couldn’t be there. The second team truck had up and coming driver Tayler Malsam in the seat. All of these exciting plans were formally announced this past winter. However, last January the operation hit a major snag no one saw coming. Miccosukee Indian Gaming was going to be the primary for the #18 Toyota Tundra driven by Busch and Ickler. However tribal elections resulted in new leadership and a major change in the company’s direction. Those new changes no longer included their long term involvement in NASCAR racing. Kyle Busch Motorsports spent much of January putting together sponsorship programs practically on a race to race basis while preparing for the February season opener at Daytona.
On the track the operation is showing a great deal of strength that was enhanced by Busch getting his first win as a driver/owner recently. But off the track there are problems involving finances. Attorneys representing both Kyle Motorsports and LB Builders have acknowledged recently that there is a heated dispute over the current construction costs of the new facility. While no one from either side is commenting on the precise details, they are saying they are working to resolve the issues and there is a meeting scheduled in mid May that will hopefully help that process along.
It was a legal procedure known as a mechanics lien that brought this situation to the attention of the public. Paul Davis, proprietor of Creative Carpets LLC filed a lien against LB Builders because of an outstanding $60,000 debt. In an interview last week with “The Charlotte Observer,” Davis said this situation has created a huge negative impact on his business adding “I’m spending more time chasing my money than making it and, in this economy, I can’t do that.” Davis also stated that an attorney representing Busch told him that “one group was going to walk away unhappy” and he felt he had to file the lien because he was worried that he may not be able to collect the full amount of the debt owed him.
It’s also believed that there may be at least four more sub contractors, working on the Busch building, that may be considering similar action and the combined debt owed is now believed to be several hundred thousands of dollars. It has also been alleged that LB Builders told the impacted sub contractors that they haven’t been paid because Kyle Busch Motorsports owes them nearly $3 million dollars.
Now there are reports that said, last Friday, LB Builders taped a giant blue tarp over the Kyle Busch Motorsports sign that stands in front of the building.
It’s likely that somewhere in the near future these matters will get resolved. It’s also likely that somewhere in the future Kyle Busch Motorsports will land the sponsorship needed to fully operate the two teams in the NASCAR truck series.
For right now it’s embarrassing and has the potential for even more angry emotion before it’s finally resolved. It’s also one of the many headaches that an owner/driver has to deal with.
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