Winston cigarette brand pursues further legal action against owner of closed Winston Cup Museum

ITG Brands which owns Winston cigarettes, is pursuing further legal action against the owner of the now-closed Winston Cup Museum. The museum focused on NASCAR Winston Cup history, open in Winston-Salem for a number of years, closed amid a series of legal action from ITG.

ITG Brands has argued in their various legal pursuits that they own anything that contains Winston branding, as Matt Weaver of Sportsnaut has detailed. This would include various merchandise and other items within the museum.

Will Spencer, a co-owner of the museum and its founder, has argued a few points successfully. He has argued that he owns the artifacts in his building. Spencer also made a point that the Winston Sports Marketing subsidiary closed in 2003. That was after the NASCAR deal ended due to federal legislation regarding tobacco advertising.

Two of three lawsuits against Spencer were dismissed. However, the museum has since closed while focusing on other efforts. The artifacts from the museum are to be auctioned off in Kissimmee, Florida this month.

Now, according to Weaver’s reporting, ITG wants Spencer charged with criminal contempt. The company claims Spencer promoted disparaging and damaging remarks about ITG.

Comments allegedly made by Winston Cup Museum owner

The comments in question were made by a content creator on YouTube. Those comments were made in a video about the museum. Spencer appears in the video, showing the YouTuber, Mitchell Stapleton, around the museum.

To start the video, Stapleton says, “Maybe you’ve seen the stuff about the lawsuits surrounding (the museum); the questionable at best United States judicial system has allowed a large company to bully this guy into closing his museum.”

The video was shared on the museum’s Facebook page. ITG Brands took that as Spencer supporting the message. So, ITG claims, Spencer has violated the prior agreement.

“Mr. Spencer and the museum plainly encouraged and aided the interviewer in his disparagement of ITG, in further violation of the judgment, by participating in and promoting the video, and then celebrating the video on the Winston Cup Museum Facebook page,” a motion against Spencer from ITG Brands says.

“Throughout the course of this litigation, and especially after ITG filed its motion for preliminary injunction, Will Spencer made multiple false statements to the media to make himself out as the victim and ITG as the bully.”

“More broadly, the narrative that Mr. Spencer is the victim of anything other than his own greed is not true.”

Will Spencer denies the allegations. He says he did not make the statement. The video was also removed from the Facebook page.

Regarding the Winston Cup Museum video, “The video is about history and cool cars – nothing else,” Spencer said.