A prominent but unofficial museum that chronicled an important era of NASCAR history will shutter at the end of the year.
The Winston Cup Museum, which has operated in Winston Salem, North Carolina since 2005, has been embroiled in a legal battle over with ITG Brands LLC – who has owned the Winston Cigarettes branding since 2017.
There have been three lawsuits from ITG against Winston Cup Museum owner Will Spencer, two of which have been dismissed, and a third that appeared to reach a settlement with an agreement to rename.
However, a ‘more formal agreement’ could not be reached.
NASCAR’s premier series was sponsored by the RJ Reynolds Tobacco company from 1971 to 2003. The museum has several show cars, a tremendous amount of memorabilia like fire suits, trophies and newspaper clippings, and a gift shop.
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The museum was set to be renamed the Ralph Seagraves Memorial Museum in memory of the RJR marketing chief in charge of the Winston Cup sponsorship over the course of its tenure. Seagraves was awarded the NASCAR Landmark Award for outstanding contributions to the sport in 2021.
Spencer has said ITG’s goal has been to make legal expenses so great that he would eventually agree to a settlement. ITG wanted the North Carolina Business Court to rule that its control over the Winston cigarette brand extended to all Winston Cup items at the museum.
In statements, ITG said it did not want to shut down the museum.
“We share Mr. Spencer’s enthusiasm for the heritage of the Winston Cup, which is why we have repeatedly attempted to reach an agreement that would allow him to continue operating his permanent museum.”
What escalated the tensions between Spencer and ITG was a mobile display that has been taken to events across the region, including Cup Series races this season at Darlington Raceway, Dover International Speedway and North Wilkesboro Speedway.
The latter, during the All Star Race in May, was a tipping point for IGH who claimed Spencer sold items “using words, fonts, images and logos identical to the Winston marks.”
ITG claimed the exhibit could ‘create confusion’ that could be damaging to its reputation.
“The museum and defendants’ merchandise is specifically designed to exploit and trade on the goodwill and nostalgia of the Winston Cup Series era of NASCAR by falsely associating defendants with ITG’s Winston brand and Winston marks.”
Spencer’s response has been that ITG only purchased the cigarette product because Winston Sports Marketing closed in 2003 with the end of the NASCAR entitlement sponsorship.
Now, unless something drastic changes, the museum will close for good on December 16. The memorabilia inside the museum will be auctioned from Jan. 2-14 at the Mecum Auto Auctions in Kissimmee, Florida.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.