The Subway drama isn't going away anytime soon.
It's been three days since it came to light that Subway has dropped Daniel Suarez and Joe Gibbs Racing because Suarez appeared in a skit in which he drove around in a golf cart and gave out donuts from a Subway competitor, Dunkin Donuts.
Fans are up in arms and now, a NASCAR legend has entered the fray.
Mark Martin took to Twitter to defend Suarez.
This is disappointing ??Great kid and will make a great spokesperson for another company. https://t.co/y77DOduGF7
— Mark Martin (@markmartin) September 4, 2017
Suarez had a simple response:
Thank you @markmartin https://t.co/nIURODzkwc
— Daniel Suárez (@Daniel_SuarezG) September 4, 2017
Subway is taking a real PR hit among NASCAR fans with this one, and when someone of Martin's stature weighs in, it's only liable to make it worse.
In the latest developments, Joe Gibbs Racing has extended an olive branch to Subway, and hopes it can salvage its sponsor deal.
JGR acknowledged Monday that a silly and harmless stunt, in which Suarez drove around in a golf cart giving our Dunkin Donuts, was the reason Subway terminated its sponsorship deal. Subway is a sponsor for Suarez.
.@JoeGibbsRacing acknowledges its understanding is that NHMS segment was Subway's issue. JGR says hoping to work through situation w/ brand.
— Adam Stern (@A_S12) September 4, 2017
Team owner Joe Gibbs told Motorsport that the decision to end the sponsorship caught the team "completely by surprise," especially since they were in talks to extend the deal.
"What we're going to do is try to work our way through this and hopefully we can reach an agreement here," he said.
The full video of the skit was on Twitter, but has since been taken down, but this is a screen shot:
No word from JGR yet but some execs have pointed to this - Suarez w/ Dunkin Donuts on NBC segment at NHMS - as possible part of Subway exit. pic.twitter.com/VlEm6OiiTl
— Adam Stern (@A_S12) September 3, 2017
You can see why Subway would be livid. If it's paying to sponsor a car -- in this case, the No. 19 from Joe Gibbs Racing -- why wasn't Suarez driving around hanging out Subway sandwiches instead, the thinking may have gone.
Subway released a fairly cryptic statement, that said, "Due to circumstances beyond our control, Subway had to terminate its sponsorship of Daniel Suarez."
Here's a nifty little timeline of all of the developments this weekend:
In case you missed it, here's the chronology of the @SUBWAY/@JoeGibbsRacing sponsorship situation that played out this past weekend - pic.twitter.com/2mntW2bLpS
— Adam Stern (@A_S12) September 4, 2017