Well, that was awkward. Bob Leavine has been taking heat and fielding tons of questions on Twitter since it was announced that Matt DiBenedetto would not be returning to the team for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season.
Leavine has made a name for himself on social media by being honest about the inner workings of his NASCAR team and the financial impact related to everything that it takes to make a team run competitively at the Cup Series level.
Sunday, Leavine either was a bit too honest, or misspoke about one of his team’s partners — Anest Iwata. Regardless, it led to a very awkward moment on Twitter.
Leavine was pressed on why the team didn’t have the financials to keep DiBenedetto since they have several sponsorship partners for the No. 95 car. Leavine responded by saying that although there is a sponsor on the car each week, sometimes those sponsors come at a lower cost than what it takes to run the car.
We had Procore when Matt arrived, and Dumont also. We have no money from Toyota . Anestiwatausa we got this year, paid for less than the cost of one race. https://t.co/bw8DWDOmmx
— Bob Leavine (@BLeavine) August 18, 2019
After specifically calling out AnestIwata for paying for less than a race, despite being on the No. 95 for a couple of occasions in 2019, AnestIwata responded on Twitter. And things got super awkward, super fast.
We are disappointed to see Anest Iwata mentioned specifically in a less than positive manner. We consider our agreement private, but to avoid any further confusion we’d like to note that our investment in @mattdracing via LFR was significantly more than the implied cost of tires
— ANEST IWATA USA (@anestiwatausa) August 18, 2019
After Sunday’s Twitter exchange, it may be safe to say that Leavine will more than likely be asked to tone down the honesty that he brings on the social media platform.
