Broken dreams
It's quite possible that a race team has never had a more perfect name than the one Alex Meshkin chose for his initial foray into NASCAR. No one realized it at the time, but less than two years later, it seems fitting.
After all, Meshkin seemingly came out of nowhere, surrounded by a buzz about how he'd made millions of dollars at the age of 23, so Bang Racing seemed quite apt. Then his team nearly won its second time out and eventually gave Toyota its first Craftsman Truck Series victory.
The real fireworks, though, were going on behind the scenes, as Meshkin's way of doing business didn't sit well with Larry McReynolds, the team's vice president of motorsports and a veteran of more than 20 years in NASCAR. Last September, two months after leaving the team but before Meshkin filed suit against him, McReynolds, best known as a high-profile broadcaster for Fox and the Speed Channel, cited "a difference in business strategies and business philosophies" for his departure.
On Aug. 29, a Toyota official confirmed Toyota Racing Development had pulled its support of Bang Racing because of the lack of a suitable replacement for McReynolds. A compromise was struck that sent driver Mike Skinner's team lock, stock and transporter from Bang to Bill Davis Racing, another Toyota team. Meshkin remained in control of Travis Kvapil's team, adding a second win to his resume and preparing for a move to the Busch Series this season.
Instead, Meshkin closed the team in January, saying a potential sponsorship deal had fallen through. The drivers and most of the crewmen involved have found work with other teams, while Meshkin says he plans his eventual return to the sport. If that ever occurs, the one thing he knows is that he'll choose a different name for his next team.
Bang Racing appears to have gone out with a whimper.
Trying to unravel the meteoric rise and fall of Bang Racing isn't easy. And depending on the speed of the judicial system, it may remain that way for years. While Meshkin is suing McReynolds and McReynolds has filed a counterclaim, another former Bang executive is suing Meshkin. Plaintiff James Coffin, who at one time was Bang Racing's vice president for administration and finance, says a magistrate will meet with both parties on May 23 in an attempt to broker a settlement.
Others aren't talking. Skinner, who won the truck series' inaugural championship in 1995, signed a settlement agreement that bars him from talking about his days with Bang Racing, according to his wife, Angela.
Toyota officials also decline comment. The manufacturer's first year in the truck series may have been a success on the track, but the split with Meshkin undoubtedly wasn't among those highlights.
In scenarios such as this, everyone has a take on what went wrong. Perhaps an outsider familiar with the situation summed it up best: "Everybody's going to blame everybody else."
That certainly seems to be the case, even as many of those involved choose their words carefully. Few want to say much, either for fear of legal repercussions or for fear of damaging legal action they've already started.
But there's no arguing that Bang Racing never achieved the long-term success envisioned when Toyota officials signed a three-year deal making Meshkin one of the four team owners who would lead the company's entry into the truck series.
Meshkin says now he probably never should have been in that situation. With the luxury of hindsight, he said in a February interview, his relationship with Toyota may have been doomed from the start.
"The opportunity with Toyota could have been so perfect, but there was really no way for it to work," Meshkin says. "The reason why I say that is, in reality, there's no way I should have had a deal. A complete newcomer to the sport shouldn't have had a deal. I put together the right people [McReynolds, Skinner and crew chief Rick Ren] to get the deal, but they weren't the right people to be involved long term. I wasn't successful in convincing Toyota of that.
"... I just didn't do a good job in convincing them what was the core of Bang Racing, and what was providing them the results weren't the few people they had named in our contract. We proved it. We won our races when [McReynolds and Ren] weren't there. The people they wanted involved never won a race for Bang Racing. When they were gone, we won races [despite] all that controversy.
"So I think I've developed enough credibility that, you know what, I've done something that a lot of people haven't done. I put together a winning, championship-caliber racing team in three months."
Ren, who oversaw the race teams and was Skinner's crew chief until being let go by Meshkin last July, is one of the few people in a position of authority willing to talk about his experience. McReynolds and Skinner decline to be interviewed, but Ren calls his time there "probably the biggest disappointment that I have had in racing as far as the expectations of hopes, the dreams, [that] maybe [this is] what you're looking for in this sport."
Ren believes the transition from the business world to racing was Meshkin's biggest problem.
"I'm not in the business to sling mud," Ren says. "[But] this is a business that he didn't know anything about, and if you look around in this business, it's a tough business to have longevity in as an owner. He hired people that knew what to do; he just didn't listen. He'd let you do part of it, but you've got to do all of it."
A phone call and an e-mail message to Meshkin seeking additional comment on Ren's assessment were not returned.
Meshkin, who grew up in the Maryland suburbs outside Washing-ton, D.C., was widely reported to have parlayed money from his college fund into a successful endeavor as a day trader of stocks. In conjunction with his brother, Meshkin then turned his sights to the Internet, and many in NASCAR circles heard the story of how one of his companies sold for $24 million.
Rumors circulated that he was a multimillionaire, perhaps because of stories such as a Nov. 8, 1999, PC Week report that called him a "professed millionaire."
A story that same year in the Atlanta Business Chronicle began: "Alex Meshkin graduated from high school in 1997. Armed with his college savings, he became a day trader and multiplied his money 25 times over." The story also mentioned his brother, Brian, and how they'd become "Internet entrepreneurs, armed with $3 million they raised from unnamed 'angel' investors to start Surfbuzz.com." PC Week reported that "brand and marketing managers from Coca-Cola" would help run the business.
The Washington Post, meanwhile, reported that Meshkin told the paper "his day-trading boosted his parents' investment more than 20 times."
Surfbuzz.com, though, ceas-ed operations in June 2000.
Meshkin's biography on one of his Web sites, www. bangtechnology.com, says he served as chief executive officer of Acutus Systems prior to the formation of Bang Racing. His bio also said that he worked for cyberCFO and added: "In 1999, prior to joining cyberCFO, Alex raised private equity and debt for Surfbuzz - a company he co-founded. Later Surfbuzz merged with a public holding company."
It's a scenario that Busi-nessWeek questioned early this year. The magazine says Meshkin's "day trading profits can't be confirmed, and he won't reveal the name of the outfit that he says 'merged' with a Web site he co-founded in a deal worth $24 million."
Meshkin told NASCAR Scene in February that people may have formed misconceptions before his arrival.
"If anyone thinks that when I sold my company for $24 million that I made $24 million, that's their own fault," Meshkin says. "I never said I made $24 million. I did sell my company for $24 million, but I had investors and other partners in it. I made money from it. I made a lot of money day trading. But you know what, I have investments. I have a lot of things. How many people can go run a $10 million race team out of their pocket all by themselves? There's a lot of people in racing that can, but I can't. Never said I could. Nor would I, honestly. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me."
Meshkin contends that he should be judged on his team's success, and when it comes to performance, the team appeared to fare well. Kvapil, who had won the truck series championship in 2003, finished eighth in truck series points to go along with his two wins and did so despite the turmoil surrounding the team. While rumors of the team's impending demise kept crewmen on edge, Ren says the employees were always paid.
Suppliers, however, weren't being paid as quickly as McReynolds felt they should have been.
"Larry was frustrated our bills were getting behind - it was maybe 60 days at this point," Meshkin says. "It was not real pleasant. We had vendors calling, and Larry finally just came unglued and said, 'I can't take this.' I told him if he can't take it to just resign because I can't take getting yelled at [and having him] yell at our front-office staff. So he resigned that day. We rapidly put together a release agreement with him - he gives us back the ownership that he has in the race team, and we pay him everything we owe him. He doesn't disparage us; we won't disparage him. He doesn't spread any more confidential information. So he signed it."
McReynolds' resignation was the culmination of numerous disagreements between the two.
Meshkin says problems started early on as he and McReynolds didn't even agree on how much it would cost to run two race teams, with Meshkin saying he believed it would take more than $5 million per year in addition to the support from Toyota. Meshkin says McReynolds' figure was $3 million.
Meshkin says points of contention were brought up during a meeting with Toyota executives shortly after McReynolds' July resignation.
Meanwhile, dealings with vendors supplying equipment were problematic.
Ron Hutcherson of Hutcherson-Pagan Enterprises, for one, says his company, which sells brakes, electrical and cooling systems and numerous other parts and pieces, ended its dealings largely unscathed. That, however, wasn't the case until the team closed its doors in January.
"We had to take a bunch of stuff back [after the team closed]," Hutcherson says. "We didn't get money, but we got product. It ended up that we were even with them."
Hutcherson-Pagan requires teams to pay within 60 days, and Hutcherson says most pay within 30 days. While Meshkin's problems drew attention, it wasn't unique. Hutcherson says there are some current Nextel Cup teams with which it will only accept cash because of past problems.
Greg Fornelli, owner of Stock Car Steel and Aluminum Inc., says his relationship with the team had its highs and lows.
"He paid his bills, then he got way [behind] after Larry Mac left him," Fornelli says. "Then he actually paid his bill in full, and everything was cool, and we opened up a small line [of credit] again, and he was doing pretty good. Then he got way out, way out, way out. Then he just basically [stiffed us]."
Fornelli says Jimmy Spencer, the veteran driver and team owner who leased space to Bang Racing, is trying to help his company out.
"Spencer kind of came in and took over. [Meshkin] owes Spencer a ton of money because he had rent and all that equipment. ... Spencer kind of came in and took over the building again. Jimmy's doing his best to get everybody paid what he can. Jimmy's helping more than anything, but it's a mess. It's an absolute mess."
Spencer said in February that he took back the shop he leased to Meshkin and is still owed money.
"I think a lot of people are owed money," he said. "I don't know what's going to happen there. I know I was owed money. It was a messed up deal."
Ren says he first noticed problems with the team in December 2003 and that by March he realized the situation was beyond help. In his eyes the problem was easy to discern: "A way of doing business that's not acceptable at a small level," Ren says.
"Big corporate America might pay their bills 60, 90, 120 days out," he says. "They might conduct all their day-to-day business different. There's a lot of red tape in big companies. [With] small companies, you can't work like that.
"The other thing I really came to realize is Alex had never had what I call employees. So that's where his youth hurt him, not knowing how to read people, not knowing who's really on your side or who's playing you like a sap. I've been around a long time. Larry McReynolds has been around a long time. We know who's good blood and who's bad blood, but Alex didn't."
Meshkin says the team's record is all the proof necessary that he knows how to manage people.
"I've established enough credibility that maybe I'm not mechanically inclined, but I don't think that's what's required these days," Meshkin says. "I know how to put people together, I know how to manage people, and I know how to win."
Meshkin says he was put in a bind early on, as he didn't reach a contractual agreement with Toyota until December 2003 and didn't receive his first payment until January 2004. It took an 11-hour negotiating session in California just to finalize the contract, he says.
But the next day, Meshkin says McReynolds called Toyota officials and resigned. Meshkin then had to get McReynolds to change his mind.
"There were three invoices that were 46 days late, and he said he couldn't take it," Meshkin says of McReynolds. "He just called Toyota directly and resigned and left me a message and said he'd called Toyota. I'm sitting there going, 'Oh great,' because he was just privy to a meeting where he knew what was in the contract. He didn't know what was in the contract before then. He'd never seen the contract. And there was a big paragraph in there that Larry McReynolds needed to be involved or a suitable replacement solely approved by Toyota. So he saw his leverage."
To placate McReynolds, Meshkin says he put an addendum in McReynolds' contract that Coffin would be fired.
While Coffin, the team's vice president for administration and finance, says he was transferred to a role with the team where he wouldn't come into contact with McReynolds, he says he worked for the team until September 2004.
One certainty is that Meshkin and Coffin were on good enough terms in July that Coffin was in victory lane at Michigan to congratulate Meshkin after Kvapil's first win with the team.
Meshkin says McReynolds nearly resigned again in January 2004, but another compromise was reached to keep him with the team.
A source familiar with the situation confirms that McReynolds nearly left the team long before he finally did in July because of friction over how quickly suppliers were being paid.
Those involved offer different reasons for the team's financial situation.
Meshkin says one of the reasons the team found itself in a financial bind was because of the lack of a system to track purchases. He claims McReynolds told him that there was no need for such a system because neither Robert Yates Racing nor Richard Childress Racing utilized such systems when McReynolds was a crew chief with those teams.
The owner says he felt McReynolds was having Ren buy equipment the team didn't need, and Meshkin says he didn't comprehend the extent of the purchases until invoices began arriving around March. "They were ultimately Larry's decisions," Meshkin says.
McReynolds isn't talking, but Ren disagrees with Meshkin's assessment, saying that Meshkin never had a budget.
"He wouldn't let myself get involved with his finances or a budget," Ren says. "Then, the next thing you know, you're out of money. Well, yeah, if you don't want anybody to know where your money's going, it doesn't take long to run out of money at this level. He was a secretive-type person; he was very secretive about his personal life and his personal wealth. ... I repeatedly told him what he needed to do, how he needed to do a budget, how you needed to do your software programs to keep up with your inventory and how to track stuff, but none of it ever happened."
Spencer says he isn't sure what led to the team's demise, but has a feeling the blame doesn't rest solely on any one individual.
"Where did he go wrong? I really don't know," Spencer says. "I think that there was a lot of wasted money there. There was a lot of waste. It wasn't all Alex's fault. That's all I'm going to say."
The final chapters of the Bang Racing saga will likely be contested in courtrooms in Maryland and North Carolina.
Coffin filed suit against Meshkin in October, shortly after he says he stopped working for Bang Racing. Coffin, 52, is a graduate of Cornell University with an MBA degree in finance from Syracuse University and a law degree from Catholic University. He was a registered agent with the National Football League Players Association who later served as the vice president and general counsel of the National Park Trust, a charitable organization, before joining Bang Racing in September 2003.
Coffin's suit states that through John Adalio, a business acquaintance, he learned in 2003 that Meshkin was interested in purchasing Andy Petree Racing. Coffin played a role in the negotiations, but a deal couldn't be reached, at which point Meshkin decided to start his own team.
In his suit, Coffin says Meshkin offered to pay him $150,000 per year, plus medical and other benefits and bonuses based upon the team's business performance. He says he was also to receive a 1 percent ownership interest in Bang Holdings, LLC.
His suit also alleges that:
- "Meshkin continuously misled McReynolds with respect to his own financial condition and that of the Bang Entities," the suit alleges. "Meshkin knew that the Bang Entities were seriously undercapitalized and ... never disclosed to McReynolds that at several points in time, the Bang Entities were technically insolvent."
- In one instance, Coffin says that he was instructed by Meshkin "to initiate a wire transfer of funds to McReynolds for payment of his monthly contract fee. ... Meshkin secretly countermanded the wire instruction and misled [Coffin] and McReynolds about the wire transfer."
- Coffin also says in the suit that Meshkin "would repeatedly falsely and fraudulently inform McReynolds that the Bang Entities financial woes were [Coffin's] fault when the actual cause of the problems were the undercapitalization of the Bang Entities."
In summary, Coffin's suit alleges that Meshkin is guilty of mail and wire fraud and violated the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
Meshkin and Coffin are also at odds over questions of how long Coffin actually was employed by the team. In court papers, Coffin says he resigned from the National Park Trust on Sept. 1, 2003, and entered into a written preliminary employment agreement with Bang.
Meshkin says that Coffin wasn't working for him after January of 2004, but the two talked all the time, and he says Coffin introduced him to a potential sponsor in July 2004.
"Jim Coffin filed a lawsuit against almost every single entity I own," Meshkin says. "It'll be a long process the way lawsuits are. It'll eventually get thrown out, I'm sure. Right before he filed the lawsuit, he came to us asking for [money]. If I had done all of those things that he said that we had done and I'm such a bad person, why did he introduce me to Peter Vogel, the president of Mead paper, in July of 2004? ... He wasn't working for us. But we were still talking all the time. I never heard anything that I owed him money. This was eight or nine months later. Why was he at Michigan? Happy as can be.
"There's no problems. I never heard a peep out of him. Finally, he wanted me to buy the [Arena Football League] team here in North Carolina, some deal he was working on. The way he explained it to me, I showed some interest. ... Then when I really learned what the deal was I said I wasn't interested. The following week he asked us for [money], and the following week he sued us."
Coffin, however, says that he worked for Meshkin until September 2004.
"I guess that's when I realized things were not right," Coffin says. "We had another very large sports acquisition on the table that I had negotiated for Mr. Meshkin, and we weren't able to ever make any closure on that because the financial strength wasn't there. ... When I saw how I was being played on the Arena deal, that really was the last [straw]. Then I couldn't get him to pay me money that he owed me, and he stopped returning my calls, and that's when I started making calls and inquiries about other people who had sort of dropped off the radar for reasons that were told to me were different than what I actually discovered after I started making some telephone calls."
Meshkin finds himself at both ends of the legal system, facing Coffin's suit and having legal action of his own pending against McReynolds.
The "Mutual Release Agreement" Meshkin and McReynolds signed in July stated that: ". . . neither shall, either orally or in writing, or by any other communication, disparage, impugn or demean the reputation of the other."
On Dec. 10, 2004, Meshkin's companies filed suit against McReynolds over statements he made on air on the Speed Channel and a statement posted on a Web site.
The suit states that:
- McReynolds said on the Speed Channel: "I'm really glad to see that someone is giving Travis [Kvapil] a chance, because that Craftsman Truck team that he's with is pretty much on their last leg and will probably be closing its doors at the end of the season." The suit says Bang was not on its last leg at the time and would not be closing its doors at the end of the season.
- The suit also cites an Atlanta Journal Constitution story that quotes McReynolds saying that he had "made a mistake getting involved with the Alex Meshkin-owned team."
- A press release issued by McReynolds stated: "I do plan on coming back as an owner/consultant with a racing operation in the future, but only if the conditions are totally moral and suitable for my family," implying that the conditions at Bang were not "totally moral," the suit alleges. McReynolds' countersuit admits a similar statement but denies the implication.
Meshkin says McReynolds' comments adversely impacted the team's ability to attract sponsors, leading to the suit accusing McReynolds of slander and breach of contract.
In his "Answer and Counterclaim" McReynolds charges:
- "Plaintiffs ... have engaged in an ongoing pattern of making false and derogatory statements regarding [McReynolds]."
- "On July 23, 2004, Alexander Meshkin singed [sic] a directive to the employees of Bang Racing setting forth certain policies to follow to make the operation a 'clean, Larry-free environment.'"
- The suit also charges that "Meshkin stated in NASCAR Scene (Sept. 16, 2004): Some of the problems weren't of our own doing. There's some individuals that used to work with us that had malicious intent, and that created a lot of our problems."
Meshkin said in February that his goal is to pay all of the vendors what they're owed in time. He has also said he was working with Kvapil to set things straight.
But in an April interview, Kvapil said things still aren't finalized, and now he says he can't get Meshkin to return his phone calls.
Asked what he's owed by Meshkin, Kvapil chooses not to offer specifics.
"A ton to you and a ton to me might be a lot different," Kvapil says. "I've always been very honest in everything I've tried to do. I just don't know how somebody can tell you one thing and turn their back and do another. Ten dollars to me is a lot. It's a lot of money, I think. I just want to try to get it all behind me."
In a February interview, while he was still in contact with Meshkin, Kvapil said he wished his old boss well.
"I still want Alex to succeed; he's a great guy," Kvapil said. "To me, he pretty much did everything that he promised, and I didn't really pay attention to the business end of it, why it all fell apart."
While the professional differences between Meshkin and Coffin have ended up in court, that doesn't mean Coffin's forgotten why he went to work for Meshkin in the first place.
"The Alex Meshkin that I know is a good guy. He's a very charming person. He's friendly, he's affable, he's funny, he's interesting to talk to," Coffin says. "He is a brilliant, brilliant kid. I will tell you he is one of the smartest people I have ever met. Ever. To underestimate his intellect and his cleverness and his insight and his vision is a mistake, because he really has amazing talents and skills."
Despite the way the last year has unfolded, Meshkin vows to return. He says he prefers to do so when a new manufacturer enters the sport and mentions 2007 as a possibility. He believes his intelligence, and his youth, are factors that work to his advantage.
And he's also willing to admit the need to do things differently the next time around, should it arise.
"I'm not saying I didn't make a lot of mistakes. Everyone makes a lot of mistakes," Meshkin says. "I'm the first one to accept responsibilities for the things I do wrong. ... And because I'm aggressive, I probably make more mistakes than others, but you know what, I accomplish a lot at the same time. That's just the way it is. That's Alex Meshkin."
