How Taylor Swift's fortune launched Big Machine Racing owner Scott Borchetta into NASCAR

Scott Borchetta's fortune from his music business after his success with Taylor Swift funded his racing dreams.

Borchetta had founded Big Machine Records in 2005 and signed Swift when she was a teenager. Swift's albums sold millions, and in June 2019, the music mogul sold Big Machine Label Group and its publishing arm to Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings for about $330 million. The deal included the masters to Swift's first six albums, a catalog then valued at about $140 million.

Borchetta retained a large percentage of the company before selling and got a minority stake in Ithaca. He got cash and stock and kept CEO status, which helped him profit later from Swift’s catalog resale in 2020.

He then used part of his payout to expand into auto racing and create Big Machine Racing (BMR). He founded BMR in 2021 with driver Jade Buford and partnered with Richard Childress Racing in 2022 for technical support.

The full-time NASCAR Xfinity Series team then fielded the No. 48 Chevy part-time for Tyler Reddick, Marco Andretti, and Austin Dillon for select starts in 2022.

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"I can't look back with regret" - Scott Borchetta on satisfying his dream from the sale of Taylor Swift's catalog

Scott Borchetta grew up around racing. His father, Mike, worked in music promotion but spent weekends at California short tracks. Scott also raced in motocross and quarter midgets in Southern California before moving to Nashville.

He returned to competitive racing in the Summer Legends Shootout Series at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway and the NASCAR SuperTruck Weekly Series in the late 1990s and early 2000s. And after about two decades, he won multiple Sportscar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA) national championships.

After the sale of Taylor Swift's masters, which the music icon said was a betrayal, Borchetta was able to realize his dream of owning a racing team.

"We didn't do anything to hurt anybody. I would never do that. ... In the big picture it gave me the opportunity to do a lot of things that I wanted to do in my life. And so I can't look back with regret," Scott Borchetta told Forbes.

Borchetta's NASCAR team earned its first Xfinity Series win at Texas Motor Speedway in 2022. The following year, driver Parker Kligerman ran the full schedule for BMR and made the playoffs. This season, Nick Sanchez gave the team its win at Atlanta.

BMR also competes outside NASCAR. It entered the Rolex 24 at Daytona in partnership with Forte Racing earlier this season.

Meanwhile, Swift also bought back part of her master recording rights this year.