AT&T suing NASCAR over No. 31 logos

DAVID POOLE, dpoole@charlotteobserver.com

Friday, Mar. 16, 2007

HAMPTON, Ga. – Conflict with Sprint Nextel’s title sponsorship of NASCAR’s top series flared on two fronts Friday, with Jeff Burton’s sponsor filing a suit to protect its deal and Robby Gordon losing potential backing.

AT&T filed suit against NASCAR in U.S. District Court in Atlanta seeking the right to change the logos on Burton’s No. 31 Chevrolets from Cingular to AT&T. A merger between Cingular and AT&T won regulatory approval in late December and the Cingular brand name is being phased out.

The new company wants to continue its sponsorship of Burton’s Richard Childress Racing team, but NASCAR has rejected putting AT&T logos on the No. 31 citing provisions of its deal with Sprint Nextel.

The 10-year Sprint Nextel contract began in 2004 and Cingular was “grandfathered” in as an existing sponsor. NASCAR contends that the deal prohibits the company from changing the brand used to sponsor the race car. But AT&T spokesman Clay Owen said Friday that’s not what its contract says.

“We went through our contract with Richard Childress Racing,” Owen said. “There were two clauses written in. The first said we could not increase our brand position on the vehicle, and we have not since we continue to be the primary sponsor. The second is that we could not move to a different team. We have been faithful to both points. It says nothing about us changing the name.”

Owen said AT&T “loves the spots and wants to say in it,” and said the suit is aimed at protecting the company’s right to change its brand name. He said the company has been in talks with NASCAR about the situation for several months and that the suit was filed after no resolution could be reached. It seeks an injunction stopping NASCAR from preventing the change in the logos on the car.

A NASCAR spokesman had no comment on the suit.

“There has been a tremendous amount of effort from AT&T and Cingular to try to get this thing resolved,” Burton said earlier Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “It has us in a situation that we certainly don’t want to be in. Cingular has been here for a long time and I’d like to believe that reasonable people can come to reasonable solutions. There comes a point where there are decisions that have to be made.”

Gordon, meanwhile, had obtained a partial sponsorship from Motorola that included this week’s Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta. But NASCAR refused to allow Gordon to keep the decals on his No. 7 Ford.

Motorola has a relationship with Sprint Nextel, but Gordon made his deal through Motorola’s relationship with wireless competitor Verizon, creating the conflict.

“It’s going to have an effect on our race team. I didn’t anticipate anything like this, I can promise you that,” Gordon said. “NASCAR has tried to work with us on this. Supposedly this has to do with NASCAR’s deal with Nextel and there is something there that will not allow this to happen.”

NASCAR officials said they informed Gordon the sponsor was not allowed on Thursday. As of noon Friday the team had still not removed the Motorola decals from the car but planned to do so before qualifying Friday night.

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