AT&T Wants a Piece of NASCAR

The race is on. So pull up your lawn chairs, grab some chips, and enjoy some perpetual left hand turns … er … NASCAR, in a race against the court system.

 

In case you were residing under a rock recently, AT&T has taken ownership of Cingular under the theme of ‘The New AT&T.’ Now, the telecommunications giant wants NASCAR to take an ‘out with the old, in with the new’ approach.

 

Jeff Burton, NASCAR star, drives a car with the Cingular cell phone service logo. But with the recent acquisition, AT&T plans to eliminate the Cingular brand name all together. As a result, AT&T wants their logo racing by on fans television screens.

 

NASCAR blocked usage of the AT&T logo on Burton’s car, because of it’s deal with Nextel. After all, the circuit’s major season long competition is called the Nextel Cup. The Nextel deal strictly forbids racing teams from signing new sponsorship deals with the competition.

If that is the specific language of the deal, then it would seem a matter of time before NASCAR and Nextel lose this fight. Clearly, this is not a new sponsorship deal. In addition, it would seem that Cingular was able to get around this provision in the past, because they sponsored Burton and displayed their logo on his car. Not to mention, the deal allows teams to keep their sponsors, which is essentially what Burton is doing. They just happen to have a new name.

 

The motion that AT&T filed requests that the logo be permitted immediately, though a hearing has yet to be scheduled. 

 

[Via The Times and Democrat]