AT&T, NASCAR to court again

On August 13 a court overruled the initial injunction that allowed AT&T to put their logos on Burton's No. 31 car, changing their branding from Cingular as part of their marketing strategy following the acquisition of BellSouth.

This forced AT&T to look at alternative paint schemes for Burton's car for last weekend's race at Bristol, but NASCAR did not approve some of them and the telecom company decided in the end to run their car unbranded in the Sharpie 500.

AT&T have filed now a second injunction, which will have a hearing on September 18, presided by Judge Marvin Shoob, who ruled in favour of AT&T back in May when the first injunction was filed.

Back then, the ruling was based on the fact that NASCAR had breached its grandfather clause, which allowed Cingular to remain as a sponsor of the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing car when Nextel became the Series' title sponsor.

Earlier this year AT&T sued NASCAR when they were prevented for the first time from changing their branding on Burton's car, but NASCAR counter-sued the company, claiming damages for US$100 million.