Nothing good will come from racing lawsuit

Honestly, I’m surprised it took this long for NASCAR to get involved in a gazillion dollar lawsuit.

In case you missed it this week, NASCAR filed a counter claim in U.S. District Court against AT&T Mobility/Cingular Wireless and AT&T Inc., alleging breach of contract, fraud and misrepresentation, and conspiracy to aid and abet wrongful interference with Nextel’s exclusive sponsorship agreement.

NASCAR is seeking a minimum of $100 million in damages.

Of course AT&T had previously sued NASCAR for the right to sponsor the car driven by Jeff Burton and adorn it with all the bells and whistles associated with the company, and a judge agreed.

Admittedly, I’m not smart enough to know if this is a black and white issue, but I do know that in a sport as sponsor-driven as NASCAR this was bound to happen.

You have a Lowe’s Motor Speedway and a Lowe’s sponsored car, and you’ve had a Home Depot-sponsored car win at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.

There’s nothing illegal about that, but it’s odd.

You’d had Jeff Gordon win the Coca-Cola 600 while wearing his Pepsi colors. When he gets to victory lane and they try to get him to swig a Coke, he insists on taking a chug of Pepsi.

I really thought that would wind up in court.

For the more than three decades R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company sponsored NASCAR’s premiere series, the sport seemed to — excuse the pun — just puff right along. If I remember correctly there were other tobacco companies that sponsored cars and it never seemed to be an issue.

But now we’re dealing with telecommunications giants, and they simply don’t want to work and play well with one another.

According to the sanctioning body the NASCAR rulebook governs participation in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series and its contents are agreed to in writing by all NASCAR members and participants. Cingular is a member of NASCAR and agreed to abide by all NASCAR rules and regulations when its representatives signed official documents such as the NASCAR Membership and License Application.

NASCAR’s suit alleges that AT&T, Cingular and its representatives breached its explicit agreements with NASCAR when they re-branded the No. 31 car; entered into contract with Richard Childress Racing knowing that they would litigate against NASCAR; and when they sought to “ambush” Nextel’s exclusive sponsorship rights.

The court’s preliminary injunction allowing the No. 31 to re-brand is still on appeal by NASCAR and Nextel and is being fully contended.

Rest assured this is going to get ugly, folks. Depending on how the court eventually rules it will determine whether NASCAR is still a 600-pound gorilla or whether it has lost a little weight — and maybe a little muscle.

Every time the words “sports” and “lawsuit” appear in the same sentence I roll my eyes because rarely will anything good come from the union of the two.

I just wish Nextel and AT&T would think about the good of the sport before they go any further.

Translation: turn this thing over to Judge Judy.

She’ll have it settled in 20 minutes.

See more at www.independentmail.com