Judge won’t prevent Burton, AT&T link

NASCAR expects to keep up its legal battle.

ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge and the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to grant NASCAR’s requests for a stay to prevent Jeff Burton’s No. 31 car from racing Saturday with the AT&T logo.

The first ruling, issued Saturday just hours before the Nextel All-Star Challenge in Concord, N.C., was the second in two days from U.S. District Judge Marvin Shoob.

On Friday, Shoob issued a preliminary injunction barring NASCAR from stopping AT&T Inc. from placing its brand on Burton’s Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

Following the second denial for a stay, NASCAR filed an emergency motion for a stay with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, which also denied the request.

Ramsey Poston, NASCAR’s managing director for corporate communications, said NASCAR will continue the legal fight.

“NASCAR is disappointed that the request for a stay was not successful,” Poston said. “We will continue to explore every legal avenue available to us. In the meantime we will honor the court’s ruling.”

July hearing

In its written order Saturday, the 11th Circuit ruled all briefs in the appeal must by filed by June 25. The appeal is expected to be heard in July.

In its request for an emergency stay, NASCAR argued that allowing Burton to race with the AT&T brand “will virtually ’moot’ NASCAR’S appeal of right by allowing AT&T ... to spend tens of millions of dollars in advertising targeted at NASCAR fans showing the AT&T logo on the No. 31 car.”

NASCAR has tried to prevent the Cingular logo from being changed to the AT&T logo on Burton’s car. AT&T is the sole owner of Cingular and is rebranding the cell phone company’s name to AT&T.

After Friday’s ruling, AT&T announced Burton’s car would be repainted in time for Saturday night’s race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. That decal switch already was completed by Saturday afternoon.

Sprint Nextel Corp. sponsors NASCAR’s premier series, the Nextel Cup, and has exclusive rights as the telecommunications company for the series. Attorneys argued the only exceptions are companies, including Cingular, that already sponsored cars when Nextel reached its agreement with NASCAR.