NASCAR, AT&T and Sprint have reached a truce in the cellphone sponsorship war that's been waged in racing for the past few months.
The parties involved announced on Friday that AT&T can remain as sponsor of the No. 31 Chevrolet that is owned by Richard Childress Racing and driven by Jeff Burton through the 2008 season. Then the decals will have to come off the car. The original contract between Childress and AT&T would have run through 2010.
Paul Sancya/Associated Press
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Crewmembers work on the engine of Jeff Burton's car during practice for the NASCAR 3M Performance 400 at Michigan International Speedway in this Aug. 17, 2007, photo.
"No one likes litigation, most of all the NASCAR fans, and it was time to find a mutually agreeable resolution," NASCAR CEO Brian France said in a statement announcing the agreement.
The settlement ends a legal dispute that arose when the Cingular brand of wireless communication, which had been the sponsor of Burton's car, went away as part of an AT&T merger with BellSouth, which shared ownership of Cingular with AT&T.
The problem on the NASCAR front was that another cellphone company, Sprint Nextel, came along after Cingular got into the sport and signed a deal to be the title sponsor of the premier NASCAR series. The terms of Sprint's arrangement with NASCAR allowed it to limit the participation in NASCAR's elite Cup series of other wireless companies. Companies including Cingular and Alltel, which already were sponsoring cars in NASCAR's top division, were allowed to remain as long as there were no significant changes.
When NASCAR said AT&T couldn't take Cingular's place on Burton's car, AT&T went to court, arguing that since it already owned most of Cingular that it hadn't violated its "grandfather agreement" with NASCAR. AT&T won one round that allowed its logos to be run on Burton's car, but a higher court's decision meant that for the past two weeks, Burton's car carried no sponsor logos.
But the AT&T colors were back on the No. 31 car on Friday and will be back on board for Saturday night's race at Richmond International Raceway.
Dave Garver, executive director of business development and wireless sponsorship for AT&T's wireless division, said the deal reached with NASCAR and Sprint allows his company to accomplish one of its primary goals, which is to help NASCAR fans get used to the idea that Cingular is now AT&T.
"We've always looked at using the 31 car as a significant transitional element," Garver said, adding that while he's disappointed that the sponsorship deal has been cut short, he's pleased to be a part of an agreement that is "in the best interest of all parties involved."
Garver said that the settlement is good in one respect for his company because of late, any positive publicity from the sponsorship has been overshadowed by the legal wrangling.
And he said that while AT&T is still bullish on NASCAR in the short term, it has not decided if it will remain in the sport in some fashion after 2008.
"It's too early to tell," Garver said. "We've been focusing all of our effort on this situation."
