NASCAR filed a $100 million countersuit against AT&T for an alleged breach of contract, fraud and misrepresentation and conspiracy to aid and abet wrongful interference with Nextel. AT&T has been battling NASCAR over putting its logo on NASCAR driver Scott Burton's car. Burton and his team have a sponsorship deal with Cingular, which is now part of the new AT&T.
Earlier this year, AT&T sued NASCAR over not being allowed to remove the Cingular logos, and a court preliminarily ruled that AT&T could put its logos on in their stead. Burton and his team have raced with the AT&T logos since the May 19 ruling. NASCAR is also considering not allowing drivers to participate if they have a telecom sponsor other than Nextel.
The suit also asks that NASCAR be given the right to kick out all telecommunications providers other than Nextel, which it has an exclusive sponsorship agreement with, out of its top series in 2008. Cingular and Alltel, which have had sponsorship deals with NASCAR drivers for years, were grandfathered into the sport when Nextel entered into an exclusive sponsorship with NASCAR. The original deal, however, did not allow the companies to change their deals with their drivers.
For more on the NASCAR-AT&T suits:
- see this article from ESPN