Judge rules against NASCAR
NASCAR can’t stop AT&T Inc. from featuring its logo on Jeff Burton’s No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, a federal judge ruled Friday.
U.S. District Judge Marvin Shoob in Atlanta issued a preliminary injunction barring NASCAR and any entity affiliated with it from interfering with AT&T’s rights as primary sponsor of the car in NASCAR Cup Series races.
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.
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.
“Matt Kenseth took the pole for tonight’s Nextel All-Star Challenge at Concord, N.C. Jimmie Johnson is second and Kurt Busch qualified third, followed by Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton for the non-points race of four 20-lap segments.
Eighteen drivers are already eligible for the All-Star race. The rest will compete in the preliminary Nextel Open, a 40-lap, two-segment race whose winner and second-place cars will be transferred to the main race. Carl Edwards won the pole for the Open.
“ Ron Hornaday Jr. passed A.J. Allmendinger with 36 laps to go, then held on over two restarts to win the Craftsman Truck Series race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
Indy Racing League
Al Unser Jr. is among about 13 drivers expected to compete today for the 11 positions remaining in the 33-car field for the May 27 Indianapolis 500.
John Andretti, who got his ride with Panther Racing this week, was the fastest of the non-qualified drivers at 222.830, good for ninth overall.
Unser was fifth among the non-qualified drivers with a top lap of 220.344 in practice.
Once the field is filled, the slowest cars can still be ousted by faster qualifiers until time trials end Sunday afternoon.