Full Throttle

“Order… order in the court! Mr. Leghorn I will not enter those bunched panties into evidence!”

The heavyweight fight between NASCAR and AT&T was ruled a no decision Thursday by U.S. District court judge Marvin H. Schoob in Atlanta. Schoob listened to almost four hours of arguments from NASCAR, AT&T during the preliminary injunction hearing.

At the end of the day, and in his best Bugs Bunny voice, judge Schoob ruled - No MAS! (Is that France in the witness box?)

Judge Schoob set May 7th as a deadline for filing briefs in the case. Which means Jeff Burton, RCR, AT&T, NEXTEL, NASCAR and various and sundry hangers on will have their panties in a bunch for the next two weeks.

Lawyers Shysters being lawyers shysters they’ll spend the next fortnight adjusting their bunched panties and file the last of their briefs at 23:59 on the 6th and once again there will be no resolution May 7th.

For my money, what little there is, David Balser attorney for AT&T had the take away quote in the AP story: “We have changed our name, but we are the same company as we were before we changed our name.”

“Sprint has said the value of its investment would increase if they could drive us out,” Balser said to Schoob. “That is what this is about, your honor. Sprint Nextel is trying to use our name change to drive us out of the sport.”

Whether Schoob rules that to be true or not remains to be seen. But I suspect to many of us peering over the third turn wall looking at this clash of the titans Balser’s scenario looks, walks and talks like a duck.