Oh sure, Americans are adamantly against texting while driving (in theory), but that's not stopping those mischievous Gen Y-ers from getting their SMS on while behind the wheel. According to a new survey of 1,200 people conducted by Nationwide Mutual Insurance (we know, we know), a third of the Gen Y-ers admitted to "always multitasking while driving," and while the "always" bit does indeed frighten us a tad, the real juice was in the next statistic: 37-percent said they sent text messages while driving. Before you start belaboring the imprudent youth, think long and hard about your own in-car cellphone usage -- remember that time you just had to reply "y w pep plz" in order to salvage your friend's pizza order? Tsk tsk.

[Via About]

Oh, the drama. Just when you thought AT&T may be in the clear to re-brand Jeff Burton's ride, NASCAR throws a $100 million lawsuit in the carrier's direction, and now, a federal appeals court has reportedly "cleared the way" for NASCAR to claim victory. Purportedly, the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals "said Monday in its order that AT&T lacks standing to challenge NASCAR's decision," and subsequently tossed out a lower court's ruling that prevented NASCAR from halting AT&T's plans. Sheesh, all this over a paint job.

Race fans not too engrossed in the drama that is modifying the Car of Tomorrow could have probably smelled this one coming out of turn two, but according to numerous sources at ESPN, the Nextel Cup will be no more after 2007. Soon after Sprint decided to axe the whole "Together with Nextel" bit from its agenda, whispers are now saying that the 2008 season will feature the Sprint Cup Series. As expected, NASCAR declined to comment, but Sprint's NASCAR marketing director noted that Sprint-Nextel is "still sorting the proposition out with NASCAR." Ah well, different name -- same game.

[Thanks, Ben S.]

We really couldn't care less about who wins this race or that race on the NASCAR circuit, and yet we've been unable to take our eyes off of the stock car giant's ongoing legal battle with AT&T, which has just entered a new and more contentious phase this week. You'll recall that in an effort to protect Nextel's exclusive 10-year sponsorship, NASCAR officials attempted to prohibit the "new" AT&T from rebranding Jeff Burton's Cingular car -- an attempt that was thwarted in a US District Court last month. Well apparently Brian France and friends aren't too fond of watching Burton race around the track with his shiny new paint job, and have just filed a $100 million countersuit in Atlanta, citing "breach of contract, fraud and misrepresentation, and conspiracy to aid and abet wrongful interference with Nextel." What's more, NASCAR is seeking the right to completely ban any non-Nextel telecommunications sponsors from the sport starting in 2008, which would allow it give both AT&T and Alltel the boot. Ah, courtroom drama: the true sport of kings.

We know that there's another grueling week to survive between now and the Coca-Cola 600, but here's a NASCAR tidbit that will hopefully satisfy your Sunday desire for a little roundtrack action. AT&T has been given the green flag to rebrand Jeff Burton's (very orange) #31 race car after Judge Marvin H. Shoob of the US District Court, Northern District of Georgia, "granted AT&T's motion for preliminary injunction in its suit against NASCAR." It was noted that the decision gives AT&T "the immediate right to put its logos and brand marks" on the vehicle, and while we're not certain if we'll see a slightly new look come May 27th, we're sure it won't be long before the blue sphere makes its official debut.

[Via RCRNews]

When you're a big telecom outfit and you don't get your way with sponsoring certain events, better bring out the hankies when you start whining. That's just what AT&T did in a recent tiff with NASCAR, after racing officials refused to slap the AT&T logo on Jeff Burton's car. The Number 31 car already had the Cingular logo on it, but as AT&T eradicates all traces of that brand, it apparently wanted the AT&T logo instead (understandable, we suppose). The beef, though, comes from NASCAR's current sponsorship deal with Nextel for the Nextel Cup; with AT&T calling the logo placement an "integral part'' of the its brand name change, NASCAR is prohibiting the company's ability to "attract new customers and retain existing ones.'' Let us see here: logo change equals automatic new customers... sounds pretty logical to us.