Race Team Alliance will talk to NASCAR through attorneys

If the new Race Team Alliance wants to communicate with NASCAR and its sister company International Speedway Corp. it will have to do so through attorneys. NASCAR President Mike Helton said Friday there is no animosity between the team owners and NASCAR, although NASCAR has had no conversations with Kauffman as part of the RTA. "I wanted to dispel the perception of animosity to start with and then back that up with saying we're going to do business as usual," Helton said Friday. "I think everybody in the garage area knows how we do our business and the role they play in it, and so we'll continue to do it that way." But apparently no NASCAR officials will be talking directly with the RTA. NASCAR confirmed Wednesday that in a move they say is done for legal prudence and not as a sign of animosity, it has directed that all communication between NASCAR and the RTA be done through lawyers. After the Sporting News published a column on the RTA Tuesday saying the development is a sign of an increased lack of trust between NASCAR and the teams and vice versa, Kauffman tweeted that ISC also has issued a lawyer-only edict. The RTA has hired the legal firm of Jones Day, which provides representation on financial issues to almost half of the Fortune 500 companies. And they apparently need to be. Gary Roberts, a noted sports law expert and current professor at Indiana University, said last week that the organization could open itself up to a lawsuit depending on how it operates. There is nothing wrong with the teams working together for better purchasing power as long as the people they purchase from are not dependent solely on NASCAR teams for their business. The danger comes if the RTA represents the teams in any sort of negotiations with NASCAR and tries to use its collective leverage to force NASCAR's hand. "You have a monopolist, NASCAR, dictating terms to a group of entities that it does business with," Roberts said. "And the entities then (are) saying, 'We want to get together and create counter-veiling market power so we're on equal footing.'(Sporting News)