Race car driver Jeff Burton came in fourth in a May 19 NASCAR event, but his No. 31 Chevrolet still won big that day — on a different fast track.

Lawyers for AT&T, the car’s sponsor, beat out their counterparts from NASCAR and Sprint Nextel in a legal race that led from the home of a U.S. District Court senior judge that Saturday morning to a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals later that afternoon.