Bobby Labonte is parting ways with Petty Enterprises and will be, as of an announcement scheduled for later this morning, looking for a ride in the Sprint Cup Series for 2009.
Labonte, the 2000 Cup Series champion who has 21 career victories, has been the driver of the No. 43 Dodges for the past three seasons.
Petty Enterprises is expected to announce today that it is continuing talks about a potential merger with other teams. But Labonte will be released from his contract leaving him without a deal for 2009.
Labonte had re-signed with the team in June when Boston Ventures announced that it had purchased majority ownership in the Petty team. But the team has been unable to find a sponsor to replace General Mills as the primary sponsor on the No. 43 Dodges. General Mills is moving to Richard Childress Racing for 2009.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Labonte no longer under contract
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16 comments:
Wow was this a ESPN commercial or what? Must have stayed up all night typing this one No Wait did Jayski already report it Was this a copy n paste?? Minimun amount of effort for maximum about of compensation
Snapsels, it took me more effort to write that than it did for you to not look at a clock. My blog was posted at 9:42 and the story was on our web site at 9:46. But it was posted on ESPN at 9:53. That'd make it kind of hard for me to copy and paste it, wouldn't it there Skippy?
Haha, thanks David. I hate these idiots that roam around the internet and think leaving a comment in a forum or article makes them the smartest person in the world.
What a difference a couple of years make. I have been a fan of both the Labontes for a long time. But when Bobby asked out of his contract with Joe Gibbs, I had to scratch my head. Why?
The word was that Bobby did not like being #2 to Tony and so he'd rather go to Petty's. Of course that makes you wonder about Bobby. Did he really think that his driving skills could overcome all that Pettys had stuggled with for 15 years? Or was it pride? Did he say, I'd rather be #1 in a bad team, than #2 in a superior team? Pride goes before the fall.
Richard Petty had the adoration of many in the garage, but you did not see JJ or Carl, or Tony ripping up their contracts so they could drive at Pettys. Bobby made a huge professional mistake.
Dang!!! Seems someone ruffled A feather Or two! Surprised Fat boy could spell skippy dang sure can't do it
Anbonymous #4, Labonte saw that Petty was a good team with the ability to win races. It wasn't his or Robbie Loomis' fault the technology arms race and Chrysler's incompetence in running the Dodge program hurt them.
"You didn't see JJ or Carl or Tony ripping up their contracts so they could drive at Petty's." So what? Labonte did the right thing; blame Dodge more than Petty here.
I don't know why Labonte thought Petty was such good place to go. I mean he come from Gibbs! At one time Bobby had said he was upset at ending the year ranked in 12th place!
In the last 24 years Petty Ent had won 3, that's 3 races. Ray Everham started from scratch and he and Kasey did well. Not only that, Ray's team was worth more than Petty's according to Forbes. As a matter of fact, GEM was the 5th most valuable team, and this is while Ray was still in it, something like $150 mil. On the other hand, even after Boston V invested a lot, Petty Ent was still only worth $44mil. They cannot blame it all on Dodge.
Anonymous#7, because they were a good team. "He came from Gibbs!" He'd been demoted to second-string there and was becoming third-string as J.J. Yeley was coming up.
"Ray Evernham started from scratch." He started by working with Petty Enterprises on the Dodge program to get it and himself off the ground.
"They cannot blame it all on Dodge." In a real sense they can, because Dodge was supposed to require all of its teams to work together; instead it splintered them off while focusing its resources first on Ganassi Racing, then on Penske.
Labonte being 3 string at Gibbs was better than first at sinking-ship-Petty.
As for Dodge, if it was so bad and treated Petty so badly, why did Petty stay with them?
THANK YOU BOBBY FOR LEAVING PETTY HOPEFULLY DODGE TOO.
Bobby had 2 more years in his Gibbs contract. JJ Yeley was not taped full-time until Bobby decided to leave which left the 18 without a driver. When Bobby quit, Gibbs did not know would drive the 18.
Anyway, the grass always looks greener soeplace else.
Bobby Labonte becoming a third-string over JJ Yeley? Is that a joke? Bobby announced he was leaving at the end of the season (November). For all those who admire BL for staying at Petty, how about leaving Gibbs?
There is no way Gibbs wanted Yeley over BL. They were stuck. It was the end of the season. I mean JJ had driven a few races in 04 and had an ave finish of 31.8 and the year before in his couple of races had ave finish of 34. His average finish in Busch before getting the 18 ride was an ave finish of 18.
JJ was nor is a better choice than Bobby. He's also not even in the shadow of Kyle Busch. Now that has more than made up for Bobby asking for his release from Gibbs.
Hey snapsels, go to YouTube and do a search for David Poole.
When you watch the clip, go do what he says.
This all just makes me wonder if LaBonte will go back to Gibbes, he would be a great replacement for Logono in the 20 car as well.
I don't know if Labonte burnt his Gibbs bridges when he left, but it sure would be wonderful to see him back at Gibbs. Kind of a prodigal son.
Logano is good, but I don't think he's ready for Cup and with no testing, he sure has an uphill battle.
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