NASCAR’S 2000 WINSTON CUP CHAMPION, Bobby Labonte has been released by Petty Enterprises. Pictured here during the announcement that Boston Ventures had aquired a share of the legendary Petty Enterprises, Labonte had agreed to an extension of his contract that would keep him at the wheel of the #43 through the 2012 season. All that means nothing now. With no sponsor in sight for the #43, Labonte is now out of a ride for ‘09.
This announcement is another sign of tough times for NA$CAR teams. General Mills joined Richard Childress Racing to sponsor the #33 entry beginning in ‘09. That left Petty Enterprises with no sponsor for the legendary #43 team. No sponsor announcement has yet been made for the #45/44 formerly driven by Kyle Petty. This could be the end for Petty Enterprises in NA$CAR.
Bobby Labonte is a man of great integrity. When General Mills chose to leave Petty Enterprises for RCR, Labonte could have gone with them. Richard Childress would have welcomed the former champion. Instead, Bobby chose to stay with Petty, believing that things would be ok and another sponsor would come. Sadly, the events of the slumping economy and recession have driven many sponsors away from the escalating cost of sponsoring a team that has not delivered a victory since the late Bobby Hamilton and John Andretti held the wheel.
Top tier teams like Hendrick, Roush-Sox and RCR seem to have no trouble attracting all the big sponsors needed to fund the fleets. Now, even the team once known as Dale Earnhardt Inc has slipped from the top tier and may only field one fully sponsored entry. The untinkable has happened at DEI. Teresa is forced to seek a merge with Chip Ganassi in order to continue. Ganassi has his own troubles and has only TARGET as a sure thing for the ‘09 season. The so called EARNHARDT-GANASSI team can count on the #1 BASS PRO SHOPS entry, #41 TARGET, #8 Unsponsored and the #42 with only partial sponsorship from WRIGLEY’s.
Grumpy hopes that Bobby Labonte gets a call soon. His time at Petty nearly killed his career. He deserves better than that. Hard times like this will thin the herd as we look toward the ‘09 season. A lot of good people have lost jobs from race teams looking to cut costs or sadly closing the doors. If the sport is to survive, Brian France and the suits at NA$CAR will need to spread the wealth with teams. NA$CAR is holding too many sponsors to feed the giant. The so called ‘Official (fill in the name) of NA$CAR’ program has taken potential sponsor dollars away from the teams to enrich NA$CAR.
2 Comments
“The untinkable has happened at DEI.”
Please, unthinkable?
Surely you jest. She’s done next to nothing right since Senior died. Without him keeping a leash on her hair-brained, misguided schemes the Co. has been adrift.
As far as Labonte goes I’d love nothing better than to see such a class guy land in a good ride (WHY, why did you go to Petty?!) but that’s near impossible at this late date.
His choices are down to sitting out 2009 or riding around in a field filler.
Hey marc,
Thanks for stopping by.
Poor choice of words, ya think? When I wrote that, I was thinking about DEI as it was before the departure of Dale jr and Budweiser. Teresa would not cut jr in on the business. Now she has to bunk with Ganassi in a marraige of two weak partners. the sum is not stronger than the individuals.
Maybe they can snag Bobby to drive the Target car.
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