TRG Motorsports needs sponsorship; Bobby Labonte doesn't run full race at Dover
Bobby Labontte is in his first year with TRG Motorsports, which is still looking for sponsorship to fully race the rest of the year. // Sam Cranston, NASCAR Illustrated
DOVER, Del. – TRG Motorsports had no sponsor for the Autism Speaks 400 on Sunday at Dover International Speedway and 2000 Sprint Cup champion Bobby Labonte parked after 65 laps.
The team needs sponsorship for several future races this season as well, team executive vice president Torrey Galida said before the race. Sponsor TaxSlayer.com was a 12-race primary deal and most of its races were early in the year to coincide with tax season. Team owner Kevin Buckler’s Adobe Road Winery is another sponsor.
“We’re still looking for partners,” Galida said prior to the Autism Speaks 400. “TaxSlayer has been a great partner for us this year but they’re not on for the full season. We’re getting to the point where we’ve got to be strategic with how we use our resources and continue to run as well as we can and attract more sponsorship.
“We’ve had tons of leads, lots of great meetings but just haven’t been able to close [with] anybody. We think we’re close on a couple of things. We’re at a point now where we’ve got to start [getting sponsors] pretty quickly.”
With only four sets of tires (all appearing to be scuffs) in its pit box less than two hours prior to the start of the race Sunday, Galida indicated prior to the race that the team would decide during the race whether it would attempt to run the full event. Most teams planning on running the entire race had eight or nine sets of tires in their pits. Labonte stayed out when most teams pitted after an early caution to get a lap back and then pulled down pit road under green. The team listed the reason out as electrical.
“We’re going to take advantage of opportunities [in the race] if they present themselves, but if not, we’ll look at conserving our resources,” Galida said prior to the event. “We’ll make that decision as a game-time decision in how things unfold initially. We have a pit crew here. We’ve got all the tools, but there’s significant cost to the engines, … the tires are a significant cost.
“If we can conserve our resources and live to fight another day, that’s what we’ll do.”
This certainly is not what Labonte envisioned when he signed with the team last November.
TRG has alliances with several organizations. It uses a pit crew provided by Stewart-Haas Racing. It has a strategic alliance with Richard Childress Racing as it uses RCR cars and chassis.
The team had to start-and-park in several races last year with driver David Gilliland. It had hoped that the alliances and the hiring of Labonte would help attract sponsorship. Crew chief Richard “Slugger” Labbe left after the ‘09 season to join Richard Petty Motorsports; TRG brought in another well-versed crew chief in Doug Randolph to replace Labbe.
But it’s been a rough season for the organization, an accomplished and well-known team in the world of sports-car racing. Labonte is 33rd in the standings with no top-20 finishes despite running at the finish in 10 of the 11 races this year.
“Bobby is still one of the most popular guys in the sport,” Galida said. “He’s a fantastic person and an incredibly talented driver. As we looked last year, we made every decision as if we would be a fully funded race team this season.
“We’ve done that up to this point. We’ve made huge progress. … We haven’t found the kind of success we need to in the marketplace of attracting other partners. We’ve got a really compelling story. We’ve got a solid team.”
The team plans to show up for every race, Galida said, and not do a program such as the Wood Brothers, which comes to select races as a fully funded car.
“It’s really important to stay in the top 35,” said Galida, whose team fell to 33rd in owner points after Labonte's 39th-place finish. “We want to score as many points as we possibly can and run as well as we can, but it may result in some trade-offs.”
Labonte, who has a spot in the Sprint All-Star Race, will run the full event next week with sponsorship from TaxSlayer.com.
