Top 35 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers: No. 30 - Bobby Labonte

By Rea White - Associate Editor

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Bobby Labonte changed teams late in the season, but managed to finish 30th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings.

Jim Fluharty
NASCAR Scene

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Bobby Labonte debuted with Hall of Fame Racing for the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, but he finished the year with another organization on his way to a 30th-place finish in the final driver standings.

The No. 96 Hall of Fame Ford, which was run out of the Yates Racing shop, struggled to contend with the elite teams in the sport. Labonte, the 2000 series champion, finished fifth at Las Vegas, the third race of the season, but he fell to midpack finishes for the most part after that.

Late in the year, the team put Roush Fenway Racing regular Erik Darnell in the car, and Labonte moved over to TRG Motorsports for the majority of the final races of the season.

TRG, a building group that has shown flashes of strength this season, was outside the top 35 in owner points, but Labonte made races with it – he was guaranteed a starting spot either way by virtue of the past champion’s provisional - and then earned back-to-back top-13 finishes driving one race with Hall of Fame and another with TRG.

Late in the year, Labonte announced plans to compete full time for the TRG group in 2010.

The Corpus Christi, Texas, native earned $4,198,897 in purses.

During the offseason, SceneDaily is taking a look at the top 35 in 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup driver points. Here’s how Labonte’s season unfolded:

By the numbers: Labonte earned two top-10 finishes, one of them the fifth at Las Vegas, driving for two teams over the course of the season. He also qualified in the top 10 twice, at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the fall and Martinsville Speedway, also in the fall.

Season highlights: Labonte's fifth-place finish was the highlight for the Yates' organization this season. Also, the fact that he finished 10th in his fourth race with TRG - and with those intermixed with starts for Hall of Fame at the time, showed the impact he can have on the building organization.

Key setbacks: Labonte endured seven DNFs over the course of the season, two because of engine failures and five because of accidents that he was caught up in.

Newsworthy moment: Labonte enjoyed a pair of newsworthy moments, both tied to signing contracts. In January, he announced plans to compete for Hall of Fame Racing out of the Yates shop for this season. In November, he announced that he would remain with TRG for the 2010 season. In addition, Labonte was inducted into the Texas Motorsports Hall of Fame in March.

In his words: "It’s always good when we can work toward the future ... . Going into the offseason, there’s a lot of work to do, and we’re all going to have to collectively do that together. That’s what we all want to do. So it’s a good feeling knowing that we have a great opportunity to proceed and make a really good impact next year starting off."

- Bob Pockrass contributed to this report