One of the motorcoach drivers accused in the Racial Incident, Ray Labbe, was on RPm2Nite Wednesday and was interviewed. He mentioned that he was not involved but witnessed the incident but was assumed to be involved. According to several sources and motorcoach drivers, Labbe was not involved in the NHIS Racial Incident. Labbe had a lot to say and I didn’t jot down notes and do not wish to misquote him. But he is trying to get his job and life back. If I find an official story on the ‘net I will post it. For the initial stories on the incident see this AP report: NASCAR Team Members Fired for Racial Prank and on my #12 Team Past News Page — UPDATE2 here is the transcript of what was said in the Ray Labbe interview on RPN2Nite Wednesday: “That’s correct, that’s correct John..basically I’m just doing this deal here to try to clear my name on this situation. And what happened at New Hampshire is, number one I was a victim of circumstances, I’m not denying the fact that I was there, but I was an innocent bystander, the people involved told me about what they were doing, and everything and I watched them do that, and I watched it go down, and it wasn’t seconds after it was all done that I just, continued on and went on to the motorhome and did my deal. And thought nothing of it. Well, unfortunately, what happened after this deal went down, is, brings up the incident that I’ve been suspended for. Ok, which none of you guys know about. A year ago, at Watkins Glen Speedway, was my 55th birthday. And I had over 75 get together, and chip in and buy birthday cake and give me a birthday party after the race Sunday night. And it included a lot of people, trust me. We all had fun and everything, and I ain’t afraid to tell you that there was a lot of people into the liquor. And I called someone a name. You know, under the influence, I called somebody a name. And good friends of mine told me I did that, I still didn’t know that I had because of the situation I was in, because I was celebrating. Ok, but they also told me that it wasn’t three seconds after I called that particular person a name, that I turned around, even in the situation that I was in, and apologized to him. And the whole year went by, and both me and that person, were friends, I helped him, he helped me, every week he gave me stuff, I gave him stuff, everything was fine. And when the situation in New Hampshire happened, I was brought down for that deal, of a year ago. Which at this point I think was unfair, but, all I’m basically after, all Ray Labbe wants, at this time, is to get his life back together, and to go on.” Also, the whole interview will be on RPM radio, NASCAR NOW this weekend on the ESPN radio network. The show is broadcast on 157 stations nationwide and is also available on the internet by visiting espn.com’s autoracing page
