CBS Sportsline story reports: Although a former series champion, Bobby Labonte might not be back in the #18 in 2006. Stay tuned.(CBS Sportsline), however back in 2003, Labonte signed an extension with Joe Gibbs Racing thru the 2008 season.(7-14-2005)
UPDATE: Bobby Labonte and team manager Jimmy Makar were noncommittal about reports that Labonte may be leaving car owner Joe Gibbs at the end of the season after 11 years, including the 2000 championship run. Labonte, according to other team owners, has been checking out the marketplace, and he is being mentioned for three possible rides: with Roger Penske, replacing retiring Rusty Wallace; with Ray Evernham, as a teammate with Kasey Kahne and Jeremy Mayfield; and with Nelson Bowers [MB2 Motorsports], if Scott Riggs leaves.(Winston Salem Journal)
MORE Car owner Joe Gibbs is interested in hiring Busch series hotshot Reed Sorensen for a Nextel Cup ride next season, according to sources close to the situation. While Tony Stewart is Gibbs’ hot driver at the moment, teammates #18-Bobby Labonte and #11-Jason Leffler have had disappointing results. Makar, while enjoying Stewart’s dominating performances these last few weeks, has been struggling to right the staggering other two teams in the Gibbs stable. The Leffler team, new this season, has struggled to get its sea legs, despite new crew chief Mike Ford taking over two months ago. The Labonte team, on the other hand, has struggled since losing crew chief Michael McSwain last summer; those close to Labonte say that the relationship with Gibbs may have “grown stale.”(Winston Salem Journal)(7-16-2005)
UPDATE 2: #18-Bobby Labonte said Saturday that it bothers him when people put his name in the rumor mill without even asking him whether anything’s going on. So, Bobby, is there anything going on? “The real deal is there is no real deal,” Labonte said at New Hampshire International Speedway, where he’ll start 10th in Sunday’s New England 300. “I have got a contract and I am driving the snot out of our car.” Labonte’s name first appeared in the NASCAR rumor mill during the Nextel Cup weekend at Infineon Raceway, with Labonte supposedly looking to leave the #18 Chevrolets despite having a contract with Joe Gibbs Racing that goes through 2008. The rumors surfaced again this week as discussion about who’ll go where in 2006 picks up speed in the Cup garage. “Anytime you’re not running good and there are things changing, people include you (in rumors),” Labonte said. “In some people’s situations, sometimes they do help. But you don’t know how bad it screws up a race team when people write something with no facts at all. You don’t realize how bad it can screw up an organization when you’re all trying real hard to make things work.”(ThatsRacin.com/David Poole)(7-17-2005)
UPDATE 3: Even though Bobby Labonte has a contract with Joe Gibbs Racing through the 2008 Nextel Cup season, CBS Sportsline reports Labonte might not be back in the #18 car he’s driven since the beginning of the 1995 season and in which he won the 2000 Cup Championship. What didn’t get reported by CBS is a persistent rumor that Labonte, tired of the Nextel Cup grind but enamored with his Rolex Series Daytona Prototype ride, will swap to that series with Gibbs in 2006.(Daytona Beach News Journal)(7-17-2005)
