Kevin Harvick Inc. announced today that Bobby Labonte will assume driving duties of the #77 Dollar General stores Chevy at the remaining companion events for the 2006 season. KHI and Dollar General had high expectations for the #77 when the season started, said Kevin Harvick. Both Dollar General and KHI have been very patient throughout the season. This is a performance-based business and unfortunately we have not seen the level of improvement or the results we had hoped for. In an effort to evaluate the performance of the #77 team and get a jump start on the 2007 season, a change had to be made.” Burney Lamar will be back in the #77 Dollar General Stores Chevy in the Sam’s Town 250 at Memphis.(KHI PR)(9-25-2006)
UPDATE: Harvick doesn’t yet know what the plan for the team next season and whether KHI will focus on one driver or hire multiple drivers. “We’re still trying to decide what we’re going to do on the driving situation, whether it is two drivers or three drivers or one driver, whatever the case may be, and go from there,” he said.(SceneDaily.com)(9-29-2006)
UPDATE 2: Burney Lamar says he has nothing negative to say about Kevin Harvick Inc., which announced earlier this week he would drive one more race in 2006 and it would not pick up his option in 2007. “There’s no hard feelings,” Lamar said Friday while at Kansas Speedway. “They have done a lot for my career. They gave me an opportunity to make a name for myself. With that, I will go on.”(SceneDaily.com)(9-30-2006)
UPDATE 3: The pulse in the garage says that sponsor Dollar General would prefer to have Nextel Cup drivers in the car in hopes of producing better results than this season with rookie Burney Lamar.(SceneDaily.com)(9-30-2006)
