Petty Enterprises lost the sponsor of its famed # 43 car to Richard Childress Racing on Tuesday, but officials don’t expect the driver to follow. STP was the sponsor of the #43 car that Richard Petty drove to 200 victories. Now with General Mills moving on, the car needs a sponsor again. Robbie Loomis, the vice president for racing operations at Petty Enterprises, said the organization is in the final stages of negotiating a deal that would keep 2000 Sprint Cup champion Bobby Labonte there for the remainder of his career. He said losing General Mills, the current sponsor of Labonte’s car, will have no bearing on that. “I’m not worried about that at all,” Loomis said of losing Labonte to RCR. “I feel as good about it as anything I’ve felt about in a long time.” (ESPN.com)(4-5-2008)
