Labonte Clicking Off Top 10 Finishes
Bugles Dodge Looking For More Success

This weekend, Bobby Labonte, driving the colors of the #43 Bugles Dodge, is looking for another top 10 finish.  Labonte has collected six top 10 finishes in his inaugural season behind the wheel of the famed ‘43' Petty Enterprises Dodge.

Labonte has finished top 10 in two of his last three races heading into this weekend.  The team is riding momentum going into one of Labonte's best tracks. He has two wins at Lowe's but an amazing 16 top 10 finishes with 11 of those in the top five. Labonte has not finished worse than 17 th at Lowe's Motor Speedway since 1999. 

Labonte continues the Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories “Race for Books!” this weekend.  Labonte has earned over 45,000 books so far this season.  For every lap that Labonte completes the rest of the season, Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories will donate 43 books to children in need through nonprofit partner First Book.  You can log onto www.cheerios.com for further information on “Race for Books!” or www.firstbook.org to see the Bookometer updated weekly.

Questions for Labonte as he prepares for this weekend's Bank of America 500:

Are you excited to be riding this momentum?

“It's nice to have some good finishes going into a track that we all like. I think it gives our guys a lot of confidence.  We had some good luck over the past few weeks, but we've been running well too.  That has been good for this team.  It's good to have a bunch of guys excited.

“Momentum has been up-and-down for us this season.  We started this season with terrible luck.  I look back at Atlanta as an example.  We had a great car, but didn't get the finish.  It even started at Daytona with a great car, but we got into a wreck.  It seemed like bad luck was following us, but we came back.  We had a string of good races and finishes.  The last few weeks we've had that too.  It's a lot better to have good luck as a friend.”

What is Lowe's Motor Speedway like now?

“It's still a good track.  It has a lot of grip in it, but we had harder tires in May.  That changed things around quite a bit. I think we saw a lot of guys have trouble adjusting with it.  You can't drive as hard, but I think we might see a different tire combination this time. 

“I think, in time, we'll see the same track we've always seen. It will be two and three grooves.  We could see that a lot on Saturday night.  It will have the same characteristics it has always have.  It's smooth now, but I think some of the bumps will eventually come back.  It won't be as bad, but the pavement will eventually wear down.  It has always been good racing and it still is.  It just needed to be repaved.  We're just going through that process right now.  In three or four years we'll see the same old Charlotte that everyone is used to.”

Why do run well at Charlotte ?

“I don't know.  I have always liked the track. I liked it the first time I went there.  It's not really any certain thing.  I like the layout and I like the longer races.  I enjoy that and it's good for me.  It just fits my racing style.

“I'm just pretty excited about this team right now.  We seem to be running pretty well and outperforming a lot of guys.  It has given us some confidence and it feels good for everyone.  This is what we need to finish out this season.  I hope we can give this Bugles Dodge a good run Saturday night.”