JTG Daugherty signs Bobby Labonte
Former NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series Series champion Bobby Labonte will drive for JTG Daugherty in 2011, the team has announced
On Tuesday the Toyota outfit and Australian Marcos Ambrose, who had driven for it for the past five years in Trucks, Nationwide and Cup, had announced they were parting ways at the end of the year.
Less than 24 hours later, Labonte was named as the driver of the #47 Toyota for the full 36-race 2011 Sprint Cup season.
Labonte's new deal brings him some stability following a tough 2010 for the Texas native, who has driven for a number of teams this year after TRG's NASCAR outfit, with which he was set to complete the season, started struggling financially. Since leaving TRG, Labonte has competed for Robby Gordon's team and for Phoenix Racing as well.
"JTG Daugherty Racing is a solid race team that has come close to winning races with Marcos Ambrose and I'm looking forward to developing our new partnership in 2011," Labonte said.
"The team is thriving and their technical alliance with MWR [Michael Waltrip Racing] is intact. It's great to have next year already set in stone so when this season ends we can begin focusing on next year right away. Everything is in place and we have all the right ingredients to win races together."
The 46-year old is expected to complete the rest of this season swapping between outfits before making his full-time move to his new team, where co-owner Brad Daugherty expects him to thrive next year.
"We are really happy Bobby has decided to join our team because I have known him for a long time and I have always admired him as a professional driver and as an individual," Daugherty said.
"He will do an outstanding job representing our products and team. He has got to a point in his career that he still has some things to accomplish. He is highly experienced with a championship on his resume and we know he is capable of winning."
JTG Daugherty is currently a single-car outfit which has a technical alliance with Michael Waltrip Racing, the team that fields Martin Truex Jr and David Reutimann.
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