Labonte upbeat on race return

The two-time Cup champion, who enjoyed a good record in road course racing in the Busch Series, holding the highest number of wins for non-oval events, will return behind the wheel at the age of 50 to help Michael Waltrip Racing with their development program.

"I hope that we do well," Labonte said. "Michael and his team have worked hard to really get this thing on track and people - a lot of people don't understand how difficult it is to have a new team and what challenges that they face. And they have, you know, been through some tough times.

"I think they have made some good progress. Michael had contacted me and asked me if I would come run the road courses for him, and, so, you know, I agreed to do that."

Labonte will allow team owner Michael Waltrip to focus on the performance of his three cars, rather than having to worry about qualifying for the race on Friday, something he has only achieved three times in 15 races this year.

"I'm looking forward to getting in the car and kind of giving him some input," Labonte added. "He's going to be able to step back this weekend and look at his whole deal a little bit from probably a little bit different side there.

"So I, hope I can help him. It's going to be a big challenge, that's for sure."

Labonte drove a Busch Series car from Richard Childress Racing last week at Montreal as part of NASCAR's evaluation of the venue for the forthcoming event in August.

He also tested Waltrip's Car of Tomorrow this week before heading to California and was pleased with it despite just running a few laps to check it at Cheraw in South Carolina.

"I was real pleased with it,"  he said. "I think that it was a really nice car. They did a nice job on it. I went down to the shop the other day and fitted the seat and they just had everything finished right in it, went in the car and the car was, you know, drove good and everything worked good on it."

Michael Waltrip is expected to sit out the other road course event of the season at Watkins Glen in August, where Labonte will take his place as well.

David Reutimann, who regularly drives the No 00 entry for Waltrip's team, will also be replaced by a more experienced driver in road courses, former ChampCar and IRL racer PJ Jones.