Our Driver:
Bobby Labonte |
Date of Birth:
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Crew Chief:
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May 8, 1964
Corpus Christi, TX
Ask.Com
Ford
Ask.com Racing/Hall of
Fame Racing
Todd Parrott
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Robert Alan Labonte (born May 8, 1964 in Corpus Christi, Texas) is an American race car driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. He currently drives the #96 Ask.com / Texas Instruments DLP Ford Fusion for Hall of Fame Racing, in association with Yates Racing. He currently resides in Trinity, North Carolina. He is married to Donna and they have two children, Robert Tyler and Madison. He, and his older brother, Terry Labonte (who was also a prominent NASCAR driver, until he retired at the end of the 2006 season) are the only brothers to have both won the championship in NASCAR's top series. He is also the uncle of former Nationwide Series winner Justin Labonte. As of 2008, Labonte is the only driver to have won both the NASCAR Sprint Cup championships.
Bobby Labonte holds a couple of distinctions in NASCAR lore. He is the only driver to win both a Busch Series and Cup Series championship. He is also part of the only brother combination, along with two-time champ Terry Labonte, to win Cup titles.
Bobby began driving competitively at age 5 in Quarter-Midgets and was racing go-karts by 1978. But his family moved to North Carolina in 1979 as Terry began his first full year on the Cup circuit. Bobby didn't race regularly again until 1987, but he was never far from the track. He began working at his brother's shop in 1982 and was part of Terry's 1984 Cup championship team.
After Terry Labonte left Hagan Racing following the 1986 season, Bobby Labonte was fired. He hooked on with car builder Jay Hedgecock in '87 and began working on his own car. That year he won the Late Model track championship at Caraway (N.C.) Speedway with 12 victories in 23 races.
Bobby actually made his NASCAR debut in 1982, running 26th in the second of three Busch races that year at Martinsville. He started two Busch races in '85 and six in '88 before he began showing signs of success.
In 1989 Bobby recorded one top-five and three top-10s in seven Busch starts. The next year he was racing the circuit full time. He finished fourth in the final point standings in '90, posting six top-fives and 17 top-10s in 31 races.
He picked up his first career victory in 1991 at Bristol -- the first of two wins that year -- and went on to win the Busch Series title. He had 10 top-fives and 21 top-10s. Also that year he made his first two Cup starts.
Bobby won three Busch races in 1992 with 13 top-fives and 19 top-10s, but lost the title by three points to Joe Nemechek. It remains the smallest points differential in Busch Series history.
In 1993 he ran his first full Cup season for owner Bill Davis, who chose him to drive his car after Jeff Gordon left his Busch team the previous year. Bobby finished second to Gordon for "Rookie of the Year" honors.
It wasn't until 1995, when Bobby moved to Joe Gibbs Racing, that his career began to flourish. From 1995-2003 he finished in the top 10 in points seven times, winning 21 races during that time span and the 2000 championship.
Bobby's first victory came in May 1995 at Charlotte, the first of three wins that season. In '99 he reached career highs in victories (five), top-fives (23), top-10s (26) and poles (five) in 34 races to finish second in points.
The following year Bobby became one of only two drivers that season not to have a DNF en route to winning the title. He had four wins, 19 top-fives and 24 top-10s in 2000.
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