AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Bobby Labonte has signed a one-year contract to drive TRG Motorsports' car in 2010 -- and at least for the season-opening Daytona 500 he'll have a teammate in TRG's hoped-for full-time second car.

On Saturday morning at Phoenix International Raceway, TRG owner Kevin Buckler and Labonte announced the deal and a 12-race primary sponsorship with TaxSlayer.com, a provider of online tax preparation software, that Buckler hopes will be the first of several.

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Bobby's shown he can still get the job done. He makes the most with the least these last couple years, and we're going to give him more, now.

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KEVIN BUCKLER

"I've got to thank Kevin for giving me this opportunity -- I went to Atlanta and it's been game on since then," Labonte said. "The thing that I like the most about Kevin is that he has a passion for race cars, passion for racing and a passion for cars. Kevin has a plan, and I'm excited to be a part of it.

"The thing that I like about it is Kevin's will and determination to be at the forefront of this sport. I look at it over the past few weeks and everybody, at one point in time had to start somewhere, they all had to make sacrifices so here's another story that years from now you'll say Kevin wasn't sure, but he's putting all the right pieces together and doing things the right way."

One thing Buckler is sure of is having Labonte drive his car.

"Bobby's the total package, and our meeting, getting together and looking at the future together is about as perfect as it gets," Buckler said. "The biggest thing about Bobby is he's so level-headed. We're in a super-competitive, visceral sport in which sometimes you can easily make errors in judgment because of all the outside distractions, the adrenaline and everything else.

"So to be able to control that, to me, is one of the most impressive things in a professional race car driver. You don't win a Sprint Cup championship without having that, and Bobby's shown he can still get the job done. He makes the most with the least these last couple years, and we're going to give him more, now; rallying around him and making him the center of attention and building the program around our driver.

"He likes that and he needs that and he, on the other hand, brings a lot to the table with his level-headed approach and being able to cut through a lot of the BS a lot of the time; and he's great with the fans, sponsors and media. The guys are in awe of him for what he's accomplished, but the more veteran guys on the crew are even more in awe of him because he doesn't wear that on his sleeve."

Getting the rest of the sponsorship in place is a big priority.

"This is a big deal for us, since we've signed Bobby and we've signed our first big sponsor, in these tough economic times," Buckler said. "TaxSlayer has signed up for 12 races, right out of the box, and we're launching a second team. We're talking to multiple sponsors and obviously even drivers right now.

"We're hoping this is the new face of the sport: leaner, meaner and efficient on our spending and trying to put our money into competition [not overhead]. The biggest advantages we have are we know how to race, we know how to run a small business and we have a clean balance sheet, which might be our secret weapon because we feel that gives us a competitive price advantage. We do not have huge overhead with this company -- all the things we've done, we've done for cash because it's a cash world right now -- and we're very, very motivated. (Continued)