Team, driver and sponsor each find another chance

CONCORD, N.C. -- The race team had recently laid off most of its employees, sold most of its equipment, and battled persistent speculation that it was closing its doors. The company had recently lost $100 million in a failed advertising campaign and hired a new CEO. The driver had recently parted ways with a storied organization, one that was supposed to have a front-office position waiting for him once his competitive days were done.

'Ask' around

Ask.com made a big splash into NASCAR announcing they would sponsor the No. 96 driven by Bobby Labonte among other things.

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Not too long ago, Hall of Fame Racing, Bobby Labonte, and an Internet search engine called Ask.com all faced futures about as stable as a 401(k) fund. Yet somehow they all found themselves together Tuesday on the second day of the NASCAR Sprint Media Tour, a trio embodied in a white No. 96 race car with Labonte's name scrawled over the door, the team's insignia stamped on a side post, and the company's logo splashed across the hood. Hall of Fame's owners get another chance to show they're not the NASCAR neophytes so many perceived them to be. Ask.com gets another chance to make up for past advertising missteps. And Labonte gets another chance to prove he's not quite finished yet.

"I have to admit that sometimes after doing this for awhile, you kind of do some of these things, or you do the photo shoots and you're like, 'OK, I've got to go do another photo shoot,' and do all that stuff," the usually mild-mannered past champion said. "But I am freaking excited about this."

With good reason. Labonte's split from since-shuttered Petty Enterprises, where he had driven the organization's flagship No. 43 car for the past three years and was slated to eventually move into management, left him adrift in a sport reeling from economic recession, with plenty of rides but few sponsors to back them up. He wanted something with a little security, and he struggled to find it. "I don't want to say that I lost hope," he said, "but obviously throughout Christmas and New Year's, I wasn't real sure."

Earnhardt Ganassi pursued him hard, so hard that some media outlets reported that Labonte was taking a ride in the organization's No. 8 car. He almost did, but co-owner Chip Ganassi "just didn't have a lot of the things in order to make it work for the whole season. There was a lot of if's in there," Labonte said. Then Max Jones, co-owner of Yates Racing, called. Yates had fielded two cars for the past two seasons with little or no sponsorship, using pluck and assistance from Roush Fenway Racing to make it work. They were forming a partnership with Hall of Fame. The No. 96 car was open. There was sponsorship. (Continued)