In major-league auto racing, there are two things a car cannot take to the race track without: someone to drive it, and someone to pay for it. If those two items happen to come together in a package deal, then they're awfully difficult to resist.

All of which explains why Bobby Labonte, a past Cup Series champion who brought a degree of credibility to a Hall of Fame Racing operation that didn't have a whole lot of it prior to this season, will sit while somebody else drives the No. 96 car in seven of the year's final 12 races.

Bobby Labonte's reputation and fan base did for struggling Hall of Fame what others could never do, which was help it find a level of acceptance in the grandstand no matter how tough the times were.

Erik Darnell, who has shown some promising results in a little over three combined seasons on the Nationwide and Truck tours, will make his debut in NASCAR's premier circuit Sunday night at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Darnell is no slouch. He's a young guy with two career Truck Series victories and a handful of nice runs this year in a Roush-powered Nationwide Series car he's splitting with David Ragan. Of course, he's no Labonte, who has 21 career wins and a championship in 17 years in NASCAR's big league.

But right now, Darnell has something Labonte does not -- sponsorship, something that in this economic environment can be worth more than even a title on the resume.

Yates Racing, the organization that fields the No. 96 car, is responsible for filling any sponsorship shortfalls under the terms of its one-year agreement with Hall of Fame Racing, whose car owners are front-office executives with the San Diego Padres baseball team and somewhat limited in their ability to run a Charlotte-based race team day to day.

So regardless of who technically owns the car, the Yates people are making the calls here -- which seems fitting, given that it's their people who are assembling the vehicles, and their equipment on the track. Facing a late-season gap in sponsorship, and knowing that Darnell had companies willing to make the step up with him on at least a short-term basis, they made the only sensible decision.

For Labonte, no question, it has to sting. Labonte's reputation and fan base did for struggling Hall of Fame what Tony Raines and J.J. Yeley could never do, which was help it find a level of acceptance in the grandstand no matter how tough the times were. And for Labonte, 30th in points and without a top-10 finish since Las Vegas, the times have definitely been tough.

But there are still an awful lot of people out there who love Bobby Labonte, who fondly remember the class and dignity he showed in all those winning years with Joe Gibbs Racing, who may have other favorite drivers now but still pull for the steely-eyed Texas native despite how bad the car may be on the track.

That's a nice sentiment, but it doesn't pay the bills. Fans of NASCAR, conditioned by the myth that this series is a family rather than a cold-blooded business, love to get all caught up in pie-in-the-sky qualities like loyalty and equality, when in all reality teams need to meet a bottom line in order to race. That means finding and courting and retaining sponsors, which are the lifeblood of the sport. (Continued)