There are many NASCAR Nextel Cup drivers who are famous for growing up with dirt in their teeth. Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon are certainly the most successful after starting out on dirt. Even today Stewart, Bill Elliott, Ken Schrader, and others sneak away for a little "fun" on the dirt tracks every chance they get.
Bobby Labonte, however, is not a driver who comes to mind when you think of dirt racing. After all, he was employed at Hagan Racing as a teenager and worked on the Winston Cup cars of older brother Terry. Bobby raced asphalt Late Models at Caraway Speedway in Asheboro, North Carolina, and first competed in the Busch Series in 1982. His entire career has been spent with all four wheels firmly planted on asphalt.
That's why more than a few eyebrows were raised when word began making the rounds late last fall that Labonte had purchased the assets of Carlton and Kemp Lamm. If you are a fan of dirt racing, or even just a fan of racing in general, you may have heard of their Dirt Late Model team-Dunn-Benson Motorsports-and their driver-Earl Pearson Jr. Pearson has won national touring series championships the last three seasons. In 2004 it was the Stacker2 Xtreme DirtCar Series, and in 2005 and 2006 it was the current Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. On top of that, there have been more than 30 wins, including a victory in the World 100 at Eldora Speedway in 2006, one of the most prestigious races for Dirt Late Model racing.
"I got to know Bobby when he came to a few races," Pearson says of how the partnership formed. "Then Bobby drove my car at Eldora [in an exhibition race]. From that time on we just became friends, and Bobby fell in love with Dirt Late Model racing. We talked from time to time, and he loves it and decided he wanted to get involved in some way.
"He contacted me, and we decided not to do anything until the 2006 points season was over. And after the season was over, everything just worked out. My deal was to try [to] keep Carlton and Kemp involved since they are like family, and I wanted to keep everyone on the crew together. Bobby was able to purchase the entire team: cars, truck, and trailer. And the whole crew came with us, so that will really help us out for next year. In Dirt Late Model racing, you don't get much time off. If we had to spend any time trying to rebuild the team, it would have put us behind the eight ball."
For his part, Labonte says he would have had no interest getting involved in a Dirt Late Model team if Pearson wasn't a part of it. "I just appreciate his approach to things," Labonte says of Pearson. "He handles himself well in front of the fans and the media. He's a smart driver who can win without tearing up his equipment. Usually, if you win a lot, or win three championships like he has, the fans will get tired of you and start booing you after a while. But Earl isn't like that. He gets cheered just about everywhere he goes because the fans like him as a person, and that's the kind of person I like being associated with as a car owner."
For the '07 racing season, the race team will operate out of the Bobby Labonte Enterprises shops in Archdale, North Carolina. Sponsor Lucas Oil will remain, but LifeLong Locks will take over as the primary sponsor. Pearson says that he will continue to race MastersBilt chassis and engines prepared by Larry Wallace Race Engines, but like his boss, he will be campaigning behind the Mopar brand this year instead of the Fords he has won with in the past.
Of course, the question Labonte is most often asked is, why, when racing NASCAR's Nextel Cup Series, which requires a tremendous commitment, would he choose to use his precious spare time to be involved with a dirt team? The answer, he says, is when racing is in your blood you simply cannot get enough of it. "It's just what I enjoy," he says. "And a dirt team is interesting on a different level. It's on a smaller scale and doesn't require the type of involvement that a Busch Series or even a Truck team would, plus I like that I can help out. This is really neat for me. It kind of gets back to the roots of racing, and I'm really looking forward to it. I've looked at the schedules, and I don't [think] there will be many opportunities for me to race the cars, but that's OK. I'm happy just to be the owner and be involved in that role."
Labonte also adds that his interests with Pearson and the team will be winning and representing the sport well. Labonte's primary career provides him with enough money, and he has no intention of operating his new team just to make a buck.
"I haven't ever really done too many things that made money," he adds with a laugh. "Of the race teams I've owned, we raced hard and we spent everything that we made racing. My primary goal isn't to make a profit from this. We might break even, which will be nice, but you had better perform on the racetrack. The biggest thing is we have some great sponsors working with us. This race team might make a dollar, but it won't make too many dollars because we are going to spend it back on the racing. I don't mind spending what we make on new equipment and refreshing the stuff we have so that we can race and be competitive the next week. That's the way I've always done it anyway, and I don't think it's going to change."
Pearson says that despite being a three-time champion and one of the most respected drivers on the Lucas Oil Series, he is as excited about starting the '07 season as any in recent memory. Even with the change to a different engine, Pearson says that the best thing is his crew stuck together, and the team's involvement with Labonte can only lead to new opportunities in the future.
I'm tickled to death," he says. "Bobby is a first-class guy and he's at the shop quite a bit. You might think he's just put up the money and that would be it, but every time he's there he's pitching in and doing whatever needs to be done. I've already learned a lot from Bobby; he understands more about racing than anybody. He's taking care of the details, and I just have to go out there and be consistent and win races and championships. Yes, being part of a race team owned by a Nextel Cup driver with his visibility does add a little bit more pressure, but I've got a job to do as the driver and I'll just go out there and do the best I can. I'm really excited to get started."
It's a Family Affair
In addition to his new Dirt Late Model team, Labonte also has another racing venture-a Quarter Midget track in Salisbury, North Carolina, that he constructed approximately three years ago. Labonte got his start racing Quarter Midgets in Texas. When he began construction of the track, his son, Tyler, was racing the small Sprinters but has since moved on to other things. The track, named the North Carolina Quarter-Midget Association Speedway, is still in operation and doing well. I asked Labonte if the purchase of a Dirt Late Model race team was a way to move Tyler up the racing ranks. Not surprisingly, Labonte says no, there are no current plans for his son to get behind the wheel of a dirt car. Instead, he says he wants his kids to have a chance just to be kids.
"Tyler kind of quit doing that [racing Quarter Midgets] about the time we finished up the track, and right now we've got baseball and basketball and all the other things that every kid should do. The track is in its third year. It's still doing well and I'm happy about that.
"I'm going to let Tyler do whatever he wants to do. Right now we are restoring a car together and having fun with that. If he wants to race he can just let me know, and if he doesn't then that's fine, too."