Bobby Labonte Motorsports / Earl Pearson Jr.:: Back to Back to Back National Dirtcar Champion: "Bobby Labonte has earned his place in NASCAR’s record books, winning championships in both the Nextel Cup and Busch series. He’s got 21 Cup wins, including the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2000, and an IROC title.
All of that was accomplished on paved tracks. His immediate future as a race team owner, however, will have driver Earl Pearson Jr. tackling dirt tracks from Florida through the Dakotas.
Labonte’s the latest in a long line of NASCAR stars to be bitten by the dirt stock car bug. Last month, he purchased the Dunn-Benson Ford Motorsports team from Carlton and Kemp Lamm — a team which was still celebrating its third consecutive national championship with Pearson behind the wheel. The sale ended a six-year collaboration for the Lamms and Pearsons, one which saw them make more than 30 trips to victory lane in the past four years.
It’s a venture for which Labonte seems genuinely more excited than piloting his famed No. 43 Dodge in the Nextel Cup Series for Petty Enterprises.
“Some people think I’m crazy for buying a dirt team, but I look at some of these other guys I race with in Nextel Cup and I’m no different than they are,” Labonte said. “The Nextel Cup thing is so pressured, you need some way to turn it off, and this is how I choose to do it.
“I’m not Tony Stewart or Kenny Schrader or Bill Elliott — I’m not going to be flying off here and there to drive a dirt car. If I get to race one time a year, I’m fine with it. I just wanted to be involved in it.”
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