The 2000 NASCAR Cup Series champion Bobby Labonte is making his return to Joe Gibbs Racing. He isn’t in a race car, though. No, Labonte is coming on board with JGR as a brand ambassador.
The 59-year-old former NASCAR driver still keeps busy on the race track. He competes in the SMART Modified Tour, basically the southern version of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, more or less.
While he is still winning races in his own time, Bobby Labonte is going to get more involved with NASCAR in his new role at JGR. He will be supporting the social media accounts of the organization as well as with business and sales outreach.
Bobby Labonte and that Interstate Batteries No. 18 – just iconic. You can’t see those Interstate colors without thinking about Labonte and all that he accomplished in the Busch Series, Cup Series, and more.
Fans mostly see Labonte on FS1 for RaceHub and RaceDay. Now, they might get to see him more at races and other events as he takes on this new job. Joe Gibbs Racing is doing a great job of paying homage to their past and using it to help better them for the future.
Bobby Labonte – why not one or two more races?
Now, I know that this isn’t a driving-related hiring. However, I can’t help but wonder if Bobby Labonte and JGR have more than this announcement up their sleeves. Labonte still races, as I mentioned earlier, why not an Xfinity Series start this season?
Last year, Dale Earnhardt Jr. raced at Bristol and Homestead-Miami. At Bristol, he likely would have won had his car not caught on fire in the latter stage of the race. Dale Jr. talked about trying to convince other former Cup drivers to hop into an Xfinity race like Bristol with him.
Why not Labonte? Joe Gibbs Racing has a car that they put a rotating cast into. Why not throw Bobby into a race or two and give fans what they want? In fact, let’s make sure that we get to see Dale Jr. and Labonte compete against one another, how fun would that be?
Now, I know I’m doing a bit of wishful thinking. Still, I can’t help but wonder if Bobby Labonte has that itch to get back out there again. He will be around plenty of race cars and drivers as JGR brand ambassador, it might bring that fire back out of him.
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