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Bobby Labonte has officially left the #71 TRG Chevrolet owned by Kevin Buckler. Labonte had ran no higher then 21st in the car and said that the team simply was not competitive.

Labonte will race in the #7 Toyota owned by Robby Gordon this week at New Hampshire. Gordon had originally planned to place P.J. Jones in the car in a start and park effort but said that having a former champion like Labonte on board was something the team could not pass up.

While Labonte said he will seek opportunities to run in all three of NASCAR’s series it’s unclear if Sunday’s pairing with Robby Gordon Motorsports is a one time deal or perhaps something more.

Labonte was the 2000 series champion but has not won a race since Homestead in 2003.

Popularity: 6% [?]

After word came that Bobby Labonte was being replaced by Andy Lally in the #71 TRG Chevrolet a domino effect played out. Almost immediately it was said that Labonte would race the Robby Gordon Motorsports #7 and not too long after that it was confirmed.

“When we found out that Bobby was available to drive for us, we jumped at it,” said team owner Robby Gordon. “To have a past champion driving your car is a good opportunity. I think we can learn from him this weekend and it will help our program moving forward.”

Originally the RGM #7 was going to be driven by P.J. Jones in a start and park effort due to lack of sponsorship. Now Gordon is saying that Labonte will pilot the car for the entire race. There has been no word as to whether Labonte is bringing any additional sponsorship over to the car for this weeks race.

Labonte, 46, has 30 starts at Loudon and an average finish of 15.7. His best finish on the one-miler was second in the 2000 September race.

While few would be surprised if Labonte and TRG Motorsports parted ways (an annoucement is expected later today) owner Kevin Buckler says that is not the case thus far and that they were still trying to figure everything out.

It’s also unclear where Labonte will race if he does indeed walk away from the #71 car. Labonte and Gordon had been linked a few times over this winter but nothing official ever happened and Labonte returned to TRG.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Popularity: 7% [?]

Fresh off a second place finish at Infineon Raceway you would almost suspect the above headline was a type. However Robby Gordon said he will skip the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway due to a lack of sponsorship.

Gordon recently got back in the top 35 in owner points thanks to a penalty to Front Row Motorsports. Gordon’s second place finish at Sonoma gave the team some needed cushion and the overall result will be P.J. Jones driving the #7 Toyota Camry for a handful of laps and then a long sit behind the wall.

Jones ran a second Robby Gordon Motor sports car last week at Infineon driving the #07 SpeedFactory.tv Camry as Gordon himself drive the #7 Monster Energy Camry.

The news is also surprising because Gordon has had previous success at the track including a win in 2001. Gordon has had trouble with sponsorship this year something he noted when the season started. At that time he said they may miss a few events but later partnered with BAM Racing so the #7 car would at-least attempt to start every event.

In four of the sixteen starts this year the #7 car has either had no sponsorship or in-house programs.

Gordon has maintained that the team is aiming for a win at Watkins Glen later this summer and has been pleased with some recent testing sessions, most notably at Indianapolis.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Jimmie Johnson has silenced those suggesting that his 2010 season was disappointing. There were those who had said Johnson had lost his edge with the loss of the wing and despite all that talk it was Johnson who led the field to the finish line for his first ever road course win on Sunday.

So naturally the next track on the schedule is another on which Johnson has had success. In 16 career starts at Loudon the four time NASCAR Champion has won twice and finished in the top-10 11 times.

Denny Hamlin, who is seen by many as Johnson’s biggest threat for the Championship, has also won at the track and has 6 top-10’s in 8 career starts.

Needless to say there won’t be much talk about Marcos Ambrose having a good day this coming Sunday in 2 career starts at the track he’s got an average finish of 21.5.

Jeff Burton is the winningest driver while Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch have both found their way to victory lane three times each. Unsurprisingly Gordon followed by Tony Stewart have led the most laps, each topping 1,000 circuits led.

For those looking for other options in fantasy leagues or the preverbial I told you so at the dinner table Ryan Newman, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick all have had success on the track that measures 1.058 miles around.

Undoubtley Martin Truex Jr will be looking to prove himself after getting taken out last week at Infineon and Greg Biffle will be looking to build on a quality finish.

Those backing Sam Hornish Jr, Paul Menard, David Ragan and the rest of the back pack boys will likely find little of interest this coming weekend.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Marcos Ambrose was the talk all around the garage at Infineon. Everyone was picking the Austrilian driver for Sunday’s race. Much the same way there was talk about Amrbose there was a never ending constant reminder from just about everyone with a microphone that four time champion Jimmie Johnson had never won at a road course.

Johnson finally broke though with his first win involving right handed turns thanks to a bone headed move by Ambrose under caution.

While under caution for reasons no one are sure of Ambrose shut off his engine in an apparent effort to conserve fuel. That is fine and dandy until Ambrose lost speed, came to a stop and was then passed by a handful of cars.

This set off an almost immediate fire storm on NASCAR’s rule book. And while the sport always seems to be tinkering with something that angers or confuses it’s fans this is something that had been in print for years. By failing to keep speed Ambrose had not only broke a simple rule he had thrown away a chance at his first career victory.

Ambrose restarted the race seventh and crossed the line sixth.

“I should have had the motor cranked up and it wouldn’t have ever been an issue,” Ambrose said after the race. “Terrible way to finish.”

Those simple remarks by Ambrose are all you need to know. Had Ambrose kept speed by keeping the engine on then he would have restarted in first and in all likely hood finished the race first.

Robby Gordon came home second followed by Kevin Harvick. Kasey Kahne and Jeff Gordon rounded out the top five.

For all the talk about how Johnson was no longer the dominating force he once was he has now picked up his fourth win of the season and moved into second place in the point standings with ten races remaining before the Chase starts.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Stephen Strasburg is about to make his third major league start and you can bet that everyone around baseball will have their eyes glued to it much the same way they have the previous two.

Strasburg is getting attention of the home town fans in DC much the way Dontrelle Willis, Tommy Hanson and Rick Porcello did in their rookie seasons. Aside from good gate numbers Strasburg, much like the others mentioned, is also putting it together on the field thusfar.

While one could find comparable Triple-A lineups to those the 21-year-old has faced thus far the fact is Strasburg has been composed on the mound. In his two starts against Cleveland and Pittsburgh he’s picked up two wins to go with a 2.19 ERA and a 0.89 WHIP. Oh yea did I mention he also has 22 strike outs in 12.1 innings.

While outs may be outs there’s no doubt a majority get excited about large strike out numbers on the scoreboard. Thus far the number one pick of 2009 is giving those people what they desire. So are those numbers going to continue tomorrow night?

In Strasburg’s first outing against Pittsburgh he picked up 14 in 7 innings of work. Against Cleveland he picked up 8 in 5.1 innings of work.

On the year the Pirates have a team total of 452 strike outs in 65 games entering Thursday or 6.9 per game. The Indians have struke out 478 times in 64 games or 7.46 per game.

Oddly enough the Chicago White Sox have struck out the fewest among all major league teams. With 317 strike outs in 64 games they have struck out almost 300 times less then the Major League leading Arizona Diamonbacks. On average the White Sox have struck out 4.95 times per game, well below even the numbers of Pittsburgh or Cleveland.

Of course the White Sox also rank near the bottom in just about every other offensive category with the exception of home runs.

So while the White Sox are still not much of an offensive foe they aren’t exactly going to go swinging and missing either. With Jim Thome and Jermaine Dye out of the White Sox lineup it’s easy to understand why the club has taken dips in all the aforementioned stat categories.

Strasburg is expected to have another good outing tomorrow night and considering all the numbers rightfully so. Just don’t expect him to rack up the K’s but if he gives the Nationals another 7 inning outing and just as importantly a win then I think everyone with a curly W on their hat will be happy.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Boris Said’s return to the #26 Ford Fusion will happen this weekend. Said who raced the first four events for the Bill Jenkins owned Latitude 43 Motorsports was removed from the ride following Atlanta.

Said will return to the driver seat for this weeks Sprint Cup Series race at Infineon raceway and with the experienced road racer on board the team will set their sights on a season’s best finish.

Said’s best finish of the season came at Daytona when he crossed the line 25th. Said led one lap at Daytona and had an average finish of 33.8 on the year before David Stremme took over when the series headed to Bristol.

With Stremme at the wheel the team made 8 of the 11 races they attempted but the results still haven’t been tehre as they’ve averaged a 27.8 finish. The teams best finish of 24th came at Bristol, Darlington and Pocono. They have finished on the lead lap just one time during Stremme’s driving of the car.

The Air National Guard and GlobeTrack Wireless will remain on the car for the event.

Since there has been no news on Stremme it’s probably safe to assume that the team will choose him to return to the driver’s seat following this weekends event.

Said has earned four of his seven career Sprint Cup top-ten finishes at Infineon, as well as his first career Sprint Cup pole position in 2003.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Casey Mears’ dissapointing time in the #83 Red Bull Toyota appears to be over. Already removed for this coming weeks road course race at Infineon it now appears that Reed Sorenson will take over when NASCAR returns to ovals the following weekend.

Mears had taken over behind the wheel following the diagonsis of Brian Vickers with blood clots. During that time he averaged a 27.5 finish with a best finish of 22nd. Last week at Michigan he got into an incident with teammate Scott Speed and finished 36th.

Sorenson was the odd man out when Petty Motorsports merged with Yates Racing during the off-season. Last year he drove car #43 and despite a few success’ early on the team never really clicked. He had been racing with Braun Racing in the Nationwide Series and had qualified for a few races for the team on the Cup side as well.

The move isn’t much of a surprise. Aside from the name change there doesn’t figure to be too much different around Team Redbull for the remainder of the season.

Popularity: 4% [?]

It looks like Bobby Cox may not be the only big name to leave the Atlanta Braves this off season. Chipper Jones may follow. The 38-year-old third basemen has been a mainstay in the organization since being taken as the first overall pick in the 1990 draft.

During Jones’ playing career he was a regular at All Star games and took home the 1999 NL MVP award. Injuries took their toll on his playing time over the last six years as he never topped 150 games played following the 2003 season. Even during that time he still managed a 42 home run season, a NL batting title with a .364 line and led the NL in OPS.

The last two seasons Jones has really struggled on the field even when healthy. His batting average dropped to .264 last season and he’s batting just .228 this year. Predicting when Chipper is going to be in the lineup is no easy task and even when he makes a start there is little guarantee that he will play the full game.

Manager Bobby Cox has kept Chipper in his customary third spot in the order but aside from a still high on base percentage he’s offering little to nothing this year.

Even I, a life long Braves fan who always roots for older players to show they still have it, think things would be better if Chipper would go ahead and hang them up. Part of me even wonders why the delay in doing it at seasons end when he’s pretty much a burden on the club right now.

Popularity: 7% [?]