Yates to replace Labonte with Darnell for 7 races

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Former NASCAR champion Bobby Labonte won't race this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway, his best track, because of sponsorship issues at Yates Racing.

The team had seven races to sell this season for the No. 96 Ford, and the sponsorship it secured wanted Erik Darnell in the car. The 26-year-old will make his Sprint Cup Series debut at Atlanta, where Labonte has six career victories.

"This is not about Bobby; it's about making sure we have funding for these races," Yates co-owner Max Jones said Monday. "If it was about Bobby, I would have just put Erik in the car for the rest of the year. That was hard to convey to Bobby.

"But we have this opportunity to get Erik some races, and that's the business part of this sport. It's challenging."

Academy Sports & Outdoors will sponsor Darnell for three races, at Atlanta, Talladega and Texas. Northern Tool + Equipment, who sponsored him last season in the Truck Series, will be on the car at New Hampshire and Kansas.

Sponsorship for the other two races Darnell is slated to run was not announced.

Jones said Labonte did not take the decision well.

"I wouldn't have either if I was him," Jones said. "He's a class act, he's a professional. I had to explain my side, why I was doing it, and he wasn't happy about it. But he understood, and I respect that."

Labonte, the 2000 series champion, left Petty Enterprises last season because he was unsure of its long-term stability. He put together a late deal with Hall of Fame Racing, the team owned by San Diego Padres owner Jeff Moorad and president Tom Garfinkel.

Garfinkel and Moorad were able to land a sponsorship deal with Ask.com, one of the only new companies to enter NASCAR since last fall's economic collapse, and then partnered with Yates Racing for equipment and technical support. The Ask.com deal is a one-year deal and covered only 29 of the 36 races.

Jones worked hard to fill the car, but ultimately was able to sell the potential in Darnell over the history of Labonte.

Labonte, who is 45, is in the midst of his sixth winless season. He's 30th in the standings with one top-10 finish this season. Teammate Paul Menard is 32nd in the points with no top-10 finishes. He has full sponsorship from his family's Midwest-based hardware chain.

The team also fielded a car for Travis Kvapil for four races but stopped when no sponsorship was found.

Labonte will return to the car at Richmond, Dover, Fontana, Charlotte and Martinsville.

"This is a move that will be beneficial to Yates Racing surviving this difficult economic time," he said in a statement. "Of course, I'm disappointed that the sponsorship environment is so challenging right now, but I intend to make the most out of the remaining races that I'm behind the wheel."

Yates Racing is the sister team to powerhouse Roush Fenway Racing, and Jones said he doesn't expect Hall of Fame to be back under the umbrella in 2010. So he's had to approach future planning with a long-range view, which could include Darnell.

Stuck in the RFR development program because sponsorship issues and lack of available seats have slowed his progression, Jones said Darnell has earned this opportunity. He finished fourth in last year's Truck series, where he has two career wins.

He's raced in just 10 of 25 Nationwide Series races this season, but has five top-10 finishes.

Jones worked at Roush Fenway when Darnell won a seat in its development program.

"He deserves this opportunity. He's a really talented race car driver," Jones said. "It's taken a lot of guys a long time to move up because of the funding issues, and the opportunities aren't there anymore. Five or six or eight years ago, you could jump from Trucks to Cup.

"Then everything came to a screeching halt a few years ago."

Although Labonte has not been ruled out for a Yates ride in 2010, Jones said Darnell is in the mix, as is current Roush driver Jamie McMurray.

McMurray is in the final year of his contract with RFR, which must cut down from five to four cars at the end of this season. The organization would like to keep McMurray by moving him to the Yates side of the team but lacks the funding to offer him a contract.

"We still have that opportunity out there to keep Jamie, but we have to find something and right now he's exploring his options," Jones said. "We'd love him to be here. We'd love to be a three- or four-car team, but you have to find someone to pay for it."