Labonte Finishes 22nd in Phoenix

Justin Labonte

November 13, 2005 (Phoenix, ARIZ.) – Justin Labonte driving the U.S. Coast Guard Shield of Freedom Monte Carlo finished 22nd Saturday in the Basha’s 200 at Phoenix International Raceway after qualifying in the 14th starting position.

This will be the extent of the post race report as management of Haas CNC Racing requested that the public relations person assigned to cover the event not be in the pit area during the race to record the notes utilized in compiling the post race report or provide information to the media covering the event.

“Me missing the driver’s meeting was no one else’s fault but my own,” said Labonte. “I honestly just wasn’t paying attention and didn’t look at the schedule. The meeting is normally two hours before the start of the race, and this weekend it was at 8AM before qualifying and I just wasn’t paying attention. I didn’t think it was going to be a sunrise service. I just wasn’t paying attention and can’t put the blame on anyone else but myself.”

The same Haas CNC Racing officials deemed it the fault of the persons handling the media relations for the event at Phoenix for Justin’s failure to attend the driver’s meeting and cited this as the reason for requesting that they not provide the normal media relations functions.