Labonte Heading To New Hampshire With A Purpose
Spoonfuls of Stories ‘Race For Books’ Kicks Off This Weekend

This weekend, Bobby Labonte and the #43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge team head to the one-mile New Hampshire International Speedway for Sunday’s Sylvania 300. Labonte will head to the track with a mission of completing every lap through the last 10 races of the season.

For every lap Labonte completes from now until the end of the season Cheerios® Spoonfuls of Stories® will donate 43 books per lap, which will be distributed to children in need, through nonprofit partner First Book. If Labonte completes every lap, a total of more than 135,000 books will be donated through Spoonfuls of Stories.

Labonte heads to New Hampshire under new leadership. Paul Andrews will serve as Labonte’s crew chief for the first time this season. Andrews spent the season as the crew chief for teammate Kyle Petty. Andrews won the 1992 championship with the late Alan Kulwicki.

Labonte will be making his 24th start at the track this weekend. He has five top-five and nine top-10 finishes at the flat oval. Labonte has one pole in 2000. His best finish is second in that same race.

Comments from Labonte as he prepares for this weekend’s Sylvania 300:

Comment on Paul Andrews coming over as crew chief?
“Obviously Paul (Andrews) is a champion. He’s been around Nextel Cup for a long time and has been at Petty Enterprises for a long time. He knows how to win races and knows what it takes to win a championship. It’s going to be a new start, but it won’t be a totally new start. Paul knows how things work at Petty Enterprises. Hopefully it’s going to bring some new ideas and give us that push we need over the last 10 races.

“I think everyone looked at all our options and bringing Bill (Wilburn) on board will help reenergize Kyle and his team. We, on the Cheerios team, want to get back on track and race for top-10’s. A fresh new face like Paul will hopefully be the answer for us. We need to be prepared for 2007 and make the best out of what we can each week the rest of this year. I’m looking forward to working with Paul.”

What is “Race for Books”?
“Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories is a great program that I’m helping out with. We’ve got our own race within a race going on through the last 10 races of the season. The ‘Race for Books’ allows Spoonfuls of Stories to donate 43 books per lap I complete in these final 10 races. It’s a pretty cool program to help get books into the hands of needy children.

“You look at what Cheerios, and their Spoonfuls of Stories program is looking to do, and what they have done in the past- it’s pretty amazing. I think they have given away nearly 25 million books since the start of this. They have also donated a couple million dollars to First Book. That makes you feel pretty good when you have a sponsor that does that.

What are the goals this weekend?
“I think it’s going to be important that Paul and I start working together. We need to start building that rapport it takes to win races. It takes a lot of communication and the ‘right’ communication. We’re going to start that this weekend.

“Completing every lap and starting the ‘Race for Books’ is going to be important for us as well. We want to kick this off by completing every lap. That’s going to take hard work by everyone. We’re building for 2007 over these final 10 races. We’re excited about the future of this Cheerios team. I’m looking forward to New Hampshire.”