Wheels & Deals: Labonte, Stavola Teaming For New Cup Team

Semi-retired driver Terry Labonte and former team owner Bill Stavola are both getting back into NASCAR full-time as co-owners of a new race organization. StavolaLabonte Racing will field cars in the Sprint Cup Series, possibly next year, with Labonte driving initially. Bill Henneberry, the former VP/Marketing at Hertz and a former MLB marketing consultant, also has an ownership stake and will run the day-to-day operations of the race team. Jim Schwebel, a 20-year veteran at the NFL and most recently the league's Senior VP/Corporate Sales, will lead the sponsorship sales effort through the agency he runs, Apel Inc. Atlanta-based Career Sports & Entertainment will handle PR, marketing and branding. Labonte is a former Cup champion, while Stavola owned NASCAR teams with his brother, Mickey, from '84-98 (Michael Smith, SportsBusiness Journal).

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LAST MAN STANDING? SI.com's Tim Tuttle wrote NASCAR driver Casey Mears "could be the last veteran driver standing without a seat" next season if Richard Childress Racing (RCR) should "fail to land" a sponsor to replace Jack Daniel's. Mears "can't afford to be patient with RCR for too long," as drivers Jamie McMurray, David Stremme and Reed Sorenson are "actively cruising the garage hunting for jobs, and Bobby Labonte and David Gilliland are probably looking too." Including Mears, that makes "six drivers in the marketplace, and three cars" -- Earnhardt Ganassi's No. 1, Hall of Fame Racing's No. 96 and TRG Motorsports' No. 71 -- currently available (SI.com, 10/7).

UPPING THE ANTE: In Indianapolis, Curt Cavin reports IRL team Sarah Fisher Racing "will be a two-car team in 2010, and Fisher will drive in more races than she has in a season since creating the small, family-owned organization two years ago." Fisher next year will compete in nine races, "three more than she will have been in this season" after Saturday's Firestone Indy 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Fisher's No. 67 car "will continue to be sponsored by Dollar General with help from Tire Kingdom, which will be the primary sponsor" on the No. 66 car driven by Jay Howard (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 10/9).

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