Bobby Labonte and TRG Motorsports Score a Top 25 in Wine Country

Sonoma, CA. (June 20, 2010) - TRG Motorsports and the No. 71 Adobe Road Winery Chevrolet team came home with a spirited 23rd-place finish during the Toyota/Save Mart 350 Sunday afternoon at the 1.99-mile Infineon Raceway located in Sonoma, Calif. The team was heading to a possible top-15 finish until contact on the last lap knocked the team back to the 23rd spot. The result is their fifth top-25 finish this season.

Team driver Bobby Labonte qualified a season-best eighth on Friday afternoon and started Sunday's event outside of row four. Early in the event, Labonte proved he had a strong car. He turned in his best lap on Lap 4, and like many, planned to use pit strategy to help race for the win. The first caution flag flew on Lap 11 and the team elected to stay out to keep track position.

A green flag pit-stop was made on Lap 31 for a set of fresh tires, fuel and a handing adjustment. Unfortunately, Labonte was penalized for "too fast exiting pit road" and came down for a pass-through penalty. While coming through for that penalty, Labonte was then penalized for "too fast entering pit road." This time, the team was directed to make a 'stop and go' on pit road. The team now focused on getting back in contention after going down one lap.

Two laps past the halfway mark the second caution flag came out. The caution allowed Labonte to catch back up to the leaders and get more adjustments on pit road including tires and fuel. Labonte also received the 'Lucky Dog' pass and restarted 33rd. The team was back in contention. Continuing to fight through the field, another caution flew at Lap 63 when the No. 12 car spun. The team elected to stay out, and in the short stint, the Adobe Winery Chevrolet advanced to the 21st position.

Restarting on Lap 66, the red flag flew for a multi-car pile-up at the start-finish line. The field was stopped in Turn 7 for over 30 minutes to clean up the debris. The field restarted on Lap 69 with Labonte now in the 18th position. At Lap 75, the Adobe Road Winery team came down pit road for four tires and their last stop for fuel.

Joey Logano spun on Lap 84 bringing out the next caution. Labonte reported back to the team "a little tight in the center". The team came down pit road only for a fresh set of tires, as fresh rubber was proving critical to advancement late in the race. Labonte restarted the race 28th, but quickly moved back to 20th when the next caution waved. The team was showing they had one of the strongest cars at the end of the race and was looking for a top-10 result.

On Lap 102, with just eight laps to go, the TRG Motorsports machine was in the 17th position. That was where Labonte stayed until the final lap when the car driven by Matt Kenseth seemed to have a problem and did not brake heading into the turns. The result was his car hitting Labonte sending the No. 71 off course. Labonte was able to quickly collect the car and the Adobe Road Winery Chevrolet crossed the finish line in 23rd position.

Team Driver Bobby Labonte Comments on the Toyota/SaveMart 350:

We had a pretty good car all day long", said Labonte. "There were no major adjustments that needed to be made. This team had a great set-up in the car. I had to conserve my brakes a little throughout the day, but other than that the car was good. The speeding penalties on pit road really cost us our position on the track, but we were able to recover.

"And then, when the laps started to wind down, the racing on the track just got crazy. The cars in the garage look like we were short track racing today. We had a great run going for us until we got together with Kenseth on that last lap. I don't know what happened to him, but this is still a good day for the TRG Adobe Winery Chevrolet team."

Flog logo jpg"This was such a great weekend for TRG Motorsports", said Buckler. "To be able to have the Adobe Road Winery behind us here at our home track was awesome. The guys did a great job all weekend, we earned a better finishing position than what shows on paper, but we'll take a top-25. Qualifying in the top 10 was cool."

"Being on top of the pit box was a good feeling. Road racing is our specialty, and I have a lot of laps on this race track. We were able to put all our collective notes together and come up with a good car and our best strategy for the race. I think the team did a good job and had a strong run going. Thanks to all the TRG Motorsports partners for all of their support."