Justin Labonte

Justin Labonte is an retired American Professional Stock Car racer. He first competed in 2008 in the NASCAR Pepsi Cup Series with a new team named Hank Aaron Racing in the number 95 car and last competed in the NASCAR Pepsi Cup Series in the 2011 season with Hank Aaron Racing. He first competed in the NASCAR Mountain Dew National Series in 1999 for Labonte Motorsports in the number 44 and last competed in the 2017 season with Richard Childress Racing in the number 2 car. He first competed in the NASCAR Sierra Mist Truck Series in 2006 for Bill Davis Racing and last competed in 2014 for Kyle Busch Motorsports in the number 4 truck.

## Career

### NASCAR Pepsi Cup Series

In 2008 Justin Labonte raced at Talladega, Dover, Pocono, and Darlington in the number 95 Cost Guard car for Hank Aaron Racing the baseball star. This was the team's first season but Justin made the best of it and got 11th, 39th, 30th, and 18th. He got 44th in points.

In 2009, Justin competed in the first 10 races of the season and got 1 top 5 and 2 top 10s in the 10 races and was currently 20th when in a practice crash, Justin was injured and was put out for the rest of the season. Since Coast Guard would only run with Justin, due to no funding the team would sit out the rest of the year and finish 50th in the standings.

In 2010, Justin returned but this time the team got Coast Guard only 25 races but the other 10 were filled up by the Milwaukee Braves Baseball Team. During the first full-time season, Justin got 2 top 5s and 9 top 10s. He got 24th in the standings.

In 2011, Justin returned to the team but had a scary wreck in his Duel Race and missed the Daytona 500. Justin missed 4 other races that year and crashed in 10 races with no top 5s and 4 top 10s. Coast Guard left him and the team and at the end of the year Justin never raced Cup again and Hank Aaron Racing was no more.

### NASCAR Mountain Dew National Series

In 1999, Labonte began sharing the No. 44 Chevrolet Monte Carlo with his father in the Busch Series. Qualifying nine times, he had a best finish of 14th at Myrtle Beach Speedway. He ran more races in 2000, his best finish a 20th at Nashville Speedway USA. He also made three starts in the ARCA series, posting two top-five finishes. In 2001, he ran a limited ARCA schedule, making five starts, including a race at Nashville Superspeedway, where he led 70 laps.

Labonte began running late model stock series in 2002 at Caraway Speedway. In his first season at the track, he won one feature event and had ten top-tens in twelve starts. He followed that up by winning the track championship the next season. Labonte also returned to the Busch Series in 2002, attempting but failing to qualify for three races in the No. 04 Dodge for Cunningham Motorsports. He made his first start in three years in 2003, starting 23rd and finishing 29th at Michigan International Speedway in the No. 06 Dodge Intrepid for Cunningham Motorsports.

In 2004, Labonte announced he would make a limited run in the Busch Series that season in the No. 44 car owned by his father and sponsored by the United States Coast Guard. At the Twister 300, Labonte passed Mike Wallace on the last lap, after Wallace ran out of gas, to win his first career race. Out of seventeen starts that season, it was his only top-ten, but finished 35th in points. For 2005, Labonte's team merged with Haas CNC Racing, and he posted two top-tens and finished seventeenth in points. At the end of the season, he was released from his contract. He ran his only Busch race of 2006 at Memphis Motorsports Park in the No. 5 for Hendrick Motorsports, finishing 22nd.

In 2012, he returned to the Busch Series with Roush Racing in the number 99 car with Fastenal and Cheez-itz as the sponsors. He was able to get 9 top 5s and 14 top 10s and got 10th in the standings.

In 2013 he moved to Richard Childress Racing in the number 2 car sponsored by Bass Pro Shops and Dollar General all of the season individually. He got 14 top 5s and 20 top 10s and got 8th in the standings with wins at the Spring Talladega race and the July Daytona Race.

In 2014, he stayed with RCR and got his best season with 4 wins at Phoenix, Bristol, Darlington, and Phoenix. He finished 4th in the standings with 21 top 5s and 24 top 10s.

In 2015, he stayed with RCR again and got 2 wins at Las Vegas and Martinsville. He got 11 top 5s and 20 top 10s and got 7th in the standings.

In 2016, he got no wins but got 28 top 5s and 30 top 10s with Daniel Suarez being his only competitor but the last 3 races of the season he missed due to a crash which injured him and he got 5th in the standings.

In 2017, Justin competed in his final racing season with RCR and NASCAR as a whole but only got 4 top 5s and 11 top 10s and finished 12th in the standings barely making the playoffs but he did win at Homestead later on but wasn't a championship contender.