Sunday's Sprint Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway saw its share of spins and wrecks to contribute the races 18 cautions.

Aside from Matt Kenseth's antics, the biggest crash of the day involved 5 cars early in the 500 lap event. The melee, shown below, involved Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte, Aric Almirola, Scott Riggs, and Martin Truex Jr.


Almirola slid the nose of his No. 8 coming off of turn four into Bobby Labonte on the outside, turning the No. 43 and blocking the track for the rest of the field. Riggs then gets turned by Gordon as the accordion effect takes shape, damaging the nose of the No. 24.

Not so fast says Petty Enterprises' Robbie Loomis about Bobby Labonte bolting the team in 2009.

Labonte, who currently drives Petty's No. 43, lost his primary sponsor General Mills Tuesday when the company announced it would head to Richard Childress Racing for 2009.

That announcement fueled speculation across the NASCAR world that Labonte would leave the struggling Petty operation and follow his sponsor to RCR.

Loomis, Petty's vice president of racing operations, had another opinion:

"I've led a race after 499 laps and gotten turned on Turn 2 of the final lap and lost," Loomis said. "But when Bobby came to Petty Enterprises he wanted to be a part of the rebuilding process. I believe now more than ever he wants to see that through and be the driver that puts the 43 back in Victory Lane.

"I see us being together for a long time."

I'll admit, I don't really understand why Loomis is talking about leading a race -- especially given that Petty hasn't been leading too many races lately, but his words about Labonte seem to make sense.

The driver signed with Petty to rebuild an organization with a plethora of history behind, and he hasn't exactly done that yet.

If Labonte does leave, however, the best coming down the pipeline is Chad McCumbee for PE, and a rookie isn't the greatest guy to rebuild a race team. Darker days would be the name of the game in Petty country if that were to happen.

Part of me wants Labonte to go to a competitive program at RCR, but another part wants to me to see if Petty Enterprises can turn their program around.

So after some tom-foolery here on FanHouse this morning, here's today's real news:

Bobby Labonte, the 2000 NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion, looks to be more convincingly headed to Richard Childress Racing for the 2009 season with sponsor General Mills.

Yahoo! first reported some possibilities between Labonte and RCR, and with today's announcement from General Mills about moving to RCR for 2009, the Labonte rumor only heats up.

Here's some text from the General Mills announcement by way of the Charlotte Observer's David Poole:

General Mills will sponsor a fourth team at RCR, the No. 33 Chevrolets. No driver was named for that car, but there has already been at least one published report that Bobby Labonte will move along with the sponsor to RCR.

"RCR is honored to represent General Mills and its Cheerios, Hamburger Helper and many other brands in the NASCAR Cup Series," team owner Richard Childress said.

Labonte seems like an ideal fit for that ride, as he already is driving for Childress in the Nationwide Series. The move to Petty Enterprises for the champion hasn't panned out like he thought it would with a resurgence of success at PE.

You've got to think that Petty Enterprises has to be feeling a little bit of heat in losing a primary sponsor when Kyle Petty is having a tough time even making races and Labonte isn't able to perform at his level due to equipment.

Silly season each year in NASCAR just can't start soon enough anymore, can it?

It's been a rough weekend to be a race car at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

From preparation for Sunday's UAW-Dodge 400 for the Sprint Cup Series to Saturday's qualifying and race for the Nationwide Series, plenty of drivers have found themselves spun out, in the wall, or both.

During Saturday's Nationwide Series Sam's Town 300, as of lap 78 there had been 7 cautions for 32 laps due to multiple wrecks. Steven Wallace, Brian Vickers, Bobby Labonte and a plenty of others had made hard contact with the wall.

Kyle Busch was running second on lap 103 and slammed the turn 3 wall after cutting a tire -- his second crashed car of the day.

Earlier in the day, Busch was trying to earn the pole for the Nationwide Series race in qualifying and spun on his second lap, sending him to the rear of the field for the race.

What: Auto Club 500
Where: Auto Club Speedway (formerly California Speedway)
When: Sunday, Feb. 24, 3:30pm on FOX
Distance: 250 laps, 500 miles
Weather: Showers likely. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 56. Chance of precipitation is 60%. Visit the National Weather Service for up-to-date info and radar
2007 Winner: Matt Kenseth (also won in 2006)
Predictions: Keep Reading

Breaking Down the Auto Club 500:

19 Laps of Practice for a 200-lap race

Rain has been the main story all weekend in California. A canceled practice, a canceled qualifying, and a shortened happy hour have all been the direct impact of the precipitation.

The shortened final practice -- just 30 minutes in length -- was all of the time that Sprint Cup drivers had on the track in California this weekend. Denny Hamlin turned 19 total laps in No. 11 Toyota, which was the most of any driver.

Richard Childress Racing could be bringing in that fourth car that they tried to unsuccessfully land for 2008 quicker than anticipated.

Yahoo! Sports' Bob Margolis reports that he has a source saying Bobby Labonte, the 2000 Sprint Cup Champion, will move from Petty Enterprises to the RCR stable beginning in 2009. From Yahoo!'s Margolis:

"Richard Childress acknowledged that his organization is close to fielding a fourth team in the Sprint Cup Series, and Yahoo! Sports has learned that the driver of that car beginning in 2009 likely will be Bobby Labonte.

Sources close to the deal point to General Mills, Labonte's current sponsor with Petty Enterprises, coming along with him to RCR.

According to Childress, he will field a fourth car sometime this season, though he wouldn't set an exact time frame. He did say things were progressing well and that he was pleased with how plans were coming together.

"We're looking at entering a few races before the end of the season," Childress said."

This report, it if holds true, might set the record for the quickest time in which NASCAR's silly season -- the time when drivers and teams swap around -- has started.

Welcome to the 2007 NASCAR FanHouse Year in Review. Follow along each day until the end of 2007 as we look back on the top 25 drivers of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for the 2007 season. Heck, bookmark us if you have to! Today, we review the season of 18th-place Bobby Labonte.

Driver: Bobby Labonte -- Corpus Christi, Texas
Team: No. 42 Betty Crocker/Cheerios Dodge
Points: 18th (-3206)
2006: Finished 21st in Season Standings
Key Stats: 3 Top-10s, 3 DNFs
Back in 2008?: Yes

Bobby Labonte won his first, and thus far only, championship in 2000 with a dominating mix of speed and consistency with Joe Gibbs Racing. That consistency part hasn't changed much despite his departure from Joe Gibbs Racing a few years ago.

Labonte didn't have incredibly telling statistics for 2007 like wins, poles, or even Top-5s. He scored just three finishes in the Top-10 during the 36-race campaign. How, then, did Labonte finish the highest position a car from Petty Enterprises has finished in the final season standings since 1999?

Consistency.

He wasn't consistently great, but he wasn't consistently bad, either. Labonte's three DNF's in 2007 came at the expense of only 4.8% of the total laps run in all of the 2007 races. Stack those numbers with the abilities of the lower-budget Petty team, and Labonte is really doing some good work in the No. 43.

Six spots outside of the Chase in 2007 could lead to a surprise victory in 2008 for Labonte if Petty is able to step up their next-generation car program to a nearly level field at times. A victory for Labonte and the No. 43 would be very well-received in the stands.

Be sure to let voice be heard at the FanHouse NASCAR FanVote.

Petty Enterprises picked up a new crew chief this week.

Jeff Meendering, a now-former employee of Hendrick Motorsports, will take over the top of the pit box for former Cup champion Bobby Labonte, effective immediately.

Meendering served as Jeff Gordon's crew chief during the six-race stretch over the summer that normal crew chief Steve Letarte was suspended for infractions at Infineon Raceway. During that stretch, Gordon was winless but still picked up 4 Top-5s and didn't finish outside of the Top-10.

A relationship with Robbie Loomis, Gordon's previous crew chief and now vice-president of race operations at PE, helped Meendering land the job.

"Robbie Loomis gave me the opportunity to join the No. 24 team in 2001 and I learned from him, and Steve Letarte, how to prepare and execute at the track," said Meendering.

In 2007, Labonte's No. 43 Dodges finished 18th in points with no Top-5s and just 3 Top-10s. Labonte hasn't won a Nextel Cup event since Homestead in 2003 with his former team, Joe Gibbs Racing.

Petty Enterprises has suffered through a long winless streak as well. Their last win was in 1999 with John Andretti at Martinsville. However, Labonte's 17th-place finish in the final Nextel Cup Standings was the highest for any Petty Enterprises team since 1999.

So ... remember Kyle Petty fell to the 35th spot last week? Well, should he happen to fall out of the top 35, he's gone and lined up a former champion to ensure the #45 Dodge qualifies.

Petty had to look no further than his own teammate, 2000 Winston Cup Champion Bobby Labonte.

"Look, as long as they don't change the rules and the rulebook is written that way, we're in the business to run racecars. We have two racecars -- the 43 and the 45. Those are our racecars. Right now Richard Petty owns both racecars, and we've got one driver with the championship provisional and another driver who is on the bubble. Whatever it takes to get those in, I don't see the issue with it.

OMG! Genius! Soooo genius I can't even believe this is allowed. Why is this allowed?

Barring an unprecedented comeback, it's likely official at this point that NASCAR could never again hold any type of event at North Carolina Motor Speedway.

Owned by Speedway Motorsports, the venue went defunct in 2004 after a massive restructuring of the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series schedule when SMI bought out "The Rock" in favor of moving its dates on the Cup Series schedule to other tracks.

This fall, expect the track to be auctioned to the highest bidder who likely won't resume racing action at the storied speedway.

True-to-the-roots stock car fans, like me, have had a hole in our hearts since The Rock's demise. It's understandable why the track wasn't able to survive, however, because sell-outs became pretty uncommon and the track sat in an area over-saturated for the now-national NASCAR.