ARCHDALE, NC (May 14, 2008)- Earl Pearson Jr. and the Bobby Labonte Racing Team will travel to Farley Speedway in Farley Iowa and LaSalle Speedway in LaSalle Illinois this weekend and compete in a pair of Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series sanctioned events this weekend. Both events will consist of 50-lap feature events paying $10,000 to the winner and series points towards the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series national points standings. Both events should draw a strong field of drivers from the mid west area and provide exciting racing action at both racy facilities.



This past weekend Earl and the team traveled to Wheatland Missouri and competed in the Diamond Nationals at the Lucas Oil Speedway. Earl driving the new Lucas Oil red color scheme car would qualify 8th out of the 80 drivers that entered the event. Earl would win his heat race going away and drew the #3 starting position for the 100-lap feature event. Earl and the team felt confident that they had a good chance to win the $40,000 first place prize money and with the track officials reworking the track for the feature Earl and the team were excited about a racy track that would provide great racing. Earl would fall into fourth on the start but would wage an epic battle with Scott Bloomquist and Billy Moyer for second place in the early stages of the event swapping positions between the three drivers on multiple occasions. Earl would eventually pull away from Bloomquist and Moyer and run a solid second place for several laps. Earl would run in striking distance of leader Shannon Babb after the half way point and was starting to close in on the race leader by lap 70 when a broken J-bar would end his run with just 30 laps remaining in the feature event. Earl would finish 14th in the final run down and suffered a rare DNF on the series in 2008. Earl is now tied for first for the series national points standings with Steve Casebolt who finished 5th in the Diamond Nationals feature event this past weekend.



"I really feel we had a car to win this past weekend and at worst we would have run second to Babb. Babb was strong and I want to congratulate him and his team for a great win. I always enjoy racing with Babb no matter what sanctioned event or national event we compete together at. It's just unlucky in such a big paying event to have a mechanical failure end our race without the results to show how good a car we had. I'm really looking forward to this weekends events at tracks that we had success at in the past", stated Earl.



On Friday night after qualifying at the Diamond Nationals Earl and the team competed in the Integra Shocks Pit Crew Challenge Competition. In the first round Randal Edwards and Matt Langston would set the fastest time out of the 21 teams that competed in a timed event where the driver would drive the car into a pit box and the crew would change the right rear tire and send the driver out of the pit box. The fastest three teams came back and competed against each other in another timed pit stop this time the crew had to change the right front shock during the pit stop. Earl and the team would again finish the round as the fastest team earning the first place prize of $1,000 presented by Integra Shocks. Earls winning crew consisted of Randal Edwards, Matt Langston and Keith Edwards. Video coverage of the pit crew challenge can be found at www.dirtondirt.com.



Earl and the Bobby Labonte Racing Team would like to thank all their sponsors in 2008 for their support including LifeLong Locks, Lucas Oil, Mastersbilt Race Cars, Larry Wallace Engines, Mopar, Sunoco Race Fuels, Allstar Performance, Tiger Rear End, BERT, Butlerbuilt, Hyperco, SHY, Wilwood, Woodward, TWM, Dyers Top Rods, Weld, Hoosier Tire, PRC, Wrisco, Sparco, Bell, Mechanix Wear, Oakley, Cheerios, Coke, Dunn-Benson Racing Supply, ASI Racewear, WRT Web Designs, The Decal Source, Rick Schwallie Photography and WD Enterprises.



To learn more about the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series visit www.lucasdirt.com. For more information about LifeLong Locks and the strongest locks on the market today, visit www.lifelonglocks.com. For more information about Earl Pearson Jr. and the Bobby Labonte Racing Team visit their official website at www.bobbylabontemotorsports.com.





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