Labonte's TRG team finds funding to start N.H. event

LOUDON, N.H. -- After qualifying eighth for Sunday's event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Bobby Labonte said his TRG Motorsports team still needed funding to try and complete the race. Now, it appears they have it.

Labonte

According to the team, Kevin Buckler's organization has raised enough money to compete in the Sylvania 300. Although the hood of the team's red race car was still blank as of Saturday morning, TRG confirmed that Massachusetts-based SBLI Insurance was on board as an associated sponsor, and four other companies -- CBR Motorcars, employinit.com, Velocity Terminal, and Commonwealth Foreign Exchange -- had signed on to help the No. 71 car get on the track.

Buckler, the team's principal owner, said connections in the Northeast helped TRG spread the word and secure the necessary funding.

"R.J. Valentine, who won the Rolex 24 Hour with us in February, as well as Bruce Ledoux and his Guardian Angel Motorsports group, have really helped spread the word this weekend and made that last-ditch effort to get the funds we needed to race. Several of our TRG Motorsports partners helped, too," Buckler said.

"Bobby and the crew did a great job in qualifying. When I saw [position] eight, I thought, 'Do you know how many really big teams we just out-qualified? We have to race [Sunday].' That qualifying effort sure made our job easier to secure the funds. Hopefully, we can put it all together in the race on Sunday. This is working out to be a magical weekend. It's still really tight for us, and several others are still trying to jump on board and help. It looks like we are going to make it."

Also: Labonte has starting spot; now he needs some cash