The 2000 NASCAR Cup Series Champion will drive the #70 Mishumotors Chevrolet at Valencia, Spain
NASCAR legend and 2000 NASCAR Cup Series Champion Bobby Labonte will be back behind the wheel of a Euro NASCAR car this weekend at Valencia, Spain for the 2019 NWES season opener. Labonte will drive the #70 Mishumotors Chevrolet SS in the ELITE 1 Division for the German team, sharing the car with team owner Mirco Schultis.
“The racing is really good and the competition is getting stronger every year in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series so I am excited to get back in the car at the GP of Spain. Last year’s race in Valencia was pretty intense, especially in turn one. We had some great door-to-door battles along the way and it will be great to take what we learned last year and drive there for the second time,” said the NASCAR Hall Of Fame nominee of the opportunity to return to the European NASCAR Series on April 13-14. “More and more European fans are discovering the special atmosphere of the Euro NASCAR events and it will be great to meet them again in Valencia this weekend.”
It will be the second start at the Spanish 4-km road course for Labonte, who raced full-time in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series in 2018 finishing 14th in points with 1 top-5 and 4 top-10s. At Tours in France, in what was his first outing on a European short track, the Corpus Christi native grabbed his first NWES podium finish under the checkered flag at the end of a breathtaking bumper-to-bumper battle for the win. Labonte’s Euro NASCAR participation in 2018 contributed to another year of huge growth for the European Series, which will start the upcoming season with 33 cars on the grid in Spain.
The first ever NASCAR driver to win a championship both in the NASCAR Cup Series and in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Labonte won 21 races at the highest level of NASCAR in the United States, conquering some of NASCAR’s crown jewels like the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, the Southern 500 at Darlington and the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis.
The first weekend of the 2019 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series at Valencia, Spain will feature four NWES races, two for each Division. All races will be streamed live on Fanschoice.tv, the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series Youtube Channel and Facebook page and on Motorsport.tv.