Academy Sports To Sponsor HOFR No. 96, Labonte

Hall Of Fame racing announced that Academy Sports + Outdoors will sponsor Bobby Labonte and the No. 96 Ford for five races next season beginning at Bristol Motor Speedway.

The retailer will also sponsor the car at the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway, the Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and the Amp Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

HOF Racing, in addition to signing Labonte, recently formed an alliance with Yates Racing, and has secured sponsorship from Ask.com.

Edwards Wins Pep Boys Auto 500

On the final restart, Carl Edwards got a jump on Denny Hamlin and went around him on the outside to take the lead and never looked back, driving to victory in the Pep Boys Auto 500 from Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Jimmie Johnson, who stopped and took tires late, used those tires to drive up to second place, where he finished.

Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, and Kyle Busch rounded out the top 5.

Kurt Busch, Jamie McMurray, David Ragan, Jeff Gordon, and Greg Biffle rounded out the top 10.

Notables: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (11th), Kevin Harvick (13th), Tony Stewart (17th), Jeff Burton (18th), and Clint Bowyer (20th).

Give a call to Michael Waltrip who had a good car early, and drove to inside the top 15. Then, the problems started. First, he had a short inside the helmet radio. Once he got that fixed, he hit the wall and cut down a right rear tire. Later, he spun after a tire went down. He finished 37th.