He will also start the Winn Dixie 250 at Daytona International Speedway in July.

The other 12 races and drivers will be decided at a later date.

The team intends to field three cars this season, and, for those of you counting, the addition of Labonte and Paul Menard, who will drive the no. 98 Menards Ford, that leaves Gilliland and Travis Kvapil vying for that last ride.

Most expect Kvapil to be back next season, leaving Gilliland without a ride.

Gilliland said:

I haven’t actually had a sit-down with them, but I’m still under contract with them through 2009. So we’re just going to have to work through it, and hopefully, we can get something else going. It’s just kind of a bummer that it’s this late in the [offseason], you know? We’ll just have to see what we can come up with and see what we can try and do.

The team will be sponsored by Ask.com.

Following his release from Petty Enterprises, Labonte was rumored to be going to Earnhardt Ganassi Racing in the No. 41 sponsored by Target, or, more recently, the No. 8 Chevy. No word on who will drive that car, now that Labonte is out of the picture.

Labonte said of joining HOF Racing:

I’m excited to be part of what Ask.com is bringing to our sport. In a time like this, it’s great to see a sponsor come in with technology and ideas that will help all of the competitors in NASCAR and enhance the experience for all of our fans, no matter which driver or team they cheer for.

HOF Racing co-owner Tom Garfinkle said:

Jeff Moorad and I are excited to add Ask.com as a primary sponsor on the No. 96 car. We’ve been working closely with Ask.com for several weeks now, and their talented management team has come up with more creative ideas to serve NASCAR fans than I’ve seen in a long time. With our new Yates [Racing] partnership and having a true champion and class person in Bobby Labonte behind the wheel, we’re expecting great things on the race track as well.

Separately, Ask.com also entered an agreement to become the official search engine of NASCAR, meaning Ask.com has category exclusivity and a broad set of promotional rights.

Under the agreement, Ask.com will exclusively power the search experience on NASCAR.com.
 
Ask.com CEO Jim Safka said:

Through these partnerships, we will break new ground by applying our semantic search technology capabilities to NASCAR-related content while also tapping one of the largest marketing channels in America. Our goal is to win over the millions of loyal fans by providing them with the best NASCAR search experience on the Web, and introduce them to all of Ask’s capabilities when they come.

The agreement keeps both sets of co-owners in tact.

Max Jones, co-owner and GM of Yates, said:

This partnership with Hall of Fame is a great stepping stone for the Yates organization. Through this partnership, we are able to continue the expansion of our shop and field another Sprint Cup entry.  We, along with Ford Racing, welcome Hall of Fame Racing and look forward to a very successful season.

Tom Garfinkel, co-owner of HOF Racing, said:

Jeff Moorad and I knew it would take time to construct the right model to improve our competitive position in the sport and we think we’ve come a long way to achieving that through our association with Yates Racing. We’re proud to be associated with Doug [Yates] and Max and Ford Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

The alliance between the two teams means that HOF will change from Toyota to Ford. Thus far, no driver has been named.

Even before Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s highly publicized departure from DEI before last season, the team was struggling to remain competitive. While Martin Truex Jr. made the Chase in 2007, Jr. lost six engines and crashed out of races twice.

As if losing Jr. wasn’t enough, the team had a mediocre, at best, 2008 season with Truex Jr. receiving a 150-point penalty and conflicting reports as to whether Truex had re-signed with the team.

At the end of the season, Mark Martin left the team for Hendrick Motorsports, like Jr. Paul Menard left, taking his sponsor with him to Yates Racing. The US Army left the team for Stewart Haas Racing. Everyone was abandoning ship.

At Chip Ganassi Racing, things weren’t much better. The team shut the doors to its No. 40 team and driver Dario Franchitti due to a lack of sponsorship money.

The team also fired Jimmy Elledge, which seemed to upset Juan Pablo Montoya. And, Montoya, at one point, was rumored to be leaving the team, while Reed Sorenson left the team for Gillett Evernham Motorsports.

When DEI and CGR merged to form EGR, they had Montoya, Truex Jr. and Aric Almirola under contract. They were missing a driver with a lot of NASCAR experience. They were missing a multiple race-winner. They were missing a veteran leader. In Labonte, they may have found all of that.

Labonte needs good equipment to be competitive, and EGR should be able to provide that. I know that the team has struggled, but some of that you have to put on its absentee owner, Teresa, who some say is not committed to winning.

Ganassi will be a presence at the track, and is committed to winning. He should be able to help keep the focus on on-track performance.

That, combined with Labonte’s leadership, should make any partnership a perfect match.

Conversely, ESPN’s NASCAR Experts blog is reporting that HOF Racing is trying to forge a deal with Roush Fenway Racing.

If the team chooses one of the two, then it will switch from Toyota to Ford next season. The team has not named a driver at this point, but they have secured DLP/Texas Instruments for six races in 2009. DLP has sponsored the team since its inception in 2006.

Rumor has it that now Labonte is being considered for the No. 8, where he will be reunited with his former Petty Enterprises crew cheif Doug Randolph.

Other EGR rumors include that Target may move its sponsorship over to the No. 42 and Juan Pablo Montoya, instead of the No. 41 car, which currently does not have a driver named.

Martin Truex Jr. will be back in the No. 1 with Bass Pro Shops. Aric Almirola, at this point, is expected to drive the No. 8 car, which is currently looking for sponsorship following the departure of the U.S. Army. He may be moved to the No. 41 car, though. Montoya will be sponsored by Wrigley’s Big Red and Juicy Fruit brands, but that sponsorship only covers half of the season.

Almirola said in a NASCAR.com article:

It is something they have kicked around and talked about. But really and truly we want to run four cars. That is the goal because everybody knows to be competitive you have to have a multi-car team. They have said if we have to run three cars it may be a possibility but it is not our goal.

Also, Max Siegel, president of global operations for Dale Earnhardt Inc., which is now EGR, is said to be close to leaving the team. Siegel has been working with DEI owner Teresa Earnhardt about his future plans with the team.

No word on sponsorship at this time.

For those of you who do not know, it was reported last month that Allmendinger would replace Sadler in the No. 19 Dodge next season.

This new prompted Sadler to claim breach of contract. An attorney for Sadler filed a notice, which left GEM with two choices: buyhim out or let him drive. Apparently, they chose to let him drive.

GEM also announced that it has reached a deal to merge with Petty Holdings.

This news comes as Gillett Evernham Motorsports and Petty Holdings officially announced that the two teams have reached a deal to merge.

To clarify the situation, Allmendinger is not under contract with GEM. Allmendinger’s agent, Tara Ragan, said that there were never negotiations to kick Sadler out of the no. 19 car. She added that Allmendinger would never think to do something like that to Sadler considering that he went through a similar experience not too long ago.

The team has not announced a sponsor, car number, or driver for the team.

Team owner Tommy Baldwin said:

With tough economic times upon us, the timing for starting this team is right. Our overhead is low and we have a great group of talented mechanics and specialists to choose from. We can offer sponsors the chance to get into Sprint Cup racing at a fraction of the costs, without compromising on-track performance, due to our low overhead.

Baldwin owned a Nationwide series team, which he sold to Gillett Evernham Motorsports.