Notes: B. Labonte garners sponsorship from Academy

Academy Sports + Outdoors will sponsor Bobby Labonte and the No. 96 Ford for five races in the Sprint Cup Series in 2009. The Food City 500 at Bristol will be the first race for Academy Sports + Outdoors as primary sponsor.

Academy again will sponsor the Hall of Fame entry at Darlington, Daytona, Atlanta and Talladega.

Labonte has 21 wins and 113 top-five finishes in 547 Cup starts. The 2009 season will mark Labonte's 17th full year in Cup competition.

Stenhouse set for seven Nationwide races

Roush Fenway Racing development driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will take the next step in his career as he competes in seven Nationwide Series races in 2009 in the team's No. 16 Ford.

Stenhouse, 21, drove for Tony Stewart's USAC team in 2007 before joining Roush Fenway as a driver in ARCA. Stenhouse won twice and was in the running for the ARCA title last year before being involved in a dustup with Scott Speed in the final race of the year.

Stenhouse will share Roush Fenway's No. 16 entry with Sprint Cup drivers Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth, as well as Camping World Truck Series driver Colin Braun.

All seven of Stenhouse's scheduled races are standalone events: both Nashville races, Kentucky, Milwaukee, Gateway, Iowa and Memphis.

McCumbee to drive in Truck Series

SS Green Light Racing has signed Chad McCumbee to drive for the 2009 Camping World Truck Series season. The team is planning to run the No. 07 Chevrolet in 12 races, beginning with the season opener at Daytona on Feb. 13.

McCumbee, 24, drove for the team during the 2006-07 seasons. He has 31 starts for the SS Green Light team with four top-10 finishes.

In all, McCumbee has 71 starts in the Truck Series plus eight starts in the Cup Series.

Circle Bar tabs Buescher as driver

Circle Bar Racing has named James Buescher as the driver of the No. 10 Ford for the 2009 Camping World Truck Series season.

Buescher will team with 12-year series veteran Rick Crawford, who now will drive the No. 14.

Buescher will vie for rookie of the year honors with veteran Jamie Jones as crew chief. Jones, who joined Circle Bar Racing at the end of the 2008 season, brings more than 25 years of racing experience to the organization and will work alongside Kevin "Cowboy" Starland, who continues his role as crew chief for Crawford.

Buescher competed in six Nationwide Series races last year, piloting the No. 32 entry and captured the pole at Memphis Motorsports Park in his final race of the season. He posted one top-10 finish and had just one finish outside of the top 20. Buescher also competed in the Truck Series season finale last year, piloting the No. 15 to a 19th-place finish.

Sieg rounds-out Ballew stable

Billy Ballew Motorsports has named Shane Sieg as driver of the No. 15 truck for the 2009 season. He will compete in the first four races and pending sponsorship will continue through the 2009 Series season.

Sieg has two top-10 finishes in 10 starts for Ballew.

The Miccosukee Resort will be back onboard as the primary sponsor for the No. 51 Toyota with Kyle Busch slated to drive a select number of races. Another driver will be announced at a later date.

Yates names business development team

Yates Racing has tabbed Jon Sands as vice-president and Mark Gendle as director of business development for the team's Sprint Cup Series program -- car Nos. 98, 28 and 96 -- and also will support the No. 98 Nationwide Series entry.

Sands joined Roush Fenway Racing in 2001. His experience ranges from Phoenix's Firebird International Raceway, New York-based Cohn & Wolfe where he oversaw Pennzoil Cup Series program, and Coors Brewing Company's Cup Series endeavors. At Roush Fenway Racing, his responsibilities included securing primary sponsorships as well as developing specialized, integrated marketing communication programs that make such sponsorship programs profitable to the client.

Gendle joined Roush Fenway's marketing team after a four-year tenure with Raycom Sports. At Raycom, Gendle developed sales and marketing strategies for regional television coverage of both basketball and football in the Atlantic Coast Conference and Southeastern Conference. His motorsports experience began at Elevation Motorsports where he worked with clients like General Mill, UPS and Masterfoods USA.