Dearborn, Mich. — Matt Kenseth. Greg Biffle. Carl Edwards. Bill Elliott. Bobby Labonte.

All NASCAR champions, in one series or another, and all Ford Racing drivers.

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Wait a minute. Bobby Labonte?

Bobby Labonte.

The 2000 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion is back with Ford and will drive the No. 96 Fusion followin’ what’s bein’ called this week’s alignment between Yates Racing and Hall of Fame Racing.

Now, this isn’t the first time that Labonte has driven a Ford for a full season in Cup competition. Back in 1993—or way back in ’93, these days—Labonte made 30 starts in the No. 22 Ford for Bill Davis Racing. He won a pole that year and had six top-10s on his way to finishin’ second in the Rookie of the Year race.

Seven years later, he won a Cup championship, addin’ to the Nationwide title he won in ’91.

One of the most remarkable sports statistics that Ol’ Sparky has ever seen was accomplished by Labonte durin’ his run to the title in 2000. That year, in 34 starts, he completed 10,158 laps. That’s a lot of laps. The series only ran 10,167 laps that year. So, again, in 34 races, Labonte completed all but eight laps.

That accomplishment is nothin’ short of amazin’.

He finished four laps down in the Richmond spring race, and no more than one lap in four other races that year.

Again, amazin’.

But, that’s Bobby Labonte, NASCAR champion.

And now that champion is back in a Ford.

Labonte, by the way, also won a Nationwide championship back in 1991, so he joins The Biff and Edwards as Ford drivers who have won a title in that series, and he and The Biff are two Ford drivers who have won NASCAR championships in a pair of series.

And, one more thing about Labonte’s ability to find victory lane: When he won in a truck at Martinsville in 2005, he became part of a small group of drivers who have won at least one race in all three of NASCAR’s top divisions.

So, Bobby Labonte’s career, which started fulltime on the Cup circuit with Ford, has returned to the Blue Oval.

In other words, his career has come full circle, following a very successful lap.

Ford Racing’s championship chances look pretty good for 2009.

Other big news this week is happenin’ in the Motor City, Detroit, where the annual North American International Auto Show is transitioning from being a media event to a public event.

The news from Ford from that event has been noteworthy.

Ford announced that the four-cylinder 2010 Fusion was certified at 34 highway miles to the gallon.

This, on the heels of Ford’s announcement that the 2010 Fusion Hybrid was certified at 41 city miles to the gallon. Again, 41 in the city. Stop and go. Stop and go. But, at 41 mpg, very little stoppin’ at gas stations.

So, the Ford Fusion is now America’s most fuel-efficient mid-size sedan for both hybrid and conventional gasoline models.

Additionally at the show, the all-new 2009 Ford F-150 was named the North American Truck of the Year, just the latest in a string of awards—among them, the title of America’s safest full-size pick-up when it received 5-star frontal- and 5-star side-impact crash test ratings, the highest possible scores, from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

That would help explain why the Ford F-Series was America’s top-selling truck for the 32nd year in a row. That would be a streak that goes back to, let’s see, the 1970s. And, the F-Series has been America’s top-sellin’ vehicle—car, crossover, SUV, truck or van—for each of the last 27 years.

That says a lot.

While wonderin’ how it can snow so much and be so cold at the same time, Ol’ Sparky went through this week’s mailbag.

Hey Sparky,

Now that we’re into the middle of January, do you miss not going to Daytona for preseason testing?

Stuart,
Oklahoma

Well, Stuart, the testin’ part wasn’t missed as much as the Daytona part. Nothin’ says January better than spendin’ a couple of weeks in central Florida watchin’ cars get ready for the regular season. Okay, a couple of weeks in central Florida, period, can be just as good. The Sparkster didn’t miss the “watchin’ the cars” part, but did miss the talkin’ in the garage part. A lot can happen in that short time between the checkered flag at Homestead and the usual testin’ in January, and, under lesser stressful conditions, it is a very good opportunity to get caught up with old friends. And, in Sparky’s case, really old friends. So, that gettin’ caught up part will just have to wait another month, when the series heads to Daytona for the start of the ’09 season.