NASCAR team signs ‘ringer’ for five races in 2026 – Sports News
SS-GreenLight Racing has made a splash early in the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season by signing veteran highway racer Alex Labbé to drive its No. 0 Chevrolet on all five highway course occasions subsequent yr.
The Canadian driver, identified for his experience on non-oval layouts, will function the team’s “ringer” on circuits like Circuit of The Americas and Watkins Glen as half of a part-time schedule that enhances the full-season experience shared with Garrett Smithley.
Labbé’s position in 2026 represents a strategic transfer by SS-GreenLight, a team with more than 20 years of expertise competing in NASCAR’s national sequence, and one which just lately introduced the addition of a former Cup Series driver to a full-time seat.
The team is betting that his highway course savvy, seen in a number of robust finishes in previous Xfinity and O’Reilly Series occasions, will enhance its competitiveness on tracks that demand precision and flexibility.
In 2025, Labbé made a number of begins with SS-GreenLight and picked up three top-15 finishes on highway programs, together with a notable efficiency at COTA the place he earned stage factors and outpaced many of his rivals during green-flag runs.
The 2026 schedule’s highway course races embody some of probably the most technically difficult occasions on the calendar. Labbé’s season will kick off at Circuit of The Americas on February 28, adopted by stops at Watkins Glen International, Naval Base Coronado, Sonoma Raceway and the Charlotte ROVAL.
Each of these circuits presents a distinctive set of calls for on driver ability and car setup, and SS-GreenLight seems to be positioning itself to maximise efficiency the place others might battle to adapt.
Labbé, 32, brings more than a decade of racing expertise to the desk, together with competitors in each U.S. national sequence and his native Canada.
A 2017 NASCAR Pinty’s Series champion, he has carved out a fame as one of the more succesful highway racers in NASCAR’s second-tier ranks, and his position in 2026 offers followers a probability to see that experience deployed constantly over a number of occasions.
Team proprietor Bobby Dotter expressed enthusiasm about Labbé’s return, noting that the driving force has “brought so much to our program” and that everybody on the group seems ahead to building on previous successes collectively.
The collaboration additionally runs alongside the announcement that Smithley will proceed with the team as the first driver of the No. 0 car.
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