This is more like what Bobby Labonte had in mind when he made the move to Petty Enterprises two years ago.
Heading into Bristol for Sunday’s race, the 2000 NASCAR champion is off to his best start since 2004, when he was still driving for Joe Gibbs Racing.
That season, he was 10th after the first four races and on his way to finishing 12th in the standings.
After finishes of 24th, in his final season with Gibbs, and 21st and 18th the last two years with the rebuilding Petty team, Labonte’s No. 43 Dodge is off to a solid, if unspectacular start with finishes of 11th, 25th, 17th and 12th in 2008.
It’s just one step up — although a big one — in the process of becoming a championship contender.
“The season is four races old and we’re sitting 14th in the Sprint Cup points,” Labonte said. “Obviously, we’re looking to be better than that. We’re not satisfied with 14th.
“But, at the same time, we’ve (gone) through a lot of change in the offseason. New faces, new facilities, new car. So, 14th is not a bad spot. To put it in perspective, we’re only 16 points out of the top 10.”
Before the season began, Petty vice president of operations Robbie Loomis predicted a win for Labonte in the first eight races of this season. That gives Labonte four more races to get to the Winner’s Circle for the first time since 2003.
Labonte doesn’t want to dispute his boss.
“We’re not going to go out and dominate races like the 18 (Kyle Busch) and the 99 (Carl Edwards) have,” he said. “Our MO is to stay on the lead lap and put ourselves in position at the end so that when we have a capable car we can go up and challenge for the win.”
So, how about a win this weekend?
“Anything can happen at Bristol,” said Labonte, whose best finishes of 2007 were eighths in the spring race at Phoenix and last fall on the Tennessee oval. “It has to be the most exciting racetrack in the world.
“You’re racing on top of each other. But, most importantly, you can get caught up in a wreck that you have nothing to do with. At least Bristol is not aero-sensitive. You can let the rough side drag. That’s really why I enjoy racing there. It’s old school racing.”
MAKING DO: The preseason agreement to swap Kurt Busch’s 2007 owner points to rookie teammate Sam Hornish Jr. — guaranteeing that the former open-wheel champion will make each of the first five races — has put Busch’s team on the back lot, so to speak.
At Atlanta last week, Busch — guaranteed a starting spot based on his 2004 Cup championship — and the No. 2 team crew members were forced to operate outside the garage area under a tent on Friday. While the car was positioned on asphalt, much of the team’s work area was a mixture of grass and mud.
Busch qualified 29th on Friday night, allowing the team to move to a space in the permanent garage area before the cold weather moved in early Saturday morning. But one of the busiest team members there on Friday was transport co-driver Cindy Lewis.
“We try our best to keep our transporter as clean as possible,” she said. “We kept the vacuum cleaner going all day long and went through three cleaner bags. The guys kept tracking grass and dirt in all day long, but we felt so sorry about the conditions they had to work under that we never said anything about it.”
“That’s the great thing about our team,” crew chief Pat Tryson said. “Nobody complained at all about anything. That was a pretty tough situation and a little embarrassing to be working outside the garage, under a tent and in the mud there on Friday.
“This weekend at Bristol is the fifth and final race before the 2008 points kick in. It’ll be interesting to see where (they) have to park the transporter. … You might have to look hard to find us there on Friday. But I’m sure we’ll be working on the car somewhere inside the track — at least I hope we’re inside the track.”
Busch is 10th in the season points heading into Bristol and Hornish is 36th.
SMOKE AS SALESMAN: A playful Tony Stewart spent an hour at a ticket window at Martinsville Speedway on Wednesday, and some fans left with more than they expected.
Many came wearing gear from his Home Depot race team and bearing photographs, posters and other things they hoped to get signed, and Stewart put the squeeze on them.
“You need to buy some tickets,” he told one of the first people in line, who said she already had purchased race tickets but had come purely to get him to sign a photo.
“OK,” he told her, grabbing his pen. “I better see you at the race.”
Another man wearing a Home Depot jacket said he was, indeed, there to buy tickets from his favorite driver.
“Where would you like them?” Stewart asked.
“Section LL, so I can see you lead the field to green,” he replied. “And if I could, I’d also like to buy some pit passes.”
“We don’t have any of those, unfortunately,” he was told.
“Dang! I’ve never been down there,” he said.
“I’ve never been in section LL,” Stewart told him.
STAT OF THE WEEK: Jack Roush is the leading active car owner at Bristol, with nine victories, all since 1993. Mark Martin has two, Kurt Busch four, Matt Kenseth two and Carl Edwards added one last summer. He is the only driver in the group still with Roush Fenway Racing.
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