Thursday, Feb. 19, 1998 | 8:14 a.m.
Terry Labonte doesn't need to look at the record book to realize he's been in Winston Cup racing for a long time. All he has to do is look around at his crew.
"This is actually the first time that I've driven for a team where the crew chief is younger than me," said Labonte, who at 41 is 14 years older than new crew chief Andy Graves.
"And what's really neat is besides the truck driver, who's probably about my age, Andy's the oldest guy on our team," Labonte said. "They rank from 22 to 27. I don't think half of them shave.
"But it's fun. They're really enthusiastic. They're a bunch of young guys that want to go get it."
Pairing one of the least-experienced crews with one of the circuit's most-experienced drivers has paid off for Labonte. After failing to win any poles or outside poles last year, Labonte opened the 1998 season by starting second at the Daytona 500, running near the front all day and finishing 13th among the 18 cars in the lead pack.
"It's not going to be easy, by any means, but we should be pretty good," Labonte said.
Labonte's optimism follows a year that began with him losing several key crew members from his 1996 Winston Cup championship team. The new team hit a slump in mid-1997, tensions escalated and crew chief Gary DeHart quit in October after an angry confrontation with a crew member. Labonte wound up sixth in points.
It marked Labonte's 15th top-10 finish in 19 years of Winston Cup racing, including his fourth in four seasons driving for Hendrick Motorsports. But coming off a driving title the previous year, sixth place was disappointing.
"I knew it was going to happen," Labonte said. "We had a good team and we couldn't keep it together."
In the offseason, Hendrick Motorsports officials decided that Graves, struggling to find the right chemistry with Ricky Craven's team, might be a better fit with Labonte's team.
Bingo.
"I could not be luckier," Labonte said. "I really like him. He is very, very intelligent. I've been real impressed with our test sessions and the things he's been able to accomplish.
"He's only 27 years old and he's got the experience of someone who's 47. He likes to be right on the edge of new things all the time. He's not stuck in his ways."
Graves also is happier with his new assignment in the Hendrick operation.
"I definitely feel more confident this year," he said. "I feel right now like I'm the weak link on the team. The pressure is on me, and that's the way I want it. I want to be responsible for what happens on the track.
"I'm the one in the new position. I'm the one that's going to make or break the deal. You've got to learn how to handle that. That's no pressure compared to struggling to make races like I did last year. That's pressure. This is a cakewalk compared to that."
At Rockingham, N.C., on Sunday, Labonte is scheduled to extend to 571 the Winston Cup record for consecutive starts. He hopes he can use 1998 to add to his totals of 19 Winston Cup victories and two driving titles.
"There's some unknowns as far as the new engines we're running, the new compression rules, the new Fords," Labonte said. "You don't know how all that stuff's going to unfold. But I think our team is pretty good, and that's all we can worry about."
The way Graves sees it, Labonte's competitors are the ones who should worry.
"With this bunch of guys and no egos, I think we're going to be together for the next seven or eight years, just like the Richard Childress team used to be when nobody left," Graves said. "People better take notice for the next 10 years. We're going to wear them out."
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