Labonte’s title defense going badly

Jenna Fryer

Wednesday, March 28, 2001 | 12:51 p.m.

It's been six weeks since Bobby Labonte last looked at the Winston Cup standings. The season has started so poorly for the series champion, he doesn't want to know how bad things really are.

But he isn't panicking.

"I haven't looked at the standings since Daytona, there's no point," Labonte said. "Based on how things have gone, I can't worry about it. We have so many races to go and so many things can happen, I try not to allow myself to get all wrapped up in that."

For the record, he's 19th this week - almost unthinkable for the driver who practically led wire-to-wire last season.

Labonte was a model of consistency last season. He won four races, finished in the top 10 in 24 events and had nary a breakdown.

He took his first lead in the points three races into the year, briefly lost it, then took it over for good 10 weeks into the season. No one really challenged him from there, and Labonte won his first series championship by 265 points over the late Dale Earnhardt.

So far, this year has been the exact opposite.

He's struggled to adjust to the new tires Goodyear has provided, which aren't suited to Labonte's hard style of driving. Also, mechanical problems have surfaced for the first time in almost two years.

"Last year wasn't easy, even if it looked that way," Labonte said. "But if it did, this year hasn't looked anything like that."

Labonte was knocked out of the season-opening Daytona 500 in a 19-car accident. He rebounded the next week with a second-place finish in Rockingham, N.C., but engine problems plagued him in the next two races.

As his crew fought through a thick cloud of puffy white smoke, trying to make the motor hold for 25 more laps at Atlanta Motor Speedway, it became clear Labonte couldn't finish the race - giving him his first DNF since 1999.

"Am I surprised we had two mechanical failures? Yes - very surprised," crew chief Jimmy Makar said. "But in this business, sooner or later you run into those kinds of things. You can't expect to be immune from them all the time, even though it seemed like we were last season."

Just when Makar thought he figured out what was wrong with the Pontiac's engines, he discovered a new problem in the final practice before last week's race in Bristol, Tenn.

The team pulled the engine after practice, replaced it with a new one and coaxed the car to a 13th-place finish.

That leaves Labonte with only one top-10 finish heading into Sunday's race at Texas Motor Speedway.

But no one on Labonte's team is really worried, even though he trails leader Dale Jarrett by 249 points after six events.

"We're just a few races into a 36-race schedule, so it's not even close to red-alert time," Makar said. "But at the same time, we've already made half the mistakes we're allowed to make this season."

As frustrating as the start has been for Labonte, he won't allow himself to dwell on the situation. Part of his climb to the top last season was about learning how to deal with success and failure.

"I don't seem to be quite as worried about the situation as I would have been two or three years ago," he said. "Maybe I'm a little more patient and able to look at things as a big picture. It's a long season, and if we can finish these races we can still be in it."

Working in Labonte's favor are poor starts by other championship-caliber teams.

Both Mark Martin and Jeff Burton have had their own struggles and trail Labonte in the standings. Tony Stewart, Labonte's teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, who had six victories last season, is 18th in the points.

Among perennial title contenders, only former champions Jarrett, Jeff Gordon and Rusty Wallace are off to good starts.

"We haven't had a spectacular start," Makar said. "But the good thing is that most everybody else we expected to be in contention for the championship by the end of the year is also having some level of problems. There is nobody sitting here having a flawless season so far, so that's good for us."

Still, Labonte is desperately hoping to rebound this week in Texas, where family, friends and business associates will be looking for him to snap the slump.

Labonte and his older brother, Terry, a two-time series champion, were born in Corpus Christi, and still have family there. And Bobby's sponsor, Interstate Batteries, is based in Texas.

Everyone will be vying for some of his time over the course of the weekend, leaving him less time on the track.

"It's going to be a busy week, but we are going to have fun while we're there," he said. "And, as for racing, we are still waiting to break through and get into Victory Lane.

"Our team is used to running up front and it's time to get back to that starting this weekend."

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On the net:

Labonte: http://www.joegibbsracing.com

NASCAR: http://www.nascar.com

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