News from the second half of the '99 season
7/3/99
Gibbs
teamwork
7/1/99
Looking
for a championship: Labonte out to best career start, holds No. 2 spot
in standings
Makar,
Gibbs double trouble with two-team operation
Redskins
to race cars: Gibbs trades pigskin for pavement
6/25/99
From Jayski's site:
A WILD rumor: Many readers (including
a trusted source) heard this little
tidbit on a Chattanooga, TN radio stationWGOW-FM
102.3, a show called
Sports Talk, now whether thery were jokingor
what, here it goes: "On
WGOW-FM today, during the Sporttalk racing
hour, the hosts "dropped the
bomb" that they had information regarding
Chrysler's return to NASCAR in
2000. Supposedly, at a meeting of the
dealership owners association, an
announcement was made by the advertising
and marketing department that
Chrysler would indeed return in the year
2000, and that they had already
made agreements with two separate teams
to switch to Chrysler next year. No
specifics were given, other than that
both teams were current multi-car
operations, and that one team currently
had a driver in the top 5 in points,
and the other had one in the top 10. The
conclusions they drew were that Joe
Gibbs Racing would be one team, and either
Penske or Bill Davis would be the
other... They also noted that the two
teams who were courted to make the
change were guaranteed $20 million "sugar
money" to switch to Chrysler." One
reader said the radio report said Dodge
Intrepid, another said it was a
Stratus. The one host said that he called
one of the local Chrysler dealers
and asked him about it, but the dealer
hadn't heard anything. I have an
email in to the station. JAYSKI NOTE:a
few questions arise when reading
this: 1) if this was announced, I would
think it would be all over the
place, like the AP, etc. 2) if Chrysler
were to return don't you think Petty
would be involved 3) Penske is one ofthe
lead teams in testing and
developing the 2000 Taurus. This should
be interesting...(6-25-1999)
Labonte
Gives NASCAR the Gas on Lombard
6/24/99
Fresh
Off His Second Victory, Labonte Looks Forward to Right Turns at Sears Point
6/21/99
Labonte
earns win at Pocono
6/20/99
Labonte
leads late for second '99 win
Labonte
Makes it Two Out of Three
Flavor
returns to racing in Pocono
6/19/99
Makar
pleased with Pontiac progress
6/18/99
Notes:
Labonte Solves Flat Tracks
6/11/99
Labonte
is favorite for today's qualifying runs at super-fast Michigan oval
6/10/99
Labonte
brings momentum, confidence to Michigan
6/8/99
Stewart
hot, but Labonte prevailed
Interviewing
Terse Labontes Becomes a Verbal Chess Game
6/6/99
Labonte's
win a gas for him, the pits for others
Fuel
rules again at Dover
Gamble
returns big payday for Labonte
Fuel
mileage gives Labonte first win of '99
Bobby
Labonte rewarded for patience
6/4/99
Bobby just took the pole at Dover witha
new track record of 159.320.
5/31/99
Burton
bests Labonte in million-dollar dash
5/29/99
No
distractions for Labonte, 18 team
5/26/99
From StockCarFans Newsletter:
Current USAC sprint car driver Jason Leffler
will be given his chance to
prove his stock car abilities by car ownerJoe
Gibbs. Gibbs has told
Speedway Scene that Leffler will be put
behind the wheel of the #18 MBNA BGN
Pontiac this season to replace Bobby Labonte,who
announced last month that
he would not be entering any more BGN
events in 1999. If Leffler finds the
stock cars to his liking, Gibbs plan is
to have the youngster in the car for
the full schedule in 2000 and take it
from there(Phil Furr/Speedway
Scene)
The Coca-Cola 600 will be Bobby's 200th
consecutive start. And he's starting
from the pole!
Conditions
just right for Bud Pole winner Labonte
Pole-winner
Labonte knows the score
Rookie
steals Labonte's thunder
B.Labonte
wins Coca-Cola 600 pole
5/25/99
Milestones
await Labonte at Coca-Cola 600
5/24
Bobby
Attended the Kansas City Construction Celebration
5/22/99
The
Big One thins 'em out at The Winston
Labonte
Drives Over Qualifying Record
5/21/99
Labonte
flies down pit road to pole
Labonte
grabs pole for The Winston
5/19/99
The following is a quote from yesterday's
chat with Buddy Baker on Nascar Online:
"In The Winston, Mark Martin last year
passed Jeff Gordon on the last lap because he ran out of fuel. Then Bobby
Labonte finished 2nd. Jeff Gordon won in 1997, with Bobby Labonte in 2nd.I
just got a feeling that Bobby Labonte could get in there, with the way
he runs at Atlanta. It's hard to tell. Mark Martin, anytime he gets on
the track he's got a shot to win."
For the rest of the chat, click here.
5/18/99
I just found this cartoon on the web:Labonte
vs Superman
5/15/99
No
complaints from Labonte after 3rd-place finish
5/13/99
Short-track woes keep NASCAR driver from
points lead
Labonte is short on luck
Bobby Labonte finished better than 20th
once in his last five
short-track races.
By DUSTIN LONG
THE ROANOKE TIMES
Bobby Labonte has changed his driving style
and his team has
changed setups, yet they haven't been
able to change their luck on
short tracks.
As the NASCAR Winston Cup series heads
to the three-quarter
mile Richmond International Raceway for
Saturday night's race,
Labonte hopes to avoid the problems that
have plagued him at short
tracks.
Labonte has finished better than 20th once
in his last five races at
short tracks (facilities less than a milelong).
Last month, he was 37th
at Bristol after being caught in an accident
and 24th at Martinsville
after a mechanical problem slowed him.
"We've had a lot of terrible luck,'' crewchief
Jimmy Makar said.
"It's kind of frustrating when a lot of
this is not in your control. That
part I don't know how to fix.''
The 148 points Labonte has earned in the
two short-track events is
less than half what points leader Jeff
Burton earned (330). If Labonte
had those extra 182 points, he would lead
the standings . Sometimes
it's a matter of luck.
Labonte, third in the standings behind
Burton and Dale Jarrett, ran
in the top five for the first half of
the Bristol race before Robert
Pressley's spinning car slid down the
banking and clipped Labonte's
front end .
He was in the top 10 for the first half
of the Martinsville race
before the power-steering belt fell off.
Labonte was banged around last year on
the short tracks, having a
tire go down after contact and being involved
in an accident while
running in the top five another time.
"The list goes on and on and on,'' Makarsaid,
shaking his head in
disbelief.
Yet, Labonte said the team has improved
on short tracks. It has,
although the results don't show it . In
his last eight short-track races
since 1998, Labonte is starting an average
of 10th. In the eight
short-track races before 1998, Labontestarted
an average of 20th.
"We're just taking a little different approach
than we used to,'' said
Labonte, whose seven career Cup victories
have come at tracks 1.5
miles or longer. "I knew I needed to change
something, but I didn't
know what to change to. It seems like
I flirted around and couldn't
find anything that would make me happy.
By the middle of '97, we
started making some changes and started
to make headway.''
The team changed the car's setup and Labonte
altered his style.
Labonte has allowed the team to set up
the car so it is more
responsive to race adjustments. That has
led Labonte to drive
accordingly.
The adjustments have helped the team improve
and contend for the
points lead as the 34-race season enters
its 11th event.
"We keep striving to get better and better,''said
Labonte, who has
led a lap in nine of the season's 10 races."
The biggest thing I see is
that when we finish fourth, we're disappointed.
It used to be that
sometimes when we finished fourth we were
tickled to death.''
5/12/99
Labonte
making a case for Pontiac
5/8/99
Happy 35th birthday, Bobby!!
Labonte
happy to go home with 3rd-place finish
5/4/99
NASCAR Goes Hollywood (From the StockCarFansnewsletter)
ATLANTA, May 5, 1999 - While it is unlikely
that this year's Oscar winners
will wear firesuits anytime soon, race
fans can watch their favorite drivers
act in more than 10,000 movie theaters
this summer. NASCAR goes Hollywood
with Coca-Cola Racing Family drivers displaying
their acting ability in an
upcoming movie short appropriately titled,"Screen
Test."
Unveiled to coincide with the beginning
of the summer blockbuster movie
season, The Coca-Cola Racing Family "ScreenTest"
features Dale Earnhardt,
Jeff Burton, Bobby Labonte, Dale Jarrett,
Kyle Petty, Bill Elliott, Ricky
Rudd, Kenny Irwin, Steve Park and Jeremy
Mayfield. In the off-track screen
test footage, the drivers attempt to re-create
scenes from films such as
"Forrest Gump," "The Godfather," "Wayne'sWorld"
and "Grease."
Clips include Elliott reflecting that "life
is like a box of chocolates,"
Burton and Labonte dressed as Garth and
Wayne, Jarrett donning a wig for his
rendition of Grease Lightning, as well
as a few other surprises.
The result is hilarious and firmly establishes
that today's Winston Cup
stars may want to keep their day jobs.
But just like most actors, one of
the drivers dreams of loftier Hollywood
goals.
"I'm not much on acting, I want to direct,"said
Earnhardt when discussing
his scene from the movie short.
Produced by Hungry Man Productions and
directed by Angel Gracia, the
Coca-Cola Racing Family of Drivers movie
short was shot in Charlotte during
January and will begin running in theaters
on May 19.
Through its association with tracks and
racing teams, The Coca-Cola Company
and its bottling partners have been involved
in NASCAR for more than 30
years. The company is title sponsor
of the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte and
the NASCAR Busch Series Coca-Cola 300
race at Texas Motor Speedway. The
Company sponsored cars from 1969-76 under
the Coca-Cola and Mellow Yellow
brands, respectively.
For a hilarious view of Jeff Burton and
Bobby Labonte dressed as Wayne and
Garth for their skit from "Wayne's World.",
click here (be
aware this is a
VERY LARGE image):
5/3/99
Labonte
pleased to come away with a top-5
4/27/99
Labonte
gets fifth top-5 at Talladega
Winston
Cup expansion not lost on Gibbs
4/26/99
Labonte
lands fourth in typical Talladega finish
4/23/99
Labonte
set for NASCAR Silicon Speedway in Dallas
4/22/99
Transcript
of chat with Bobby
4/21/99
Bobby will be chatting tomorrow at noon
on goracing.com. Here's the address:
http://community.goracing.com/news/news_lineup.asp
Interesting factoid that has nothing todo
with Bobby, but rather with my home
state (from That's Racin):
Drivers from Virginia now lead the point
standings in NASCAR's top three
series -- the first time three drivers
from same state have held those spots. Jeff
Burton of South Boston, Va., leads WinstonCup,
Elton Sawyer of
Chesapeake, Va., leads the Grand National
series and Stacy Compton of
Hurt, Va., leads the Truck series in points.
Labonte on defensive at Talladega
4/14/99
Talladega
presents Labonte two chances to win
Labonte
tired of coming up short at Martinsville
4/12/99
Labonte
gets bashed at Bristol
4/9/99
Labonte
not slowed, even at Bristol
3/31/99
Brothers
suffer and succeed like champions
Ironman--
make that Ironmen -- Labonte
3/29/99
Bobby
Labonte shows courage at Texas
3/28/99
Bobby Labonte is the only driver to leada
lap in every Cup race in 1999!!
Bobby is second in points, by only 2 points,to
Jeff Burton.
Labonte
closes in on points lead
B.
Labonte makes gutsy run
Bobby
Labonte shows he's a tough racer
Pain
isn't roadblock for Bobby Labonte
3/26/99
Labonte
battles pain in full day of running
3/25/99
Panthers
help heal Winston Cup driver
3/24/99
Kenseth
eases Labonte's pain
Bob
Labonte lends his racing family a guiding hand
3/23/99
Sore
Labonte seeks points at Texas
3/22/99
Labonte,
Kenseth bring No. 18 car in 10th
3/19/99
Labonte
Injured in Practice Crash
B.
Labonte injured in practice crash
3/17/99
New
shop, less attention, better Bobby Labonte
3/16/99
Labonte
ready for the "Darlington Sidewalk"
Labonte,
Gibbs, Makar met the media
3/15/99
Finish
at Atlanta leaves Labonte, Interstate Team crestfallen
3/13/99
Labonte
brothers set for return to Texas
Labonte
becoming 'king' of Atlanta
3/12/99
Labonte
leads pack in Bud Pole Qualifying
3/11/99
Press release forwarded by Ron Felix,StockCarFans
correspondent. From the StockCarFansnewsletter.
(I'm unsure of its origin other than that.)
LABONTE RIDES WAVE OF MOMENTUM INTO ATLANTA
Throughout the 51-year history of
NASCAR, a few select drivers and
their teams have excelled at certain racetracks.
Richard Petty mastered
Daytona in the 1970’s while Darrell Waltrip
ruled at Bristol in the 1980’s.
Since 1996, Bobby Labonte has been the
consensus pre-race favorite at
Atlanta Motor Speedway, site of Sunday’sCracker
Barrel 500.
The driver of Joe Gibbs’ Interstate
Batteries Pontiac enters this
weekend’s event with momentum in his corner.
He broke the existing track
record to win the pole position for the
Las Vegas 400 (his first pole of the
1999 season) and backed up his qualifying
performance with a solid fifth
place finish. He enters Sunday’s
event third in the NASCAR Winston Cup
Series points chase, 52 points behind
leader Mike Skinner.
Does Labonte’s strong start to theseason
fuel his hopes for the
Winston Cup championship? "I think
we’ve only got about 42 more races to go,
so we’ll wait a little bit on that," Labonte
says with a laugh. "Anytime
you finish in the top five, that’s what
you’ve got to do. The 24 car
(Jeff Gordon) did that all year last year
and so did the 6 (Mark Martin)
and the 88 (Dale Jarrett) and that’s what
we’ve got to do. For a race track
that we usually don’t run good at we were
happy to get a top-five finish.
That’s what it takes to win championships."We
tested for two days at Las
Vegas and had one of the best tests we’veever
had," Labonte said. "We were
able to come back and capitalize on that
at a track where we struggled at
last year. We didn’t run that good
at Atlanta last fall, so I’m probably not as
confident going to Atlanta as I was last
year."
It would be hard to imagine thatLabonte
or the team would lack
confidence heading to Atlanta. In
his five most recent starts at the 1.522-mile
superspeedway, Labonte has collected three
wins and four top-five
finishes. He won the first ever
race on the redesigned layout in 1997 and
became the first driver since Richard
Petty to win back to back fall races at
the speedway.
Without giving away company secrets,
is there any reason why
Labonte and Makar have been so impressive
at Atlanta? When the question is
posed to Makar he simply smiles and shrugshis
shoulders. 'I don’t know why,
I really don’t, " Makar said. "We’ve
hit on a combination that works
and we’ve been good ever since. It takes
a little bit of everything to run
good at Atlanta: aerodynamics, handling,
motor, and driver. I don’t think
the race track is going to be harder on
tires this time around. Over the last
year, we’ve been recognizing our shortfalls
and going to work on them.
We’ve been back to the wind tunnel with
the cars and we see where we got into a
pretty bad aerodynamic imbalance when
we went to the new spoiler rules. We
weren’t able to overcome that. Sowe
worked hard over the winter to balance
the car back out and get everything more
in tune and I feel that all the guys
on the team made the right changes."
3/10/99
Labonte
tests well at Texas
Fans
can "Beat Bobby" at Dallas Silicon Motor Speedway
3/9/99
Texas Testing:
Bill Elliott and
Bobby Labonte tested at Texas Motor Speedway on
Tuesday, no speeds(WCToday
Radio)
3/8/99
Labonte
flat impressed with Vegas weekend
3/5/99
LasVegas
400 Qualifying Results
3/5/99
Bobby
Labonte wins Las Vegas 400 pole
3/4/99
Labonte
races to win on Saturdays
3/2/99
Labonte
flat-out ready for Vegas
2/22/99
Labonte
bounces back at Rockingham
2/18/99
Bobby
Labonte Back in Slim Jim Colors for Rockingham
2/17/99
Bobby
Labonte looking to be finer in Carolina
2/11/99
Labonte
makes late run for win in first 125
2/8/99
Labonte
in for Unser in IROC lineup
