News from first half of the '99 season
12/17/99
Pfizer
announces NASCAR Sponsorship designed to drive men to their doctors
12/16/99
From Jayski via StockCarFans:
Announcement: Details of a one-of-a-kind
partnership involving NASCAR
Winston Cup Series stars Bobby Labonte,
Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin will
be announced at a press conference on
Friday, December 17 at
2pm/ET.
12/7/99
Labonte
revs up NASCAR Silicon Speedway
12/6/99
Well I returned last night from my trip
to the Big Apple. I coincendentally had planned a trip to
NYC to go see the Radio City Christmas
Spectacular and do some shopping. But I spent
about 4 hours on Friday afternoon in the
lobby of the Waldorf-Astoria, hoping for a glimpse of
some NASCAR stars. Here's a list
of who I saw: Mike Skinner, Michael Waltrip, Bobby Hamilton,
Ned Jarrett, Larry McReynolds, Steve Waid,
Mike Helton, Brooke Gordon, DJ and his whole family,
Miss Winston Renee Perks, and most importantly,
Jimmy Makar. I got Jimmy's autograph and
my mom took a picture of me and Jimmy
together. He put his arm around me. When I get it
developed I will try to find a scanner
to put it up here. I also took a couple pictures of the Interstate
Batteries #18 limosine (complete with
rear spoiler). I was disappointed not to see Bobby, however.
Update: Here
are a few pictures from my visit to NYC.
12/3/99
Labonte
scaled new heights in 1999 (Also a link to a Bobby Labonte photo gallery)
11/22/99
Present
and future collide as Jarrett, Labonte celebrate in Atlanta
Labonte
rallies from behind for NAPA 500 win
Pontiac
win stirs ``sandbag'' talk at NAPA 500
Charges
of sandbagging shadow Labonte
11/21/99
The
Callahan Report: Joe Gibbs Racing is the new 'super-team' in NASCAR
Labonte
Scores Again in Atlanta
Labonte
closes season with victory
Bobby
Labonte wins season-finale
Jarrett
crowned, but Labonte is king of Atlanta
Labonte
still the master at AMS
11/17/99
Stewart
calls Labonte to discuss bump
11/15/99
Gibbs'
two-car team keeps his hands full, heart pounding
11/14/99
Rumored to have been said by Bobby Labonte
to Jimmy Makar
(in car audio after Tony ran over him):
"That little (expletive) better run off
to Ray Evernham before I get
my hands on him."
Gibbs
pair enjoys tropical breeze
Bobby
Labonte optimistic about team's future
NASCAR
likely to change Pontiacs
Little
drama in first Homestead Cup race
11/11/99
Labonte
leads the way in opening Homestead practice
Labonte
turns fastest lap in Thursday practice
'NASCAR
Racers'-themed cars unveiled
Bobby
Labonte fastest at Homestead
11/9/99
NASCAR:
Homestead Bobby Labonte Preview
11/8/99
Bobby
Labonte among guests in Winston teleconference
Chat
live with Bobby Labonte tomorrow at 4:30 pm ET
11/7/99
Labonte
finishes third, but is it too little?
Bobby Labonte now has 8 Top-10's in a
row.
From Henry Dubret of StockCarFans:
Dale Jarrett closed in a little closer
to a clinch today. Here are the
specifics: DJ's magic number is
now
down to 31 vs Bobby Labonte & simply
starting vs Mark Martin. If he finishes
31st or better the final two
events, he's locked in and if Jarrett
finishes 8th or better next week,
he clinches....no matter where Bobby Labonte
finishes. The position for DJ
to finish next week and clinch the Championship
by just starting the
following week in Atlanta is 19th.
Got all that?
10/29/99
Consistency:It's
the Pits
10/27/99
Labonte
trying to figure out title race
10/25/99
From StockCarFans newsletter:
Jarrett in Good Shape: If Dale Jarrett
finishes 43rd at Phoenix and Bobby
Labonte won and led the most laps, Jarrett
would still lead by 95
points(That's Racin') and With three races(Homestead,
Phoenix, Atlanta)
remaining on the 1999 schedule Jarrett
maintained his 246-point lead, and
now only needs to finish 19th or better
in each of the events to win the
championship. If the #88 car were to lead
one of those races, that number
falls to 20th (Racer Magazine) AND Jarrett
can clinch at Phoenix, but it's
gonna be tough. He'll need to come out
of there with a 371 point lead. If DJ
wins the race (and leads the most laps),Mark
runs 7th or worse, and Bobby
runs 35th or worse....Jarrett clinches.
10/24/99
Bobby
Labonte takes small steps toward his own championship
Bobby Labonte has 7 Top-10's in a rowwith
his 3rd place at Rockingham. Unfortunately,
Dale Jarrett's magic number stretches
to 19th place vs Bobby.
10/23/99
Interstate
Batteries boys win pit crew competition
Gibbs
Team Top Pit Crew
10/19/99
Little
apologizes to Labonte for traffic jam I say, too Little, too late
From Jayski's site:
Petty Dodge? Gibbs No: Insiders say that
Richard Petty will return to Chrysler, and
he spent a lot of time talking with Dodge
executives Saturday in Talladega.
Pontiac's Fred Simmons says he's not sure
just what Petty may do for the 2001
season, but Petty Enterprises will run
Pontiacs again in 2000. Simmons says Joe
Gibbs' two-car team is firmly in the GM
camp, despite overtures from Chrysler but
Gibbs' is committed to General Motors
products(PitNow)(10-19-1999)
Labonteto
appear at Atlanta Silicon Speedway
10/18/99
Unfortunately, with DJ's 2nd place finish
and Bobby's 7th, DJ has increased his magic number to 13. Once again,
Bobby didn't get any drafting help from his so-called teammate.
10/14/99
Labonte
knows route to success at Talladega
10/12/99
LABONTE
LEADS MOST LAPS BUT FINISHES SECOND IN UAW-GM QUALITY 500
Labonte cuts into points margin, but not
enough to deter Jarrett (from PitNow)
By Mike Mulhern
JOURNAL REPORTER
CONCORD
Jimmy Makar studied the points sheet and
shook his head. Needed
to cut more out of Dale Jarrett's lead,
he said slowly. And fast.
Can't nickel-and-dime their way to this
championship.
Bobby Labonte, Makar's driver, dominated
yesterday's hot, muggy
UAW-GM 500, run under blue skies after
some 36 hours of
drenching rain. But in the closing laps
it was Jeff Gordon slipping
around for the win.
Labonte did chop 29 points from Jarrett's
margin, but he still trails by
222 heading to Talladega this week, with
five races to go and time
slipping away.
''We ran about the same pace all day, and
Jeff had been getting
better and better all day, we knew that,''
Makar said. ''But we
figured if we could get up a good-enough
lead, we could hold him off
at the end. It all worked according to
plan until we ran up on Chad
Little. It cost us about two seconds getting
around him, and that let
Gordon get to us. We knew he was goingto
catch us before the
end, but we felt a 3-second lead was plenty
safe. And it would have
been, except that lapped traffic just
killed us.''
EVEN THE WIN would have only been worth
another five points,
and Makar realizes that he and Labonte
need a lot more to heat up
this title race. But then Talladega is
a wild-card race, where once
bad move can be disastrous -- for a lot
of drivers, not just the errant.
''We feel good going to Talladega, because
we've had good cars
there and run good in the past,''Makar
said. ''But it's typical
Talladega: you're going to have a big
ol' swarm of cars, and you'll
have to stay out of trouble and be there
at the end of the race.
There's no running away. Just have to
be in the right place at the
right time and pick your moves.''
Do Makar and Labonte still have a chance
at the title? ''Aw, I have
no idea,'' Makar said. ''We really haven't
been thinking about
championships. We've just been trying
to win races. I'm more
disappointed today about not winning this
race than I am about
points.
''We can't accumulate enough points to
beat Dale the way they're
running right now -- unless some
misfortune happens to him, and the
last thing in the world I'm going to do
is wish misfortune on anyone.
I want to try to beat 'em fair and square
with no problems. But 222
points with five races to go, I'm not
thinking about points.''
And then there's the other half of the
shop for Makar to worry about
too. Tony Stewart's hot season has cooled
off abruptly, and
yesterday's 19th-place finish left him
angry -- and left and Makar
and crew chief Greg Zipadelli scratching
their heads.
''It was terrible, just terrible,'' Stewart
said, almost angrily. ''Go ask
Goodyear what the problem is. I'm not
allowed to talk about tires
anymore.''
''They had a tough week, really did,''
Makar said, ''a tough two
weeks. Martinsville was tough, and
they never did get happy with
the race car here. They never did get
it feeling right. They struggled
in the race, and then they had a miscue
in the pits -- a wheel came
loose -- and that really cost them a lot.
They would have had a
salvageable finish if not for that.
''Greg will handle a lot of that (psychological
damage repair) on his
own, but I'll definitely talk with them
and see what we think.''
So how did Labonte have such a good car
and Stewart didn't. ''We
worked toward similar setups,'' Makar
said. ''But this is a place
where the driver really has to feel comfortable.
He has to feel really,
really good in his race car to be ableto
go fast around here. And
Tony never got a good comfortable feel.
But we were able to get
Bobby in that position a little better.''
Part of the problem for Stewart, and for
many of the drivers, was
the new tire used here, a new design that
was used at Michigan and
will also be used at other tracks this
season, a new tire that has
proven to be controversial.
Several drivers, even Gordon and Labonte,said
the new tires used
here didn't always feel very comfortable.
However there were only
two cautions during the three-hour race,one
for Matt Kenseth's spin
off turn four, the second for Jeff Burton's
spin also in four. ''With
these tires you can't race nobody, sonobody
races and nobody
wrecks,'' Labonte said.
''These tires have a different feel to
them, like at Michigan,'' Makar
said. ''They give the drivers a feeling
that's a little uncomfortable.
You just have to get used to it. Obvious
these tires turn a lot quicker,
and that's the point of it. Everyone was
complaining over the last
few years about the tires being too tight,so
Goodyear built a tire that
will turn. The tire is a little freer
on the entry to the corner, and that
makes it a little harder to drive. You
just have to work with it and try
to get it figured out.''
And Stewart, Labonte's teammate, never
did figure the tires out.
''The tires threw us for a loop. We were
worried about adjusting to
these new tires before the race, and that
proved prophetic,'' Stewart
said.
''This track is so finicky,'' Labonte said.''I
ran the bottom of the
track all week, and then ran the top today.We
didn't plan for that, it
just turned out that way. It was loose
and then tight, loose and then
tight. It felt like all four tires were
flat most of the time. We had a
good car, it just didn't handle all that
well all day. But I found a line
and made it work.''
LARRY McREYNOLDS, Mike Skinner's crew chief,
was also
pained at the end of the day. For the
second-straight week, they had
one of the strongest cars in the field
but failed to log that first tour
win. ''There is just a little unpredictability
in this tire from set to set
to set,'' McReynolds said. ''And what
I've learned is it's not the
whole set, it's like one tire is a little
different.
''But it's a good tire, didn't give up
a lot, didn't tear any up. All those
are pluses. But there is a little inconsistency.We
changed one set
and, without any air pressure adjustments
or chassis adjustments, the
new set was tight.''
Ward Burton, who finished fourth, wasn't
quite so diplomatic: ''I
didn't care for those tires. There was
nothing wrong with them
construction-wise, but driving-wise, you
go through more transitions
on one set of tires than most of the time
you go through a whole
race with five sets. That's a good bit
of complaining when you can
come home in the top five.''
For Jarrett, the race and his seventh-place
finish brought more
smiles, even though he appeared to have
a very strong car early,
only to fade. ''It's a good finish,''Jarrett
said. ''It's another race
marked off, and we didn't lose many points.
''Certainly we came here to win, but saw
we weren't good enough
as the laps closed down. But it was a
good finish. You can't win
every week, or finish in the top five.We
did what we could do and
made the most of it.''
Car owner Robert Yates said, ''We tried
to go win the race, but the
engine got to where it didn't run well,and
we adjusted on the car for
that, and then we just didn't have theright
stuff there at the end of
the race. I'll be anxious to see what
we might have hurt in the
motor. If we hurt anything, I think it's
because we're going too hard
at it.
''The engine didn't seem like it was as
spiffy as it should have been.
It looked like it might have lost a little
steam. We'll be able to tell
when we tear it down. I didn't think we
were that conservative, so I
think we might have hurt some parts like
we did here the last race.
At this place we're bad about chipping
out valves. Maybe we hurt it
by trying too hard.''
10/11/99
Once again, I am angry with Chad Little
at the end of a race. This time wasn't as tragic as
the first New Hampshire race, but his
determination to avoid going 4 laps down caused
Bobby's lead over Jeff Gordon to dwindle
down to nothing. But we lead the most laps,
got the pole, and lead at the halfway
point, and we gained a few points on DJ.
Gordon
swipes one from Labonte
Gordon's
detractors didn't like this one
Gordon-Whitesell
combo stays undefeated
10/9/99
Bobby was fastest in Happy Hour at 178.094
mph.
10/8/99
From Jayski:
Labonte Signs Long term: Bobby Labonte,
driver of the #18 Interstate
Batteries Pontiac, yesterday said he's
just signed a five-year contract to
drive for car owner Joe Gibbs. Labonte
said that crew chief Jimmy Makar and
Mark Cronquist, the chief engine man,
also signed five-year contracts with
Gibbs(PitNow)
From StockCarFans newsletter:
I don't usually do too many rumors, but
from a good source I hear that the
three Daimler-Chrysler (Dodge) team owners
to be announced next week are:
Evernham (no big surprise), The Pettys,and
Joe Gibbs. Remember, this is an
as-yet-unconfirmed rumor, so I don't want
to debate it with anyone, just
reporting what I hear. Thanks to
my source, much appreciated.
10/7/99
From Jayski:
Labonte and the Marines? hearing Bobby
Labonte has a USMC insignia post
somewhere on the car but haven't seen
it and also hear the #18 will have
special paint job at Homestead, no more
info on that
10/6/99
Some good news for a change: Bobby
won the pole at Charlotte AGAIN! I think that's the
first time that a driver has swept the
pole for all the Charlotte races in one year.
Bobby
Labonte completes sweep of Charlotte poles
Labonte
goes three-for-three at LMS
Labonte
takes third LMS pole of season
Labonte
fastest in UAW-GM 500 pole runs
9/23/99
Gas
king Labonte back at Dover
Labonte
usually good to the last drop at Dover
9/19/99
Gibbs
Racing continues NASCAR thrill ride
9/18/99
Gibbs
relishes NASCAR's changing challenges
9/16/99
Labonte
hopes for magic turnaround
9/12/99
Labonte
follows in 2nd place as Gibbs sweeps top two spots
9/11/99
Pontiac's
star shining bright on this night
9/4/99
Q&A
with Winston Cup driver Bobby Labonte
9/1/99
Grumblings
about Earnhardt not going away quickly
8/31/99
'Other'
Labonte has chance to steal headlines
Bobby
Labonte, Jimmy Makar in Winston Media Teleconference
From Jayski via StockCarFans:
Labonte Moves Up...a little: NASCAR officials
reviewed Saturday night’s
Goody’s 500 at Bristol and agreed that
Bobby Labonte had been slighted two
laps in the final standings. Labonte and
owner Joe Gibbs had complained the
team’s laps were miscalculated after Labonte
suffered transmission problems
on Lap 490, but managed to stay out on
the race track. Originally, his run
was officially ended on Lap 491 but now
he is listed as completing 493.
Labonte improved one position to 26th
and picked up $10 in winnings and
three points in the championship race(Times-Dispatch)
8/30/99
From Jayski via StockCarFans:
First DNF for #18? #18-Bobby Labonte is
listed on the Goody's 500 results as
having an DNF(Did Not Finish) with transmission
problems, this would be his
first DNF of the season, leaving just
#98-Rick Mast as the only driver/team
who does not have a DNF and has made all
23 races. But from the
Times-Dispatch: NASCAR was reviewing Bobby
Labonte’s final position in the
Goody’s 500. After the race, official
scorers turned over Labonte’s card to
be reviewed. Labonte lost his transmission
on Lap 490 but did not pit. As he
stayed on the track apron, his car blowing
smoke and his view obscured, the
race’s final caution came out. Labonte
was black-flagged, but he did not
enter the pits immediately. He was listed
as finishing 27th, with 491 laps
completed. His team was arguing whether
the driver should have been
penalized that number of laps.
Here
is the Richmond Times-Dispatch story.
8/22/99
Labonte
takes prize in thriller
Labonte
pulls away to win Pepsi 400
Labonte
beats Gordon in Pepsi 400
Labonte
conquers Michigan
8/8/99
Labonte
keeps coming close in big ones
8/5/99
Bobby
Labonte enjoying a career year
8/3/99
Two
of a kind: the Labonte Brothers
7/29/99
Total
package has Labonte in pursuit of cup title
7/27/99
Bobby was on MRN last night and said that
they'll be running a different paint scheme late in the
year. He didn't say what it would
be.
Transcript
of the chat with Jimmy Makar
Jimmy Makar, the crew chief for Bobby
Labonte's No. 18 Interstate Batteries Pontiac in the Joe Gibbs stable,will
join fans for chat Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET. Click
here.
7/26/99
Labonte
enjoying his career year
7/25/99
Labonte
Wins Pennsylvania 500
Labonte
cruises at Pocono
Labonte
has enough fuel, muscle for Pocono sweep
Bobby
Labonte completes Pocono sweep
Labonte's
car was right when it counted
Labonte
sweeps Pocono for third win this year
From Henry Dubret's Rumblings:
"Bobby Labonte concluded his sweep ofthe
two Pocono events today with a
convincing 8.655 second victory. In a
marathon event, Bobby had the best
car when it counted as he assumed the
lead on lap 168 and increased his
margin to the end. He becomes only
the 4th driver to win both races at
the Pennsylvania track in the same year,joining
Bobby Allison, Bill
Elliott, and Tim Richmond in the record
books.
This was the 3rd win of the season for
Labonte and his 10th career
triumph.....moving him into a tie for42nd
on the all-time list with
Donnie Allison. His share of the
$2M+ purse was $139,385."
7/23/99
From Henry Dubret's Ramblings:
"It always amazes me how we can race at
a place only 5 weeks apart and
see such variations. Since a second
yearly event was added to this
venue in 1982, we've only had 3 double-ups
in those 17 years. Bobby
Allison swept both in '82, Bill Elliottin
'85, and the late Tim Richmond
(a guy who could run this place with his
eyes closed) in '86. Bobby
Labonte will be trying to add his name
to that exclusive list on Sunday."
Bobby qualified in fourth. Chad
Little, who wrecked Bobby at NHIS, was second slowest.
Labonte
ready to make run at Pocono
7/7/99
Labonte
hot heading into Jiffy Lube 300
7/13/99
NASCAR
drivers featured on 'TV Guide' covers (I got mine with the Bobby cover
yesterday!)