Auto Racing: A champion at last

In his eighth year of racing in NASCAR's Winston Cup series, Bobby Labonte finally conquered all

Sunday, November 26, 2000

By Chris Dolack, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Many drivers in the NASCAR Winston Cup series never realize their championship dreams. Since the first champion was crowned in 1949, only 24 drivers have won the title.

The best 43 stock car drivers in the world make their living each week by enduring ridiculous temperatures in a steel cage while pushing 750-horsepower machines to speeds that would leave most people shaking for a month.

Why?

For one reason: The right to sit at the head table in front of your competitors at the annual banquet at the Waldorf-Astoria on Park Avenue in New York City.

Of course, the millions of dollars and adoring fans that come with being the NASCAR Winston Cup champion are incentives, too.

For some, reaching the head table was easy. In his 22 seasons, 1979 rookie of the year Dale Earnhardt has won seven titles, tied with Richard Petty for the most in NASCAR history. Jeff Gordon reached the pinnacle in 1995, his third season on the circuit, shortly after turning 24. He has accomplished the feat two more times since.

For others, winning a championship was years of work and worry. Dale Jarrett, the 1999 winner, took 13 years of battling every week, wondering if he should have stuck with golf, before he celebrated his 43rd birthday with his first championship.

When you tune in ESPN at 8:30 p.m. Dec. 8 for the 2000 banquet, Bobby Labonte, a calculating and consistent driver, will be at that head table for the first time along with owner Joe Gibbs and crew chief Jimmy Makar, who was part of Rusty Wallace's 1989 championship team.

A work in progress

There never really was a debate about if Labonte, 36, would win a title, the question was usually when would it happen.

Labonte answered that question when he finished fourth at Homestead-Miami Speedway Nov. 12 to clinch the title in a season that was a culmination of a lifelong affair with racing.

Growing up in Corpus Christi, Texas, Labonte developed a love for racing by watching his older brother Terry, the 1984 and '96 Winston Cup champion, and his father, Bob, up close, and seeing television coverage of A.J. Foyt, a native Texan, win the Indy 500 four times. He even did a school project on Foyt.

At 5, he started competing in quarter-midgets before moving on to go-karts and then late model cars like the ones raced at Motordrome and Jennerstown speedways in Western Pennsylvania.

He and his father were part of Terry's pit crew in the early '80s, and it was the '84 championship that made Labonte think about winning a title. He started competing in the NASCAR Busch Series in 1990, won the championship in 1991 and finished second by three points to Joe Nemechek in 1992.

"I kept thinking if I ever get the chance to drive, it would definitely be great to be up here doing the same thing we were doing as a crew member," Labonte said.

Bill Davis gave him a chance in 1993, but after two full seasons in Winston Cup, he reached the top 10 only eight times in 61 races. In '95, Gibbs gambled on Labonte and hired him to replace Jarrett, who left to join Robert Yates' team. Labonte won three times that year and has won at least one race each year since then. He also placed in the top 10 in points each season.

But the move that pushed Labonte from top-10 to championship contender came in 1999 when Gibbs, who won three Super Bowls as head coach of the Washington Redskins, added a second team with fiery driver Tony Stewart, the 1997 Indy Racing League champion.

About the only similarity between Labonte and Stewart, who won 1999 rookie of the year award, is that they are fierce competitors. At Homestead in 1999, Labonte was in front late when Stewart surged off pit road, banged Labonte's Pontiac out of the lead and drove off with the victory. Jarrett wrapped up the championship that day.

"There are no deals at our race shop," Gibbs said. "Bobby and Tony race as hard as they can, but I think there's a lot of competition there. That was our whole goal for bringing the second car on board, to help us build a better race team, and I think we've done that."

Labonte says the proof is in the results.

"When Tony came on with Joe Gibbs Racing it excelled our race team from a sixth-place points running car to second place," said Labonte, who won a career-high five races in 1999. "There's no doubt we've helped each other out, and it's been a great experience because we have combined our efforts into one big team where both cars are competitive week in and week out."

Championship season

Making the move from a second-place team to a championship team in 2000 wasn't easy, but by the end of May, Labonte was ahead in points and never relinquished the lead.

"Back in the off-season last year we talked about the things that might have put us out of a championship season last year against Dale Jarrett," Labonte said. "We narrowed it down to a few races we weren't quite as competitive at, a few races where the driver made a mistake at, and we just tried to work real hard on those areas.

"From the year before to this year, we had some consistency, not as much of Dale Jarrett and those problem races that we had that relegated us back to a 34th-place finish or further back than that -- we just tried to make sure that didn't happen."

What did happen is Labonte turned in a remarkable season:

* Four victories, 19 top-five finishes and 24 top-10 finishes in 34 races. He finished out of the top 20 only twice.

* He clinched the championship with one race to go.

* His average start was 11th, his average finish seventh.

* He and Earnhardt were the only drivers among the top 40 in points to finish every race. In fact, Labonte has not failed to finish since August 1999 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

* Although he led the most laps in only one race, he led at least one lap in 23 races.

* He and Terry are the only brothers to win a Winston Cup championship.

* He is the first driver to win a Busch Series and Winston Cup series championship.

"He's been such a great teammate ever since I joined Joe Gibbs Racing," Stewart said. "He deserves to win the championship. I've won a lot of championships in the past and I've known what they've meant to me. To win a Winston Cup championship is really special. I can't think of anyone who deserves it more than Bobby."

Makar's guidance over the past six years is a major factor in Labonte's development as one of the top drivers in NASCAR.

"All of his driving skills have improved over the course of the last six years," Makar said. "Probably the biggest thing I see different in him today is his patience level has gotten much better. He's been less excitable in the race car over situations when they occur. I think that's the mark of a true champion -- when adversity hits to be able to handle it the way you need to."

Preparing to defend

Once the party ends Dec. 8 in New York, Labonte, Gibbs and Makar will begin preparing for the team's title defense in 2001. Lacking the consistency he had in '99, Jarrett finished fourth this year.

"I think everybody who has ever won a championship always wants to repeat the next year," Labonte said. "The thing about it is everybody in New York or everybody that's going to be watching or everybody that was at the races, they're all trying to win their first championship or win another one. They're gunning for us and that gives them a lot of enthusiasm to do the same thing we did this year. We can't let our guard down at Joe Gibbs Racing. We got to keep trying to move forward and not sit still."

In the meantime, Labonte has talked with Gordon and Jarrett about what this off-season will bring.

"The things they have told me was make sure you get enough sleep, take a bottle of Chloroseptic with you, and you'll be really busy," he said.

Of course, as a father, Labonte has even more pressing duties with 6-year-old son Tyler.

"He's wanting his own hats and shirts made for him for next year."

Probably wants a reservation at the head table in 2001, too.