Showers end Labonte's top-five drought

CONCORD, N.C. -- The saying that every cloud has a silver lining rang true for Bobby Labonte at New Hampshire International Speedway this weekend.

Labonte, the 2000 Winston Cup champion, had his best qualifying effort of the year when he started third in the New Hampshire 300 at the 1.058-mile, tricky track. Despite two rain delays and a shortening of the race due to Mother Nature, Labonte soldiered on to claim his fourth top-five finish of the year.

The last time Labonte was in the top five? It was also the last time he won -- in the Virginia 500 at Martinsville in April.

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"It's really nice to be able to have a weekend like we had here," Labonte said. "We were able to come in here and qualify well and race well, which we have not done too much this season.

"We just got a little bit too loose on the long run there after the red flag and couldn't adjust on it any more. But, if we had another shot at it we might've made it a little better, but you never know. We can't complain about it.

"I'm just glad we were able to hang on to a top-five finish here."

To say that Labonte and the Jimmy Makar-led crew have struggled this year is an understatement. When a team goes to the top like they did in that championship year, the hardest part is trying to repeat the accomplishment.

In 1999, the No. 18 Pontiac team finished second to Dale Jarrett in the points chase. What took two years to build, faltered early last season.

Coming off that crowning year of 2000, Labonte had two victories and nine-top five efforts. Despite being 25th in points early in 2001, the team put together a stretch of four top-10 finishes, including one of the wins, to finish sixth in points.

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In the past 10 races this year, the team has finished outside the top-20 only twice and has gone from 22nd to 17th on the points chart.

"We have been turning the corner on our entire program here lately, but we still have a long way to go to get back to the front," Labonte said. "I am really proud of our guys and the effort they have put forth, though."

"We've been testing our butts off lately and I know the guys are really worn out. It seems to finally be showing on the track, though. Like I said, we have a long way to go to get back up front, but I think we are starting to make some headway toward our goals.