Experiments, chemistry give Labonte confidence

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- For Terry Labonte, sweetness has nothing to do with sugar, the late Walter Payton or a good-luck kiss from wife Kim.

It has everything to do with the amalgamation of sensation from his race car, and based on current performances, Labonte and his team may have found their pot of honey.

"The team's stronger this year than it was last year, definitely," Labonte said. "We're getting our cars working. That's been the biggest key."

	Terry Labonte's No. 5 Chevrolet has been running up front more this season. Credit: Autostock

Entering Sunday's Aaron's 499 at Talladega Speedway, Labonte sits 31st in the Winston Cup point standings. Not very impressive, but the No. 5 team thinks it's on to something.

Two weeks ago at Bristol, Labonte was a top-10 fixture before getting knocked back by Brett Bodine. Last week at Texas, he was again top-10 material before damage from a multi-car wreck negated the possibility of a good finish.

Certainly, Labonte hasn't forgotten how to play front-runner. He's got 21 career victories and two Cup titles in his back pocket, plus some recent lean times as motivation. He starts 28th Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway, but that's not the usual handicap, given the roulette tendencies of restrictor-plate racing.

"We've had some terrible finishes, but we've run better in every event than we've finished," Labonte said. "Which is good and bad, but here in the past two or three weeks, I think we've really seen some significant improvement with our performance."

The upswing began three weeks ago at Darlington. Following finishes of 30th at Daytona and 27th at Rockingham, the team experimented with setups at Las Vegas. Labonte finished 16th, and a few lightbulbs blinked in darkened corners.

ALSO  •  Driver Page  •  Season Statistics  •  Driver vs. Driver

A 20th-place finish at Atlanta, along with some already acquired data, helped crew chief Jim Long and team engineer Alan Gustafson fill in some blanks. Although Labonte finished 24th the next week at Darlington, his feedback and the car's reaction was so encouraging that the team refined its experimentation during a midweek test at Texas.

Validated yet again, those same intricacies were tested, in Long's words, "full-bore," during the Food City 500 on March 23 at Bristol. Damage from the contact with Bodine ended that run, but not before a sudden surge of team confidence.

"The problem we had with our cars, they weren't very good on get-gos, on new tires," Long said. "They were OK in the middle. They were pretty decent at the end, but they really struggled getting going. This deal here seems to help that. It's easier to drive for Terry, a little bit more confident -- not on edge so much.

"We're making progress. We're still in the young stages of trying to learn this new deal, but we're doing it."

"They haven't hit that sweet spot to work from, and they're just getting it now," said team owner Rick Hendrick.

Chassis configurations aren't the only source of that sweetness. The No. 5 has benefited from Chevrolet's newly designed Monte Carlo as well as from NASCAR's new common templates and aerodynamic matching rules, but some Hendrick-granted freedom and team chemistry has been crucial, too.

Rather than insist that Jeff Gordon's, Jimmie Johnson's, Joe Nemechek's and Labonte's cars all begin life in the same mold, Hendrick recently approved the use of some different under-chassis components to support Labonte's driving style.

The identical production idea is supposed to curtail internal doubts and complaints, but Hendrick felt it was important to bend the rule for Labonte.

	Some new setups have helped Terry Labonte's improvement during the past few weeks. Credit: Autostock

"The geometry and the steering and the way the wheels will bleed into the corner -- all of that is based on feel and what guys like," Hendrick said. "Maybe the other three, they'd have similar driving styles, and Terry's might be a little different."

"The majority of it is just doing the right things," said Labonte, who's in his 25th full-time season. "Jim and Alan have really been doing their homework, working hard at the shop and getting things ironed out. It pays off."

As for chemistry, Labonte, Long, Gustafson and the team's other engineer, Lee Deese, are in their second season together. That fusion of youth, plus Long's and Labonte's experience, is just now being realized.

A nine-year Cup veteran, Long said he had to acclimate to Hendrick's want-for-nothing, multi-car organization. Labonte, who lobbied for his new chief to come from outside the Hendrick family, was adjusting to new voices on his radio. All suffered through an inconsistent 2002, finishing 24th in the points.

"We kind of fell on our face at the end of the year there," Long said. "There's several directions you can take these race cars down -- suspension, geometry, aero-wise -- and I just think we got on the wrong path and just struggled to recover."

It seemed the continuation of a six-year downward spiral since Labonte's last Cup title in 1996. He'd finished sixth in 1997, ninth in 1998, 12th in 1999, 17th in 2000 and 23rd in 2001, all while working with several crew chiefs and experiencing some turnover. Long, who says he relies heavily on the data exchange with other Hendrick teams and personnel, is more comfortable about picking and choosing others' ideas that might work for Labonte.

"It hasn't been lack of effort on anybody's part or resources, it's just been some little something missing," said Hendrick, comparing Labonte's team to the No. 25, which with Nemechek and crew chief Peter Sospenzo, is once again competitive after years of malaise. "I think we're on the verge of seeing a real resurgence in that team."

Even the peripherals have perked up. According to Labonte, pit stops were often potholes last season. A few new faces and role switches have banished that worry.

"What a difference," Labonte said. "The first few races, I thought, 'Well, boy, we weren't real consistent,' but here the last three races, they really did good. They've got it going good now."

Hendrick likes the fact that Long will use anything on the team hauler or in the shop to improve his team's lot. He also lauds Labonte's open-mindedness. Owner and driver are in their 10th season together, and Labonte's longtime sponsor, the food giant Kellogg's, has been a Hendrick staple for 11 years.

"Terry Labonte can drive a race car," Hendrick said. "There's no doubt about that. And he's just a good, great guy. So we're going to do our level best. I'd love to see him back up there battling every week."

"It's kind of easy for us to look back now and say, 'Man, why didn't we do this stuff earlier?'" Labonte said of early-season mechanical and technical discoveries. "'Why weren't we doing things like this back then?' But it's better late than never."