B. Labonte upbeat about strong start to season

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. -- Late last week, Bobby Labonte sat on the back of an auditorium seat deep within Joe Gibbs Racing, conducting what seemed a typical interview, when what seemed a standard query was posed him:

"What's different?"

	Labonte stands fifth in Winston Cup points. Credit: Autostock

Such a stark contrast is the current Winston Cup Series campaign from that of a year ago, the former champion was at a loss for words. Instead, he dug deep into the pocket of his designer jeans and withdrew a two-sided Sharpie marker -- fine tip on one end, fat tip on the other.

"The Sharpie?" asked an amused, though far from surprised reporter.

"Not just the Sharpie -- the fine tip Sharpie," Labonte answered. "I started carrying this with me the first of the year, and it's all changed. This is my good luck Sharpie. I use it everywhere. You know what I do sometimes? I use both ends at the same time."

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Labonte then requests that the unsuspecting reporter hold up his hand and place it palm-to-palm with Labonte's, so that he might autograph both palms at once.

"Watch, I'm going to sign my name on my hand and yours at the same time. Ready?"

After a few moments -- and, not surprisingly, no ink on Labonte's palm -- he asks the reporter to look at his hand.

"What the heck is that?" he asks.

"Stick figure. A happy stick figure," Labonte responds. "You said you wanted to know how different this year is from last year. If you asked me how different our team was or how happy I was a year ago, I wouldn't have drawn on your hand -- I'd have stabbed it."

Labonte's sarcastic glee is no facade. He's done a complete emotional 180, mainly because his on-track performance has done precisely the same.

Heading into Speedweeks North, Labonte has finished second in three-straight events. Overall, he has six top-five finishes in the first 11 events, including a victory at Atlanta.

	Credit: Autostock

"I didn't know what it was going to be like this year -- I had an idea, but it's turned out better to this point so far," Labonte said. "I knew we'd get to this point, but I didn't know if it'd be now or middle or the last third of the year.

"It's not a surprise, but it's very pleasant to have done what we've been able to do so far with the bad finishes and good finishes, and it still equals up to fifth in the points. It makes you go, 'If we could have had this finish and that finish, man...'"

The majority of Labonte's misfortune in 2003 isn't of his own doing. At Daytona, he dove down pit road to avoid an accident and was intersected by Ken Schrader. At Darlington, he was involved in an accident with Sterling Marlin.

At Texas, Labonte got together with Rusty Wallace while racing for fifth position, pushing the right front fender in on the tire. In an effort to make up ground, crew chief Michael McSwain loosened up the car -- a bit too much. Labonte later spun and crashed. At Talladega, he got caught up in the "Big One."

For the record, had Labonte averaged a 13th-place finish in each those events, he would be leading Matt Kenseth by one point. Not that he's counting. He only had five top-fives in all of 2002, after all.

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"I was always excited about going to races last year, it's just that, unfortunately, after the first 30 minutes I was like, 'Whew, man, we're not going to pick up that other half second. I don't know what we're going to change,'" Labonte said.

"We've done that before. Two years ago we'd go to the track and we weren't fast but we'd always pick it up, always figure out which way to go to get where we needed to be. This year we have a whole new outlook, a new way of doing things."

Crew chief Michael McSwain has as much to do with the new philosophy as anyone or anything. McSwain has mixed with a handful of new crewmen, a new car make, new arsenal of chassis and several other minute details to create a potent concoction.

"It all just kind of happened. That's all I can really say," Labonte said. "There's a lot of little things and there are things you can see from the outside. It all flows together.

"Sometimes if you get two things that flow together, and if makes something better over here, it'll make that over there better. I know my confidence is much greater. It's just a rebuilding. Throw all that stuff in the blender and mix it up and it comes out of the blender as confidence, morale."

Though his performance would lead some to believe last year is but a distant memory for Labonte, he is quick to rebut that sentiment.

"Sure, we're having fun and we're very fortunate so far this year," he said. "We've had a lot of good things going on and had a lot of good runs, good finishes and we're competitive and have a grasp of 'Hey, we're going to the next race, Charlotte, Dover, Michigan, Pocono, and we're excited about it.'

"I say hard work -- we worked twice as hard last year and never got as far along as we are right now. It's just the way it happened. This year, things are going for us and every weekend, you have to adjust yourself. You can't just say, 'Man, we finished second last week so we'll do it again this time.' That's not going to happen.

"You have to have the attitude that everybody else is going to be better, what can we do to be better. That's the way I think about it. If you think you're good, by the time you stop and think about it and think, 'Hey, that was pretty good,' the guys around you are faster and better. It's a lot of hard work, it's a lot of dedication on everybody's part, but at the same time it's fun."

More fun than he's had in years -- and a two-sided Sharpie to prove it.