Jeremy Mayfield and Slugger Labbe visited Victory Lane earlier this season at Michigan. Credit: Autostock

Shop Talk with ... Labbe

Mayfield's crew chief happy to get back to old-school racing

After the horror show that was the UAW-GM 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway, crew chief Slugger Labbe is just glad to be headed north to Martinsville Speedway for the Subway 500 this weekend.

It's straightforward racing for Labbe, with no aero this or downforce that. Just plain and simple handling meets horsepower on the way to Victory Lane.

Credit: Autostock

Inside the Numbers Jeremy Mayfield in the Chase Race Start Finish Laps Led Loudon 8 16 0 Dover 12 7 0 Talladega 32 14 1 Kansas 14 16 2 Charlotte 37 11 1 Average 20.6 12.8 0.8 Inside the Chase Point standings after Lowe's Pos. Driver Points Behind 1. T. Stewart 5777 -- 2. J. Johnson 5777 -- 3. G. Biffle 5766 -11 4. R. Newman 5760 -17 5. M. Martin 5726 -51 6. C. Edwards 5723 -54 7. R. Wallace 5685 -92 8. J. Mayfield 5662 -115 9. M. Kenseth 5653 -124 10. Ku. Busch 5635 -142

"At Martinsville, you take the aero side out of it and you know you can go race," Labbe, who guides the No. 19 Dodge for Jeremy Mayfield. "We know we have the same tires, and there's no aero advantage or disadvantage there. You could just cut the bodies off and run that way.

"That's the thing about Martinsville," he said. "You can go back to old-school racing."

Labbe said one of the things that's nice about racing at Martinsville is that he can be sure the adjustments he makes on pit road will translate to what he wants the car to do. That's a luxury he doesn't have at the 1.5-mile "cookie cutter" tracks.

"Nowadays, if you drop the track car a half-inch on the right side of the car, it's hard to tell what the car is going to do," he said. "You go to Martinsville, Conventional Racing 101 usually works pretty good there. I like that kind of racing.

"This year, with the softer tire and less spoiler, it seems like there's no method to the madness. You put a round of wedge in sometimes, and it doesn't tighten you up like it's supposed to.

"Sometimes you don't feel confident in the decisions you make when you're sitting on top of the pit box at places like Kansas, Lowe's or Texas. Martinsville, Bristol, Richmond, places like that, you feel confident in your decisions."

The key to running well at Martinsville, Labbe said, is turning well, having good bite up off the flat concrete corners and having good track position.

There's no real worry about the track surface, as there was at Lowe's last week.

"Martinsville should be good," he said. "A couple of people blistered right front tires at the start of the race in April, but once we got more rubber on it, the track was good. It seemed like the more we ran on it, there was a lot of rubber built up and people had trouble running through that rubber. People were running all over the track to find grip for that right front. If a tire got in that rubber buildup, it was tough to drive through. It made the car bounce really bad. Finding the right groove was the big challenge we had there in April."

Before the Chase began, everyone pointed at Talladega and Martinsville as the primary locations for a field-wide "mulligan." The two races -- one on the biggest track the series runs, the other on the smallest -- were "wild-cards."

"Every race is a wild card," Labbe snorted. "You never know what's going to happen. I don't think you can just say Talladega or Martinsville. Not many people expected Lowe's to be that way, but it was. Every race, when they throw the flag, anything can happen at any time. You don't know what to expect."

One thing that most everyone gets excited about when Martinsville looms on the schedule is brakes, but Labbe says there's little reason to worry.

"Knock on wood, I hope we don't have any brake problems, but Martinsville really isn't that hard on brakes," he said. "If your car is turning good and handling right, it's not that bad at all. The hardest track we go to (on brakes) is Loudon, that and Richmond.

"Everyone gets so freaked out about brakes at Martinsville, but the drivers are letting off so far out -- just past the start/finish line in race trim once they get going. Everyone's nervous about it, but after the race, you get the tires off and you look down and you still have a bunch of pad left, and you think, 'the driver did a good job.' Jeremy's real good at that, but the car's got to be handling too."

The key to saving brakes is "floating," according to Labbe.

"You want to brake straight, do all the braking in the straightaway," he said. "You shouldn't be on the brakes when you're trying to turn; it just makes life hell on you.

"It's all about getting the car to brake straight, float through the corner and get on the gas when the car is turning."

Mayfield finished 15th at Martinsville in April despite qualifying third and leading twice for 68 laps. A tire went down and forced a pit stop.