Slugger Labbe will continue to work with Dale Jarrett until the team's appeal is heard. Credit: Autostock

Labbe offers resignation, but Yates says no thanks

Crew chief stands strong that his team did not deliberately cheat

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Slugger Labbe said on Friday at Darlington Raceway that he had offered his resignation to team owner Robert Yates, but the owner refused to accept it.

	Robert Yates said he is completely behind his crew chief and has appealed the penalties. Credit: Autostock
	YATES APPEALING PENALTIES Robert Yates Racing is appealing penalties NASCAR on Tuesday handed to Dale Jarrett's team for violations discovered prior to the Cup race at Richmond last week.  •   Complete story, click here

Labbe, in his first year as crew chief for Dale Jarrett, was suspended three races and fined $25,000 for using an unapproved rear sway bar mounting that was discovered during pre-race inspection at Richmond last week. The team was also docked 25 driver and owner points.

The team is appealing the ruling, which allows Labbe to work the Dodge Charger 500 at Darlington on Saturday. The National Stock Car Racing Commission will hear RYR's appeal on Wednesday.

"Yeah I did offer [to resign]," Labbe said. "[I told Robert Yates] I can make this easy for you, I can resign if you want me to, and he said, 'No, I support you 100 percent.'"

Labbe is the second crew chief to draw a three-race suspension in 2006. Crew chief Chad Knaus was caught with a device that pushed out the rear window of Jimmie Johnson's Chevrolet during post-qualifying inspection for the Daytona 500.

Labbe said his team's violation was different in that his car was caught during pre-race inspection, not post-qualifying.

"We didn't try to hide it from nobody," Labbe said. "We qualified with it, they seen it. All of a sudden they didn't like it. It's a gray area of the rulebook and it's part of the game."

After the sway bar in question was tagged during pre-race inspection, NASCAR negated Jarrett's 26th-place starting position and made him start from the rear. Jarrett went on to finish 21st.

According to Labbe, the team had worked on an alternate sway bar for quite some time, and he said that his modifications were in the "gray area" of NASCAR's rulebook.

Labbe is adamant that he didn't try to cheat the rules, only exploit a loophole that would allow a modified rear sway bar.

"It is something that we did and we didn't try to hide anything and it's not something we did after inspection," said Labbe. "We interpreted the rulebook different than what they looked at.

"A lot of my guys knew what we were doing with that particular part. Trust me, I just didn't put it on the car hoping they don't see it. We talked about it and worked hard on it. We felt comfortable putting it on the car because it was not clearly defined in the rulebook."

"It was an area in the rulebook that was not clearly defined -- how the rear sway bar should be mounted. Something we worked hard on and it's what we did."

Labbe said he will stay busy at the shop if his suspension is upheld.

"We will probably cut a body off the speedway car and get ready for Daytona," Labbe said.