Inside the Garage: Slugger

He has worked with some of the biggest names in NASCAR, including drivers Kenny Irwin, Michael Waltrip and Dale Jarrett, and has been employed by Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Evernham Motorsports.

These days, Richard "Slugger" Labbe is crew chief for the No. 14 Dodge being driven by veteran Sterling Marlin for Ginn Racing. Both Labbe and Marlin have tasted success at Daytona International Speedway, with Labbe's first career victory as a crew chief coming in the July race there in 2002 when he helped Waltrip get to Victory Lane. Labbe and Waltrip followed that up with a victory in the 2003 Daytona 500 to open the next season.

Now in his seventh year as crew chief, we caught up with Labbe recently to talk with him about how much his job and the sport has changed since he first sat on top of the pit box for the late Irwin in 1998.

Q: What's it like working with Sterling Marlin?

Labbe: Having a veteran driver is a lot of fun. He's good. He'll take care of his car. He generally don't wreck a lot, and he knows how to take care of his stuff. Having said that, [two weeks ago] we blew up, but that's part of it. He didn't want to go to [Sonoma]. He's not a good road racer. But we kind of took him there and he was doing a great job; and then he missed a shift and it blew the engine up. That happens. Like I told him, 'Look, we support you no matter what. It doesn't matter. You're our guy. And no matter what happens, we're all in this together.' And I tell him that every week. No matter what happens, we do it together and we move on. He understands that.

Q: Sterling just turned 50 last weekend and has said he wants to drive a part-time schedule next year. How do you think that's going to shake out?

Labbe: He hasn't told me that's what he wants to do. I've read it and heard about it, but we haven't really discussed it because we're more concerned with the task at hand. I'm sure Jay [Frye, head of operations at Ginn Racing] will take care of him, whatever he wants to do -- because Sterling is a good guy and a good racer. He never says nothin' bad about anything.

Q: Never? About anything?

Labbe: Well, he's not a big fan of the Car of Tomorrow. I think he feels like it goes back in time, and I'm not so sure he wants to go back in time. I'm just glad he's at a point in his life where he can say, 'You know what? I don't want to drive 36 weeks no more. I want to drive 18 or 20.' That's good that he's got that in him where he can do that and he knows what he wants.

Q: Maybe NASCAR should start a Senior Champions Tour, where guys like Sterling can run 10 or 12 races a year once they turn 50?

Labbe: Like golf? The thing about it, if they did that, then all the crew chiefs would want to go race over there, you know?

Q: How much has the crew chief job changed since you came in?

Labbe: I was a car chief for a long time and then I became a crew chief, and I still worked on the cars. I still do that, but it's less and less every day. I'm a really hands-on person, but as the sport evolves you can only do so much. We've got 200-and-some people at our shop, and if you don't say hello to one, they get mad. So you've got to talk to everybody every day. It involves a lot of people management; a lot of time management.

We're always looking to make the Car of Tomorrow better. We're testing a lot, working a lot of long hours. ... Time management is important, and taking care of your people. All it takes is one bad apple to bring the whole place down. So we try to make sure our people are happy and taken care of.

Q: It's very demanding and can take a toll on your family life, can't it?

Labbe: I left the shop Thursday at 11:30 [a.m.] and I had 3 1/2 hours to myself. I went swimming with the kids and felt like a new man. ... You don't get much down time, and there isn't much offseason.

After Chicago, we've got a week off. I think we're going to shut the shop down for a couple of days and take a four-day weekend -- because you have to. Take it while you can get it, that's for sure. The sport is grueling.

Q: You've had considerable success at Daytona. Why?

Labbe: It's just hard work. Like I said, I'm a hands-on crew chief and when it comes to speedway racing, I take it very seriously. When I was at DEI in the 15 car, I had three guys and that's all they did, was speedway race. That kind of set the trend because we were winning a bunch of races, and now Hendrick has five or six people and that's all they do is a speedway program. And other organizations are doing the same thing.

But back then we [at DEI] were racing each other for the win. That's just the way it worked out. We worked our asses off on our speedway program. And I've always had that mentality that you're not just going to plug a motor in and run fast. You've got to have the right stuff. It's the whole package at Daytona and Talladega. With the restrictor plate, you've got to have everything just right -- and we worked our asses off, and still do, on speedway programs.

Q: Is it harder now to duplicate that success because you can't singularly focus on that?

Labbe: Every day, every year, the box gets smaller and smaller. NASCAR catches up with what we're doing, and they make a rule. There are a lot of things we did three years ago that you can't do today. There are things we did last year that you can't do today. It's the nature of the beast, you know? The tough part about the people in the garage, if they say for instance I was doing something and somebody else saw it, instead of trying to figure out what I'm doing they would just run to NASCAR and say, 'The 14 car is doing this!' And here comes another rule change.

So a lot of times what happens in the garage is that all these people run to [Cup Series director John] Darby and his people and say, 'Hey, you might want to look at this.' Or 'I thought you couldn't do that or couldn't do this.' And then, bam, the next week a new rule comes out. So a lot of times the people in the garage are our own worst enemies.

Q: What else has changed in the past 10 or 11 years in your job and the sport?

Labbe: It's crazy. The sport has changed a lot. But it's still NASCAR racin' and it's still good racin'. We've got tools to work with, but not as many as we had three years ago. But the competition is great, and I still love it.

When you sit down on Monday and break down a race, and you look at how much time you actually spent on pit road or how much time you spent getting onto pit road, everything we do is critiqued. Pretty soon we'll be judged on how long it takes to park the trucks when we get to the track. Everything we do is time management -- how we make our changes in the garage to get more laps on the track [during practices]. ... Everything we do is important. We break down pit stops. We break down the time spent on pit road. Everything we do is critiqued. Five years ago, you didn't do that.

Q: So is it more enjoyable being a crew chief now, or when you first started out?

Labbe: I'll say when I first started doing it in '98, I really enjoyed it. I worked my ass off. I still do today. But the thing you realize is that no matter how hard you work and put your best effort in, someone is not going to be happy. And it really sucks, because the harder you work, the more time you spend away from home.

"My kids are 9 and 11. My kid had two baseball games that I've seen all year long. I've missed 11 of 'em. He had an All-Star game [last Saturday and Sunday]; I'm not there. Text messages are all I get -- and that sucks.

"Racing has changed a lot. It's political. I mean, we love it, don't get me wrong. I wouldn't do nothing else in the world. But our families take a beating, you know? It sucks on Thursday when you pull out of the driveway and the kids look at you like, 'Where are you going?' They don't want you to go and it just tears your guts out, but you've got to go because you've got to make a living and you're doing something that you love to do. You can't wait to get home on Sunday night, and see the family again. That's all we got, our kids. We don't have lives -- because we're not home. And when we're home, we're tired; we're wore out. And you've got to be at work on Monday morning and just start all over again. Is it repetitious? Sure, it's repetitious. But it's the way it is. It's a great sport and I wouldn't trade it for nothin' in the world.

Q: Would you trade it for another job in racing where maybe you didn't go to all 36 races in a year?

Labbe: No, because I tell you what: last year when I was suspended [for four races because of rules violations], it drove me crazy. It drove me crazy, missing these races. I can guarantee you that Tony [Eury] Jr., Chad [Knaus] and Stevie [Letarte] are going crazy when they have to sit out. It sucks. Once these guys get suspended and realize what it's like, they'll think about all the things they do -- because it is no fun having a race go on and you're not here. That's what we do, you know? It's just tough being suspended.

These guys don't know how tough it is until it happens to them. Then they'll understand. It's part of your life. It's in your blood, and then all of a sudden you don't get to do it. I guess it's like an alcoholic or a drug addict. If you don't have your fix, you go crazy. That's what it is with racing, with all these people in the garage. We do it because we love it. The guys who go over the wall, they got up at 2:30 this morning to come here. They don't do it for the paycheck; they do because they love to go over the wall. Either you're in or you're out, one or the other; there's no 50-50 in this game.

"I'm in it 100 percent. I love it. Like I said, when I got suspended it opened my eyes -- and I respect Darby for what he did to me. It's not worth it no more. You won't see me getting suspended again -- no way, never, ever. It's not worth it. Well, I hope it never happens again, because it's brutal.