There are lots of excitable drivers in Nextel Cup racing, and then there are some even-keel guys who seem to rarely let themselves get worked up.

Bobby Labonte always has appeared to be president of the latter club. The former Cup champion just doesn't seem to permit his emotions to run amok.

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Outward appearances suggested as much again Saturday night, shortly after Labonte had guided the No. 43 Dodge of Petty Enterprises to an eighth-place finish in the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Although Labonte had just double-downed on his number of top-10 finishes for the season, he was pretty calm about it.

He doled the lion's share of the credit for it to new crew chief Doug Randolph, and with good reason. After having only one top-10 in the season's first 22 races, Labonte has a pair in the past two -- coinciding with when Randolph replaced Paul Andrews as crew chief for the 43.

"I'm going to give Doug a whole lot of credit. He is just really good on the radio, and made some good calls," Labonte said. "We fought some of the things we've fought all year, but we worked on them a little bit differently. It really was a good night.

"At first our car was really good. We got a little tight toward the end and couldn't go forward with it, but kept hanging in there. All in all it was a great night."

Asked to describe the style on the radio that Labonte obviously enjoys, Rudolph's answer was a little surprising.

"I just try to keep real calm, whether it's been an exciting few minutes on the track and he's been bounced around by other people, or whether he's mowing through the field, doing great," Randolph said. "I try to keep the same demeanor. I try to keep him from getting too excited and too out of the box, and keep him focused on what we're really trying to do at the end of the day. I think that's what we've done the last couple of weeks.

"There are a gazillion decisions that are made during the weekend, and we've really worked on our communication to try to make the best with the information we have, and to make the right decisions."

The key to Randolph helping the No. 43 to strong finishes over the last two weeks has been keeping Labonte calm. As absurd as that may seem, both driver and new crew chief insist that has been a big part of it.

"He doesn't get excited a whole lot," Randolph conceded. "But anybody that's out there running side-by-side and trying to pass somebody, and the lap-down cars are beating down your door, it aggravates you and makes you mad. Those few moments are sometimes when bad decisions are made or things happen that might take you out of the race.

"I just think that that's one thing Bobby responds well to; he knows what he's going to hear on the other side of the radio. And if he's mad, he knows that he can yell and that I'm going to understand, but try to keep him calm."

Labonte grimaced when asked if he was attempting to build momentum for next year. He reminded everyone that the same question was asked of him last year when he finished strong down the stretch to claim 21st in the point standings.

"That's what we said last year, too, and it didn't work out. So hopefully, we are. I think we have a lot of great ideas," Labonte said. "We have some good things that could happen to us if we do the right things over the wintertime and in the last part of the year. Those are going to enhance the race team. That is going to be key for our growth. If we do that right, hopefully we'll be stronger when we unload at Daytona next year."

Labonte actually has had a more consistent overall year this season, and currently stands 17th in points. He had hoped for more, though, after finishing last season with three top-fives and eight top-10s, most of them coming late.

"We have to build as a race team. We can't stay the same. We're a two-car team [at Petty Enterprises, which also fields the No. 45] and we've got to keep rolling. There is growth to be had; we've just got to grab it," Labonte said. "I believe that is the sustaining method of staying there. I mean, we have to do that to have the chance to be in the top 10 every week -- and not just twice now and twice later.

"We've got to build our race team -- and a race team is built around people. You've got to get key people, keep key people, and then it's built around confidence and camaraderie. Everything that we did [at Bristol], we have to keep doing."

Keeping Randolph around would appear to be a good start.

"I'm still the same guy," said Labonte, who has 21 career victories and won the points championship in 2000 while driving for Joe Gibbs Racing but hasn't won a race since 2003. "We've just got some new fresh ideas, some new blood. Everybody is working really good with Doug. It's just been a great transition."

Randolph, 41, has worked in the past with drivers such as Dave Blaney, Jimmy Spencer, Scott Riggs and Sterling Marlin and most recently with Regan Smith in the Busch Series. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Saturday's strong finish at Bristol was the fact that he had never previously worked a Cup race featuring the Car of Tomorrow that was used in the Sharpie 500.

"I relied on a lot of the people here with the background of what has worked for Bobby in the COT races," Randolph said. "I think the biggest thing is we just worked on communication. ...

"I think we're just trying to stay in the ballpark and learn a little bit at a time and not step out of bounds too far, where it's hard to step back in. You know, it was a tough weekend for us. We got here and tried some stuff sort of out of the box and were off a little bit. But then we gained on it all weekend. ...

"I have a lot of Cup experience in years past, but this was the first Car of Tomorrow race I've ever done. So I obviously leaned a lot on all the guys at Petty that have had the experience with this and know what Bobby likes. That's what it's all about. It's not any one person. It's about using all the resources you have available, and making the right decisions."

That includes, of course, keeping that wild man Bobby Labonte under control during the process. And for Petty Enterprises, keeping Randolph and other guys like him from leaving and going to other teams.

Keep 'em coming

It appeared nothing could stir the emotions of race fans as much as a column about Tony Stewart, although one chastising owner Bobby Ginn for prematurely dismantling Ginn Racing and putting lots of good folks out of work came awful close.

And then the new challenger arrived, as readers have flooded the inbox in the wake of Saturday's race at Bristol. This one Menz opinion stated that it was boring, an observation with which roughly 85 to 90 percent of e-mailers and media colleagues appear to agree. The e-mail count has surpassed 500 in the less than two full days since the race, or about the same as what the Good Tony/Bad Tony column stirred up a few weeks ago.

A spectacular finish might have saved the race and helped everyone forget the lack of action near the front throughout, but alas, it never materialized when race winner Carl Edwards simply drove away from the field in his No. 99 Ford at the end.

To answer those who have questioned my sanity for having the audacity to call a Bristol race boring: No, I do not judge the quality of an event by how many wrecks there are -- but without at least the threat of a few, it's just not as exciting and not nearly as much fun to watch. The combination of the sturdy COT on the newly resurfaced concrete at Bristol and the tremendous skill of the drivers [except maybe rookie David Ragan, who kept spinning out] meant that they didn't have to beat on each other at all to gain positions. It was too much like watching a really bad race at Michigan and too little like the slugfests that made Bristol night races so famous.

All we're asking for here is something more in between.

Better tires = better race?

There were those who suggested after Saturday's event that softer tires would have made a huge difference.

"Obviously we know they are way too hard," said Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet. "Goodyear knows it and when they come back here, they won't have a tire anywhere close to this. I am excited about when we come back [to Bristol] and we're on the right tire."

Edwards, naturally, joked that different tires "wouldn't have made it better for us." But then he conceded: "I think it could have turned into a spectacular race, instead of where two guys led 490 laps. I think you would have seen more coming and going with [softer] tires."

Edwards led four times for 182 laps; Kasey Kahne, who finished second in his No. 9 Dodge, led three times for 305 laps. No one else led for more than three laps at a time.

Say what?

Winning crew chief Bob Osborne turned some heads with his post-race comments Saturday.

"All the green-flag laps we ran kind of made it an easy race to call for me," Osborne said. "It was a strange race in that we had so few cautions and so many green-flag runs, and I personally like that. I like the fact that the track allows a lot cleaner race.

"The drivers can go out there and compete with the equipment they have and not have to force their way around other cars, which makes this upper-level good racetrack into now a great-to-spectacular racetrack, I think. As far as adjustments and so on, we didn't do a whole lot to the racecar. You'd be surprised at what we actually did -- just a little bit of air-pressure adjustment here and there."

Well, who can blame Osborne for being so pleased? He did less work than usual and earned more money by winning. But his assertion that Bristol made strides in becoming a spectacular track Saturday is absurd. It already was every bit that; Saturday's race did little or nothing to enhance that image.

Pit stops

• By the way, folks, no one is saying the Truck Series and Busch Series races at Bristol were boring. Many e-mailers seemed to think that was the point being made in the aforementioned column, which dealt only with what transpired in the Cup event Saturday night. If the Cup race had matched either of the other two events in terms of drama, everyone would be talking about what a great weekend it was.

• Say what you will about the COT, but it is indeed durable. Nine teams have used the same car chassis in five of the 10 COT events -- and of those teams, three also used the same chassis on road courses. And the No. 29 Chevrolet team of Kevin Harvick has used the same chassis in eight of the 10 COT races.

• Last point to be made on the Bristol Cup race: it's great that so many drivers said they had fun. But isn't the point of Cup racing to put on the best show possible for the fans? If the racing is fun for the drivers but not fan-friendly to watch, who is going to watch and generate the revenue that fuels the sport?

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.