Weekend That Was: AMS

Sometimes you just have to go with the proverbial gut feeling. The ol' instinct.

Sometimes you have to pick the underdog, against all odds.

After all, where's the glamour in predicting that Jeff Gordon or Jimmie Johnson is going to win a Nextel Cup race week after week after week -- with a little Tony Stewart or Carl Edwards thrown in now and again for a smidgen of variety?

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So it was that this reporter predicted a breakthrough victory Sunday for driver Bobby Labonte in the Pep Boys 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway (see Joe's pick). Sure, the risk for hundreds of derogatory e-mails was great. I can see them stacking up in the ol' inbox now:

What are you, stupid?

Didn't Bobby last win in 2003?

Don't you know he drives for Petty Enterprises, a team that hasn't won a race since 1999?

The answers to the questions above are, well, sometimes, yes and yes. But Labonte has been showing signs of life lately, as has Petty Enterprises. Plus Labonte has won at Atlanta six times, including snaring one of his two wins there in 2003, the last year he won (he also won the season finale at Homestead that season).

And finally, Chase or no Chase, there are times when it would be nice just to see someone else win.

Nothing against Gordon and Johnson and all the good folks at Hendrick Motorsports, who are having a terrific time while dominating the rest of the Nextel Cup garage pretty much this entire season. But with Johnson winning again at Atlanta -- for the second week in a row and the series-high eighth time this season -- time is running short for anyone else to stand up and be counted this season.

And before the e-mail train tramples the pick too much, Labonte was running in a respectable 10th when something on his No. 43 let loose and sent him barreling into the wall on Lap 162. That eventually relegated him to a 41st-place finish, extending the winless streak for Petty Enterprises to 308 races.

Man, if he could have gotten up front and pulled it off, what a brilliant pick it would have been!

But the fact that he didn't brought to mind a conversation that myself and about 10 of my closest friends in the media had with Labonte one weekend earlier prior to the Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway. There, Labonte talked openly about how difficult it is to get to Victory Lane these days when you aren't part of one of the super teams like Hendrick, Roush Fenway Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Penske Racing South or even one of those on the fringe of taking the next step to get to that status (Chip Ganassi Racing or Gillett Evernham Motorsports) or trying seemingly in vain to maintain the reputation that they remain there (Dale Earnhardt Inc.).

"It's hard to get back to Victory Lane. There's no doubt that it's hard," said Labonte, the 2000 series champion who owns 21 career victories and earned them all while with Joe Gibbs Racing, which he left after the 2005 season to join Petty Enterprises. "As a competitor, you always want to run better. You can easily say you're not happy with the results. But obviously going into this we knew we were building as we go. That's pretty tough."

As far as winning races against the behemoths, it's beginning to look impossible. The 12 drivers who made the Chase for the Nextel Cup have accounted for all but four victories this season -- which explains why they are in the Chase. But of the four victories posted by non-Chasers this season, even those were registered by super team members or, in the case of rookie Juan Montoya, at least a super team wannabe with a three-car operation at Ganassi Racing (the other non-Chase victories were scored by Jamie McMurray and Greg Biffle of Roush Fenway, and Casey Mears of Hendrick).

Labonte has had his positive moments, especially since Doug Randolph came on board as his new crew chief earlier in the season. But with as many DNFs as top-10 finishes (three each), he hasn't truly threatened to win a race and sits a respectable but in the biggest picture of all a largely forgotten 17th place in the point standings.

Like everyone at Petty, Labonte talks a great deal about what the proud organization is attempting to build -- a future that will mirror its unmatched excellence of a past that unfortunately keeps falling farther and farther behind in the rear-view mirror. And there is no doubt that it would be great for the sport if it and other smaller teams can get there to compete with the others.

But the truth of the matter is that they won't unless they somehow, in some way, combine operations with another team or at least partner up with one in a way that will allow them to remain their own entity but still have access to a whole lot more in terms of technology and engineering expertise (which will become even more important next year when the engineer-driven Car of Tomorrow is used in all Cup races).

Until then, picking Johnson or Gordon to win every race will remain the safe play for all Cup prognosticators.

"You work every weekend trying to make everything as good as possible," Labonte said. "But you know that when you step into it, it wasn't the winning machine that could keep up with today's times. You've got to work real hard at it. It's just tough. You've got to have a lot of confidence in yourself because there are days that get you down pretty good. You just keep working at it, because it's a tough business out there."

That doesn't mean Labonte and drivers in similar situations don't climb into their racecars each weekend feeling good about life, and their chances to make that coveted but highly elusive return to Victory Lane.

"Throughout 38 races [36 points races and two non-points events], I'd say there are 30 that you'd like to think you have a chance to win," Labonte said. "Then there are a few where you feel like, 'Well, today we just have to get the best that we can get.' I think every time you get in the racecar, you have to feel like you have a chance. ... It'd be no fun if you just thought you were making laps.

"And you're looking for two- or three-tenths every week, but those are the toughest to get and they're the same two- or three-tenths everyone is looking for. Everybody's got 85 percent of what everybody else has. A lot of it is chemistry, which I've seen with Doug [Randolph] coming on board for us. And a lot of it is just pure dollars -- what it takes to go racing these days. You don't have to have all of it. But to be competitive for 38 weekends, it sure helps."

Hendrick and the other super teams obviously have it all. The rest of the smaller teams that make up the field are scrambling to keep up.

"Year in and year out, it's the same thing," Labonte said. "I was on a radio show where it was asked, 'Are the Hendrick people stinking up the show by being so good?' Well, they should be. They're good. They're really good.

"All that does is make you want to work that much harder next year, if you don't win. And that's the way the sport should be. It's built on competitiveness and winning races, and the guys who are in the top 12 right now are the ones who have done that the most this year."

Not that Labonte would rather be doing something else. He said he knows he still has a great job, driving racecars.

"It beats a lot of things, but it's still frustrating when you don't finish like you want to," he said.

Tell me about it. It's frustrating when you make what could have been the most brilliant, out-of-left-field pick of the year, after relying on your ample gut ... and the guy you picked avoids last place by only two spots.

But this prognosticator, like Labonte, is not giving up. Next week might be the time to really go out on a limb -- and perhaps pick that guy who drives the red No. 8 Chevrolet (maybe it only looks like the wheels have completely come off his season).

Reutimann delivers
This just in: the Busch race that was held in Memphis has finally ended, and David Reutimann was declared the victor (watch video).

No one deserved it more after Reutimann dominated the entire day, leading more laps in one race than he had led in his previous 62 Busch starts combined. A record 25 cautions couldn't even dim Reutimann's enthusiasm, although it was a shame that the race took so long that no post-race interviews aired on the cable network television broadcast. They were running so far behind schedule they had to go straight to a college football game even as Reutimann was completing his celebratory burnouts.

As a reminder of why Reutimann is one to root for as he prepares to take over driving the No. 44 Toyota for Michael Waltrip Racing next season, here is what he said recently when it was mentioned that, as a former part-time UPS employee, the company no doubt is preparing a new television commercial campaign centered around him.

"Ah, they'll probably just have me stacking boxes or something," he cracked.

Thumbs up
To Roush Fenway teammates Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth for the way they handled themselves during Sunday's race at Atlanta after their simmering feud became public a week earlier. They raced side-by-side several times without incident and both came away with top-five finishes (complete story).

Thumbs down
To Edwards, for ever losing his temper in the first place and confronting Kenseth in the manner that he did after the previous week's race at Martinsville (watch video). Yes, Edwards has apologized -- but Kenseth served notice that all is not yet forgiven when he said of the incident: "Actions speak louder than words."

Pit Stops
• Clint Bowyer keeps hanging around in the Chase. His sixth-place finish at Atlanta matched his career-best at that track and keeps him technically in the hunt with Gordon and Johnson, only 111 points off the lead (complete story). Furthermore, it is worth noting that Bowyer now has matched or bettered his career-best finish at six of the first seven tracks in this year's Chase. That's called stepping it up in the clutch, folks.

• Bowyer's good fortune when Denny Hamlin's car failed to get up to speed on a Lap 323 restart turned out to be bad for Martin Truex Jr. (complete story). Bowyer saw Hamlin had slowed just in time to dive to the inside around him, saving his good finish. Truex, who led a race-high 135 laps, didn't and plowed right into the back of Hamlin, ending what had been a terrific run with a frustrating 31st-place finish.

• Think what you want, but Hamlin never had a chance to hold off those coming behind him on fresh tires even if his engine had been able to fire on the Lap 323 restart. He was a sitting duck and would have been fortunate to pull a top-five finish out of it regardless of what was -- or wasn't -- in his fuel tank.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.