Labonte glad to be back at oval track after big wreck (cont'd)

When it was over and Labonte finally climbed from his car, he was unsteady and hurting badly enough that first he was escorted to the infield care center and then, as a precaution, to a nearby hospital in Elmira, N.Y.

"It was definitely a scary moment," Loomis said. "When you know a guy as well as we know Bobby, and you see him get out of a car after something like that and be as wobbly as he was, you're concerned. You know it was a hard hit. He's a tough guy and he works out a lot, so you know he's in good shape. That probably helped him some, too."

Actually, Labonte's trim build may have worked to his disadvantage. Or so said his brother, fellow former driving champion Terry Labonte, who gave his little brother some, um, painful ribbing about his injuries, which included a couple of cracked ribs.

"I don't know how tough I am. Terry told me, 'If you had more meat on your body right there, you probably wouldn't be hurtin' so bad.' I'm kind of meatless right there," Bobby Labonte said.

Labonte checked out of the hospital and is back in the driver's seat of the No. 43 for Sunday's 3M Performance 400 at Michigan. Labonte qualified 35th for the event Friday, and said he expects to be able to make it through the 400-mile race on the 2-mile track without any problems.

"I don't think it will affect me," Labonte said. "My soreness isn't really where my seat is, so I feel OK about that. Check with me again Sunday afternoon, but I think right now I feel pretty good about it."

That's not to say that the wreck didn't get Labonte thinking about a couple of possible safety improvements. Loomis said Labonte is being fitted for a new seat that should offer him more protection, although it likely won't be used until the Oct. 5 race at Talladega.

"That corner is kind of a blind corner, and it was like a Talladega wreck," Loomis said. "The car stuff, looking at it afterward, all held up pretty well. Unfortunately we still run one of the [older] seats that seemed to catch him in the ribs and crack a couple of his ribs. I don't know if another style of seat would have helped him or not, but when a guy gets used to a seat for a long time, it's hard to change.

"Bobby actually is getting fitted for a new one now, though. We're looking to have him try it out at Talladega. But we're fortunate he's OK."

Labonte added that track officials at Watkins Glen may want to look into placing a SAFER barrier where the old-style tire barrier was that caught Gilliland's machine and basically spit it back out into the fray on the track.

"What they had there kind of grabbed him and then shot him back out," Labonte said. "So if it had been a SAFER barrier, he might have been able to glance off of it and it probably would have been better."

Labonte said he has watched a replay of the accident only "a couple of times." But he said the first thing that caught his attention, like Loomis, was that the violent accident wasn't the type that normally happens on the road course that is Watkins Glen.

And while he praised the new car being used full time by NASCAR for allowing him to escape without more major injuries, he also pointed out that the fact that it's harder to see out of the car may have contributed to it.

"I looked at the car afterward, and there were a few things I saw -- like the radiator wrapped around the valve cover and the crankshaft bent a half-inch. Stuff like that just don't normally move. So it was a hard hit," Labonte said.

"Everybody that came in there got pretty torn up. Not only did it look spectacular, but it actually was as bad as it looked. It was just a crazy wreck, as you all saw. You were like, 'Holy cow. That was at Watkins Glen? You don't normally see something like that there.' I'm glad to get back on an oval this week. Better here than Bristol, at least for this week."