Frustrated Labonte Needs Texas Turnaround

FORT WORTH, Texas April 16, 2005; Mike Harris writing for the AP reported that Terry Labonte sympathizes with younger brother Bobby's miserable start to the NASCAR Nextel Cup season.

"In 1985, I blew up seven weekends in a row," Terry said, referring to the season after the first of his two series championships. "I was leading the points at the beginning of that stretch. We were no longer the points leaders at the end of that stretch. It happens."

If that was supposed to make his brother feel better, forget it.

Himself a champion in 2002, Bobby was hoping for a lot more coming off a season in which he failed to win at least one race for the first time in 10 years and finished outside the top 10 for only the second time in eight seasons.

His ride with the Joe Gibbs Racing does not appear in jeopardy, but Labonte and his No. 18 Chevrolet team could sure use a good showing in Sunday's Samsung/Radio Shack 500 at Texas Motor Speedway to get things going in the right direction before the current hole gets any deeper.

Labonte goes into the seventh race of the season 37th in the points and having made it to the finish in only one event so far.

Still, he could joke about a season that so far has been anything but fun.

He notes that Terry is running a limited schedule this year and next before stepping out of the cockpit for good.

"Don't be confused," Bobby said. "He's on the retirement deal, running 10 races. I just feel like I am because I've only run one race in six. He's almost higher in points than I am, running two races."

The season-opening Daytona 500 was a hint of things to come when the engine on Bobby's Chevy blew after just 14 laps, leaving him last in the 43-car field.

A week later, everything looked somewhat better after he completed all the laps on the way to a 13th-place finish at California Speedway. Not exactly the stuff championships are made of, but a step forward.

Since then, nothing has looked very good.

"Daytona was just one race, but it was frustrating," he said. "And then we go to the second race, then the third race and the fourth race, fifth race, sixth race. ... It's been one of those weird situations."

Last Sunday at Martinsville Speedway, Labonte was strong enough to lead twice in the race. But it happened again -- his engine blowing up and relegating him to 33rd.

"It's like, `When are we going to be able to finish that 500 miles or that 500 laps?' It gets really frustrating and it wears on you," Labonte said.

Asked if he ever has had this kind of stretch before in his racing career, he shook his head and replied: "No, not at all. Not this many in a row."

Still, he's holding onto the hope that things will turn around soon.

"You've got to be able to do your best," Bobby said. "That's all you can do. If something happens, it happens. You just don't want it to happen a lot.

"If we're still doing our best and not losing focus on it, then we'll be OK."

This would be the perfect track for him to get things turned around.

Both Labontes were born in Corpus Christi, Texas, and even though Bobby left for North Carolina when he was a teenager, he is still a Texas favorite and feels a bond with his native state.

"The fans here are just incredible," Bobby said. "I feel like I have been adopted in a way since we moved from Corpus Christi.

"There were some times when I was starting out racing in North Carolina and they had a race down here at Texas World Speedway -- the Texas Race of Champions -- and we'd come down with our late models. We drove right by Concord (N.C.) Speedway that paid $10,000 to win to come down and race in Texas, where they paid maybe $1,200, because we wanted to race in Texas."

Now he's back, and Sunday's race pays a lot more money than either of those long-ago events. But he's far more interested in a good finish than the possible payoff in dollars.

"Let's just hope we can find a way to get going in the right direction," he said.