NASCAR Cup Series

Labonte embraces rebuilding role

Published Jan. 25, 2012 12:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

Bobby Labonte refers to the upcoming season as a journey.

For he and his JTG Daugherty Racing team, it truly is. They’re a single-car team competing in a mega-team environment. They bring a new crew chief Todd Berrier and a championship driver through an offseason in which they left the comfort of the larger Michael Waltrip Racing to move back into their own shop.

Unlike many teams, though, they are focused not only on building, but on keeping expectations realistic. Labonte has 21 wins to his credit, but now is just hoping for a top-20 finish for the season.

When asked about lowering his expectations from the level of success he has known for much of his career, and the patience it takes to manage those, Labonte quickly talks about his team, about building for the future – and about how success can change the nature of a team’s hopes and plans.

For now, the 47-year-old is spreading credit and accepting a certain level of responsibility for helping the team build to the future.

In 2000, he won the championship with Joe Gibbs Racing. In 2011, he finished 29th in the standings as he and his current team worked to gain footing in the series.

Now, they are regrouping, rebuilding and moving forward.

And, whether he fully realizes that or not, Labonte’s ability to push the team while simultaneously keeping their goals realistic is a key component to that growth.

“A lot of people look at Bobby and say, ‘He’s at the end of his career and he’s just kind of there, he’s been in some bad rides.’ This guy can do it,” team co-owner Brad Daugherty says. “He wrecked race cars, I watched and was on the radio with him, and he was trying to get every (thing) out of them. That tells me he still wants to prove he’s a champion.”

Labonte’s veteran experience, and laid-back personality, will be key factors in the team’s ability to persevere through any setbacks and rough spots the team endures.

And make no mistake, this team does expect to endure some growing pains.

Labonte knows what it takes to win. He’s driven for a variety of organizations over the course of his career, so he definitely understands the dynamics of a smaller team vs. a larger one.

He also knows just how critical taking small steps can be to the overall attitude and confidence of a building organization.

“Obviously it’s a challenge, but I think with the heart and soul that everybody has to make this thing happen, I’m excited that we’re able to be a part of NASCAR,” Labonte said. “… I believe in what (team co-owners) Tad and Jodi (Geschickter) are building. They’ve done this for a long time themselves. I just hope I can be a small part of it one of these days when they look back and say we got to this point with these people’s help and be a part of that.”

As the veteran with the most experience in terms of winning and success in the Cup ranks within the organization, he recognizes that there is some weight with his role.

He doesn’t want to take control, to overrule others or have his opinion go unquestioned.

He accepts, however, perhaps some additional weight when it comes to the building effort.

“There is a part of that that probably is a job title or responsibility that I have, but it’s spread out,” he said. “There’s a lot of professionals in the team that have been around the sport as long as I have, too, so I look at it as we all are going to share the thoughts and experience we might have together. Not one person can do it, not one person can take the load. That’s the key, is that we’ll all be able to make it happen together and not really put it on anybody’s shoulders, per se, on one person but hopefully take some of the relief off of Tad from having to do some things and let him do what he does best and give Todd the reins to do what he does best and hopefully that’s the things that I’ve seen over the past in years and through racing that is built on a team, it’s not built on one person.

“What I might say or what I might think I have seen in the past might not work today, it might not be the best thing for our team. Saying that, hopefully we can work together and make the right decisions together and proceed on like that and all the experience that we can have will help out, no doubt.”

Yet there is no doubt that Labonte’s input will be critical to a team. Building around a young driver with little experience offers a series of potential pitfalls for a team. There’s no baseline to build on, no prior knowledge of exactly how the car should feel, of what it takes to make it go faster and at what point taking a bigger risk on setup in a race is worthwhile.

Labonte knows that – and the team appreciates it. Certainly the owners and Berrier are veterans in their own right, but it is Labonte that is the critical component to getting this moving in the right direction.

Everyone within the team recognizes that.

“Bobby is so calm and his wisdom has been the greatest part of all,” Daugherty said. “He does a great job of giving everyone on our race team feedback. Not just the crew chief. He talks to people … he talks to everyone and he gives them very calm, very precise, individualized and focused information and that makes it great for us as a young race team. We have information we can build upon that he’s given us.

“He’s done a lot for Toyota, he’s done a lot of their simulation runs … It’s a blessing for us to have him because when something goes wrong and I’m yelling and screaming and losing my mind, he can put perspective on it and give us some building points to take out of a bad situation that maybe next time we can build upon and make it better. So that veteran leadership and experience is just so valuable.”

Berrier, who won the 2001 Nationwide Series title with Kevin Harvick, has a wealth of crew chief experience and finds a lot of merit in working with a driver of Labonte’s caliber.

Especially when it comes to dealing with others within the organization.

“I don’t know if you could look up and down the list of people how you could find anybody that was any better fit for the situation,” Berrier said. “… If his and our expectations were out of reach, then obviously you’re let down every week when you leave the racetrack you want to drive into a bridge abutment, you’re not very happy with the way it went. So I think the expectations and Bobby understanding that, being a realist just like I am, is the key to us growing the thing into what we need to do.”

As for Labonte, he’s not only focused on helping the team grow, but also on his own driving role within it. In addition to the testing, he works to stay fit and to, in essence, continually train himself to be the best driver he can.

“I work on that, obviously, quite a bit,” he said. “There’s a lot of things that you do to be the best that you can be. That’s something that’s a constant thing that I always strive to do. At the same time, the sport’s changed since I’ve been in it. You’ve got to have a great race team and you’ve got to have a lot of great things around you to make it all happen at the same time, not just one person can do it. I’m excited, my confidence level is up, Brad’s obviously is and hope that we can look for some good things. It’s going to be a lot of work between now and Daytona … All of us have a lot to prove and a lot of hard work in front of us.”