NASCAR Cup

Pocono II: Bobby Labonte preview

Bobby Labonte: "Indianapolis was an encouraging race for the No. 43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge team, despite the tire issues. Our car had great balance. That made the tire problems a little harder for us to swallow. I believe we had a top-10 ...

Edited: Jul 29, 2008, 11:56 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Bobby Labonte:

"Indianapolis was an encouraging race for the No. 43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge team, despite the tire issues. Our car had great balance. That made the tire problems a little harder for us to swallow. I believe we had a top-10 car. I could pass cars when I needed to. We should be proud of the car we put on the track because Indy is a tough place to find the right balance. I think we can apply some of the things that we learned, really, throughout the next three races, especially some of the front-end suspension pieces."

"Pocono has been one of my favorite tracks for years. Anytime you can have success somewhere, you look forward to going back. It can solidify a strong season, or it can help you turn your season around. We've had some good races this year, but we could use a spark to propel us to a strong second half of the year. That could happen this weekend. We've had good cars and strong motors and that's what it takes to be successful at Pocono."

"Our pit crew has been responding well over the last several weeks and that's something that is going to make a big difference for the rest of the year. You have a lot of cars running within a tenth of second at most tracks, so any help in the pit crew will translate big-time on the racetrack. Everyone knows that we were stopping ever 10 laps at Indy to put on tires. That's a lot of work for a pit crew. It never fazed my guys. That was the most consistently fast day we have had all year."

* Labonte has scored three wins at Pocono; he swept the track in 1999 with two wins that year and scored his third win in 2001.

* The venue is tied for second on his list for most career wins at a track.

* Of all active drivers Labonte is tied for third on the list for most wins at Pocono, ranking behind Jeff Gordon with four wins and Bill Elliott with five.

* In his 31 starts at Pocono, Labonte has also amassed five top-5s and nine top-10s. His most recent top-10 came in 2006 when he finished eighth.

* On 11 occasions Labonte has qualified within the top-10 at the tri-oval.

* In the 'spring' race at Pocono, Labonte finished 11th.

-credit: pe

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Pocono II: Sam Hornish Jr preview

Next article Pocono II: Sadler - Dodge Friday interview

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

WEC Barcelona: Toyota scores dominant 1-2 to seal manufacturers’ title

WEC

WEC WEC

Barcelona

2 h

WEC Barcelona: Toyota scores dominant 1-2 to seal manufacturers’ title

Hailie Deegan eying NASCAR Truck return but future plans remain uncertain

NASCAR Truck

NSTR NASCAR Truck

Phoenix

2 h

Hailie Deegan eying NASCAR Truck return but future plans remain uncertain

When Can-Am made its controversial comeback

General

When Can-Am made its controversial comeback

Yamaha boss on MotoGP changes under Liberty: 'We must be careful not to lose our fans'

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Japanese GP

5 h

Yamaha boss on MotoGP changes under Liberty: 'We must be careful not to lose our fans'

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts