| | Associated Press
LONG POND, Pa. -- It should be no surprise if Bobby Labonte wins again at Pocono International Raceway.
His ability to drive on the difficult, 2.5-mile triangle is well established as he seeks a record-tying third straight victory
Sunday. And with crew chief Jimmy Makar calling the shots, Labonte
can count on preparedness and solid decisions.
Makar helped Labonte win the Pocono 500 last June by trading track position for speed. A month later, a back-up car carried
Labonte to a rare summer sweep on the mountaintop with a victory in
the Pennsylvania 500.
It didn't happen in the car of choice because that was lost in a crash two weeks earlier at New Hampshire International Speedway.
But that was no problem for Makar.
"We've got an option in case what happened at Loudon does happen," Makar said. "Really, there wasn't a lot of work to be
done except for preparing another back-up."
That crash in New Hampshire, which relegated Labonte to a 38th-place-finish in the Jiffy Lube 300, dropped him from second to
fourth in the Winston Cup standings.
It also cost Labonte any realistic hope of catching eventual champion Dale Jarrett. Eleven months later, the 36-year-old Labonte
leads the series.
Now Jarrett, a winner at Pocono in 1995 and 1998, is looking up from fourth place. It is he, not Labonte, who might take a few
chances to make up a 121-point deficit. But Labonte isn't being passive just to protect his lead as he
seeks his first career title.
"I do not think I have changed my style of driving at all," said Labonte, whose advantage after a third-place finish last
Sunday at Michigan Speedway is 98 points over Dale Earnhardt. "I am still trying to go out and win the race each weekend."
Fate also had a hand last July at Pocono, when Labonte got the 10th of his 13 career victories while becoming the first driver to
sweep at the track since Tim Richmond in 1986. Jarrett had a bad
clutch that hurt him during pit stops, Mark Martin was given a
stop-and-go penalty when one of his tires rolled across pit road
and defending race champion Jeff Gordon blew a tire.
Labonte's victory last June in the Pocono 500 was an example of fast driving after a late-race decision by Makar, who earlier that
month made a call that resulted in a victory on fuel mileage in Dover, Del.
At Pocono, the crew chief decided to change four tires at the
end of a fuel window late in the race. That cost Labonte valuable
track position, but the fresh rubber made him by far the fastest
car on the track.
"I didn't think we were in contention to win," Makar recalled.
"So we decided to go with four tires and set ourselves up for the
rest of the way with fuel."
Labonte exited pit road in 23rd position with 42 laps remaining. So fast was his Joe Gibbs Racing Pontiac that Labonte made it to
the front for the third time just 27 laps later and led the final 15.
"We knew if we didn't get caught up in anything we could come up through the pack," he said. "As to whether or not I was going
to win was another question."
In this Pocono 500, he'll try to join Richmond and Bobby Allison as the only drivers to win three straight on the mountaintop.
Jarrett, three-time Pocono champion Gordon, 1998 race winner Jeremy Mayfield and Labonte teammate Tony Stewart figure as the
principal competition. Stewart won the last two Sundays in Dover
and in Brooklyn, Mich.
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