If anything short of winning a championship is considered a disappointment, there were plenty of high caliber drivers who walked away from the 2001 season shaking their heads at what they thought could have and maybe should have been.

One of those drivers is Bobby Labonte, who entering the season as defending Winston Cup champion was one of the guys to beat. And while his sixth-place finish was nothing to laugh at, it was only after a strong mid- to late-season run that the driver of the No. 18 made his move through the top-10.

"We had a great season. We had a lot of things go right for us, but the things that went wrong for us -- what we didn't do (in 2000), and that was (fail to) finish races -- finishing all but nine laps and all that stuff," said Labonte. "I would have thought we might come in here this year and say 'OK, we're going to finish all but 12 laps,' or something, but man, that went away pretty quick."

The impressiveness of the run that Labonte was able to make to reach sixth in the standings after sitting 25th after seven races is not lost on him.

"If I had known this year coming we were going to finish sixth in points, I'd have been a little disappointed to start with, but I'm excited that we finished sixth with six DNFs with the way we had problems. To come back and finish sixth means we're really stronger than we might have shown on the race track."

The DNFs were an obvious reason that Labonte didn't challenge for a title. But aside from simply finishing races, Labonte wants to reach levels of consistency and competitiveness that he felt the team achieved in previous years but not last season.

"There are a lot of things (we need to work on for this season). Week in, week out, we need to get our stuff right …we were more competitive in 1999, 2000 -- we weren't quite as competitive in 2001.

"We need to go out there and lead races, lead laps, get top-5s, top-10s without any problems. That's our goal right now, to get back to that. I think we just have to work hard with our team and make sure we make the right decisions and that our communication is good and try not to have things bite us as they did in the past."

And is another Winston Cup title the goal? According to Labonte, top-10s just might be good enough.

"We'd love to finish in the top-10 in points every year until I quit. That's the goal. We want to win every one of them, but that's probably not as realistic as finishing in the top- 10 in points."

Same team, same goals?
Tony Stewart fared a bit better than his 2000 Winston Cup champion teammate did last season. Stewart's second-place finish has many picking him as the driver with the best shot at dethroning 2001 champ Jeff Gordon.

And while Stewart says he's not expecting to win the title, taking the crown is the ultimate goal.

"You always want to contend for a championship. There's 36 races, there are 42 other cars on the track. There are a lot of variables that we don't have any control over," said Stewart. "We're going to do the best we can and if we're there at the end of year, great. We obviously want to be there, but it's hard to say that that's our goal for the year to be the champion and if we don't attain that goal it's a disappointing year because there are just too many things that can happen.

Some of those things that are out of his control are midseason rules changes made by NASCAR. Stewart has been an outspoken critic of the league when it has implemented tweaks to the chassis and setup of a manufacturer or two in the middle of a Winston Cup campaign. And Stewart says he doesn't know what to expect of the league in 2002.

"You never know from week to week what NASCAR's going to do from a competitor's side, so it's impossible for me to say what they're going to do in all reality. I'm not saying that to be mean or to be smart about it, that's just the way it is - you just really don't know … you just don't know what's in store for you as a competitor.

"We had, what, three or four rule changes in the middle of the season this year. You never see that in any other racing series. So, you never know what there is to expect."

Outside influences aside, Stewart doesn't expect to drive any differently than he did in 2001, and the No. 20 pilot believes that his team does have what it takes to again challenge for the title.

"I think I'm pretty comfortable that if we have a decent season at all that we're going to end up in the top-10 again, but saying where we're going to finish in that top-10 is really impossible to say.

"I'm still driving the car the same as I always have in Winston Cup. It's just a matter of trying to do the best job in the car each week that you can and every race is important from Daytona to Homestead next year, so every race you're trying to get the most amount of points that you can and try to be where Jeff is this year."

Burton in Labonte's boat
After finishing third in points in 2000, many tabbed Jeff Burton as the favorite to take the 2001 title. But much like Labonte's season, things didn't go quite as planned for the No. 99 car.

Burton did manage a top-10 finish, but a bad start kept him out of the title hunt. Burton thinks the key to being competitive over the course of a season is to take some checkered flags.

"We're focused on winning races. We certainly want to win Winston Cup championships, but we want to win races, we want to contend and win races," said Burton. "This is a competitive sport. To finish in the top-10 and win some races isn't a bad year. It's a bad year in comparison to what it could have been because there are nine spots in front of us, but running the way we ran early in the year was certainly disappointing, but finishing up the way we finished up was acceptable. Not as lofty as we'd like it to be, but acceptable."

The key to running better in 2002? Simple. Go faster.

"We don't have major wholesale changes coming for the No. 99, we got a few positions changing around, but we just want to be faster. We want to make better lap times. We're working hard to build faster, better race cars so we can go off and take advantage of those things."