It happens so fast and with so little warning. For whatever reason, a former champion is no longer competitive, can't run up front anymore and quietly settles into the back of the points standings.

For some drivers, it's a fine way to earn a living. Sit back in the field away from the danger, click off the laps and pick up a paycheck.

	Terry Labonte struggled through his worst season as a Winston Cup driver in 2001.

Terry Labonte isn't one of those drivers.

The past few seasons have been agony for the two-time Winston Cup champion, who has struggled to be a threat on the track while teammate Jeff Gordon has dominated while winning four of his own titles.

But instead of accepting it and saying his best years have passed, the 45-year-old Labonte has refused to go out that way.

"I think I can still do this at least five more years and I think I have another championship in me," said Labonte, who is in his 23rd season. "Why would I do this if I didn't think I can win a championship? I don't see any reason why I can't go out with one more."

Others might scoff at his expectations and point to his dubious stat from last year: Labonte was the only driver who ran full schedule and finished in the top 40 in the final standings who failed to lead a single lap last year.

It was a stat brought up week in and week out as the season went on, although Labonte was just about the last one to know. When he found out, he shrugged it off.

"I didn't realize it until late in the year when people started talking about it," he said. "I went, `Really? I was wondering why we never won a race. No wonder, we never led a lap. We know what we need to work on now."'

But leading laps was the least of his worries. While finishing 23rd in the points last season, Labonte had just one top-five and three top-10 finishes to go along with eight DNFs.

Labonte, who won his championships in 1984 and 1996, has gone winless the last two years but still has 21 career victories. His last pole came in March 2000, and his last victory was 99 races ago in March 1999.

The futility was eating away at him, even if only those closest to him saw it. One of Labonte's nicknames is "The Iceman" because of his steely nerves and lack of outward emotion.

"He was frustrated and it was difficult to watch," said his brother, Bobby Labonte, the 2000 series champion. "It's no fun to just go out there and run without a chance to win and that's what he'd been going through. It was hard, but he's so much more energized this year and really thinks things are going to turn around."

The slate is wiped clean this year for Labonte, thanks to one personnel move on his Hendrick Motorsports team.

Jim Long replaced Gary DeHart as crew chief, and while the results might take time to show up on the race track, they've been immediately evident in attitude and energy.

	“	The first championship I won was great, but I was like 'There will be more of these.' So when it took so long to get the next one, you appreciate it a lot more. A third one, after where we've been and what we would have had to do to get there, that would be the sweetest. ”
		— Terry Labonte

When Labonte rolled his Chevrolet off the truck at Daytona last month, the car was good enough to post the seventh-fastest overall speed in the first round of qualifying. He then finished fifth in a qualifying race, setting him up for the 11th starting position in the Daytona 500.

He had a strong car in the season-opening race, good enough for probably a top 10 finish, but was involved in the typical restrictor-plate wreck and finished 20th. He also logged a 16th place finish at North Carolina Speedway and a disappointing 38th last weekend at Las Vegas.

But Labonte won't be deterred and is confident the good times are yet to come.

"I've started years recently where I just knew we weren't going to be very good," he said. "You don't ever want that kind of season, but sometimes that makes you tougher, stronger and more determined. I've run years where you can't do anything wrong and I've run years you can't do anything right. I don't think is going to be one of those years."

Part of that comes from Labonte's belief that Long is more involved in the process of building cars at Hendrick.

There's always been speculation that Labonte and teammate Jerry Nadeau don't get the same level of equipment as Gordon, and now that rookie Jimmie Johnson has been brought on, there's even fewer parts for the also-rans.

Hendrick and everyone else involved have always denied the rumor. But Long has taken a more hands-on approach than his predecessor to try to figure out why Gordon's cars are usually superior to the other Hendrick cars.

"Just going down there while the cars are being built and asking questions and watching how it's done can be so helpful," Labonte said. "In the past, we didn't always have that communication with the other teams."

One change in personnel and a bigger change in philosophy has led to an attitude overhaul that has Labonte certain he can end his career as a champion. For a driver who went 12 years between titles, there's no reason to doubt he can do it.

"The first championship I won was great, but I was like `There will be more of these,"' Labonte said. "So when it took so long to get the next one, you appreciate it a lot more. A third one, after where we've been and what we would have had to do to get there, that would be the sweetest."