Burton

	Labonte

Bobby Labonte runs 17th and Jeff Burton finishes 23rd and nobody even bats an eye these days.

That's because people tend to forget it was just three seasons ago -- in 2000 -- that Labonte won the championship. That same year, Burton won four races and finished third. In fact, their performances were so outstanding that each garnered preseason championship buzz from the media for 2001.

But all of that is now long forgotten. And it is due to the drivers' own doing. Sixth- and 16th-place finishes in the last two years for Labonte and 10th- and 12th-place efforts for Burton have put both out of mind when title talks begin.

But it looks like that could change soon.

"The first thing you do when you're in a streak like we've been in is you hide all the bullets in your house," Burton said. "That's the first thing, because it's not fun."

Labonte and Burton each found themselves stuck in the rut of basing future decisions on the past. They conjured setups and race-day strategies using notes from successful seasons of yesteryear, but things have changed.

The car's bodies have changed and the specifications for the cars have altered the way the aerodynamics effect a driver's rig during a race. The tire compounds have changed, altering pit strategy and setups.

By staying so true to the past, Labonte and Burton got left behind while younger drivers -- along with more open-minded veterans -- changed with the times and left the two talented pilots in the dust.

But the bullets are back out in the Labonte and Burton abodes, and the two are back riding up front -- guns blazing.

"To be successful for a long period of time -- whether it's a crew chief or a driver or a newspaper guy -- you have to stay open-minded throughout your career," said Michael "Fatback" McSwain, Labonte's crew chief. "I think the veteran drivers who are still being successful or who have had an off year and are coming back up realize that they have to be open-minded and forget some of the things we did in the past because everything's different now."

The two teams which had fought change for two seasons are now drenched in change. McSwain is a new crew chief for Labonte, bringing in new ideas and a fresh perspective. Burton has a new crew chief, too, in Paul Andrews -- a guy who likes to use computer data more than "feel."

And the changes seem to be working.

Despite getting off to a familiar start with poor finishes to open the season, Labonte has run great. He ran with the leaders in Daytona and Rockingham before accidents relegated him to finishes of 41st and 16th, respectively. Labonte broke through and finished fourth at Las Vegas after winning the pole and is now headed to Atlanta -- a track where he has won five times -- with a lot of confidence.

Burton is yet to post a top-five finish, but he has also been running with the leaders all season. He finished 11th at Daytona, 12th in Rockingham and sixth last weekend at Vegas.

"I do feel confident that we are going to have some success this year in winning races and having a chance at the championship," Labonte said. "I had positive emotions coming into the season. That stems from having Fatback coming on board and from making some changes in our race team and changes in our body styles and chassis and a lot of stuff.

"(Fatback) came in with a different thought process and way he does things. The past two years after we won the championship, we kind of got stale there. We weren't making any headway. It wasn't anybody's fault. We just landed somewhere and couldn't find ourselves out of a hole."

For Burton, the change is as much a product of being open-minded to the new ideas his Roush Racing teammates were employing (after all, last season Mark Martin finished second, Kurt Busch was third and Matt Kenseth won a series-high five races en route to finishing eighth) as it is a result of Andrews coming on board.

"Why it didn't happen for us is because we didn't do as many good things as (my teammates) did," Burton said, explaining his lagging behind while everyone touted the resurgence of Roush Racing. "We made some decisions we shouldn't have made on how we were going to build our cars and it seemed like we got behind and we were never able to catch back up.

	“	We made some decisions we shouldn't have made on how we were going to build our cars and it seemed like we got behind and we were never able to catch back up. ”
		— Jeff Burton

"Even towards the end of the year when we started to do things more like they were doing and paid attention to more of what they were doing, we started running better. So I think it was a little bit of hard-headedness on our part. I think it was a little bit of too much confidence based on the year before."

The last two years, each driver looked back on successful pasts. Now, they're trying hard not to think back on two down seasons -- keeping their eyes focused sharply in front.

With a new outlook, the two teams are in shape to pose a threat for the title. All that remains to be seen is how quickly the new crew chief-driver tandems can gel, and whether the teams can avoid enough bad luck to make a run.

"We're beginning to understand what each other means when we make comments and decisions on things," McSwain said. "He understands why and he understands where I'm always looking. We're starting to get that mutual understanding. That takes a little while. Are we where we need to be yet? No, not quite. Are we close? Yes. It's happening faster than anyone thought it would."

And as for the luck? Well, Labonte said he has reason to believe things are getting better.

"We missed a couple of accidents in front of us that we could have been collected in if we were in the wrong place," he said. "But for a change, we weren't."

And for a change, both teams are changing. And as long as the changes keep working, neither will look back.

"When you're on a streak, you certainly have more confidence," Burton said. "You certainly don't second-guess yourself as much. When you have a bad race, you look at it as an anomaly rather than something that happens all the time. You just shake it off and you go to the next race.

"When you have a streak where you're not running very well, you start to second guess. 'Are we doing this right? Are we doing that right?' You're not as aggressive in your thought process. You try to get back to the basics, so to speak. It's certainly a different feel and, certainly, the other one is better."

Rupen Fofaria covers NASCAR for The Raleigh News & Observer and is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached at rfofaria@newsobserver.com.