Labonte

People are always asking me to compare our sport today with the way it was 10, 15 or even 20 years ago. With all the amazing new technology teams have at their disposal, now, it's tempting to say we're further ahead than we've ever been.

But relatively speaking, there's no real difference in performance. Teams that work the hardest and make the fewest mistakes are still the ones to beat. If you have good people who know how to use the tools available to them, you're always going to have a reasonable amount of success. That's true today and it was true in 1985, which is the first time I remember one of my race cars going into the wind tunnel.

At Billy Hagan Racing, we'd won the championship in 1984 and then went to Daytona in '85 and won the Busch Clash and qualified pretty well (seventh) for the Daytona 500. Billy had the chance to send one of his Chevrolets up to the General Motors facility in Detroit for evaluation.

We knew it might help make our cars even better, with the data that would be gathered, plus we were just curious because we hadn't done it before. And yes, we were a little naïve because what actually happened was that the manufacturer took the numbers from that wind tunnel test and shared them with other GM teams. In fact, we hadn't even gotten all the way out of the building that day before we realized some of the other teams already had the information from that test.

So our speed secrets weren't secrets anymore, but it really didn't hurt us because we won a race that year, had a bunch of top-10s and finished seventh in points. And it helped the other teams, which I guess is the point GM was making.

Wind tunnel data has become an essential ingredient in building stock cars. And although we were a little upset about sharing that information 18 years ago, today we appreciate the fact that NASCAR and the manufacturers regularly provide a common database for all the teams to benefit from when groups of cars are sent to the wind tunnel for evaluation.

Just as wind tunnel time for NASCAR teams has grown in recent years, on-track testing time has shrunk -- from a virtually unlimited schedule to just five sessions a year. And like the infusion of all this new technology, the reduction in on-track testing time has probably been a good thing. We're already racing on 38 weekends, so NASCAR was wise to impose restrictions on testing.

	Labonte, currently 18th in points, has five consecutive top-21 finishes.

Before the new rules kicked in, I know some teams that tested every week. Plus, there were some tracks that actually opened for practice and qualifying on Thursday of race weeks, so that would put us there for four days. That just didn't leave a lot of time for anything else.

When I was driving for Junior Johnson (1987-89), he would always put a lot of emphasis on the races at North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway because that track was close to his race shops. In fact, I think Junior valued all those wins at North Wilkesboro more than he would victories at Daytona or any place else. So we would rent the track there to test for two or three days at a time before the races, obviously to help our team but also to prevent other teams from testing there. I won four races at North Wilkesboro before they closed the track, so I'd say the strategy was pretty good.

But there just isn't time for that today, with the demands of our schedule and the obligations we have with sponsors. I remember doing two or three appearances for Piedmont Airlines in 1985 after I won my first championship. Twelve years and another championship later, that number had jumped to 50 or 60.

My point is that while NASCAR has changed through the years, the foundation of the sport remains what it was when I started in 1978. You can give us more time in the wind tunnel and less time at the test track. But the sport still is about the talented people who build our cars and make them go fast.

The race you see on Sunday afternoon is exciting, to be sure. But the race you don't see, the one that goes on Monday through Saturday, is almost as exciting and in many ways, more important.

Terry Labonte drives the No. 5 Kellogg's/got milk? Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. He is providing a biweekly diary to ESPN.com throughout the 2003 NASCAR season. Labonte's personal Web site can be found at www.terrylabonte.net or go to www.hendrickmotorsports.com for team information.