Team: Hendrick Motorsports
Car/sponsor/make: No. 5 Kellogg's Chevrolet
| |  |
| | Labonte |
|
STATS
|
Year
|
Rank
|
Wins
|
Top 5
|
Top 10
|
Best finish
|
|
2002
|
24
|
0
|
1
|
4
|
Third, Sonoma, Calif.
|
|
Career
|
|
21
|
187
|
354
|
First, 21 times
|
2002 recap
The good: Two of Labonte's four top-10s came at a short track and a road
course. His other two came at a 2.5-mile and a 1.5-mile track. These
four pretty cover every type of race track on the circuit, offering some
support for Labonte's ability to hang in Winston Cup at the age of 46.
Season highlight: After a slow start to the season, Labonte broke
through for a top 10 in the seventh event of the year -- the
Samsung/RadioShack 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Showing his lasting
skill at the short tracks, he followed that performance up with a
sixth-place finish at Martinsville. It marked his only back-to-back
top-10s during the season.
The bad: With only four top-10s in a 36-race season, Labonte spent half
of the year hovering at or below 20th in the points standings. He peaked
at 16th, but that was early in the year. His low-point was 24th, which
is where he ended up after a 28th-place finish in the season-finale at
Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Season lowlight: Kurt Busch once referred to "that dismal month of
August" as if it were bad for everyone. Though that isn't true, it was
pretty crappy for Labonte. Then, again, so was September. In the nine
races run during those two months, Labonte finished 30th or worse in
seven. He finished 12th and 13th in the other two.
Key stat: 13. This unlucky number was how many times Labonte finished
30th or worse in a race -- which means he finished poorly in more than
one-third of the season's races.
2003 outlook
What needs to be done: Labonte hasn't been a force since the mid-1990s, when
he won that second Winston Cup title. Rumors flurry about his impending
retirement (be it by choice or by force) and some in the garage wonder
if the times have passed him by. Still, Labonte has managed to show a
flash of what made his so good almost a decade ago, and he does drive
Hendrick cars, so he shouldn't be altogether discarded. However, Labonte
must make a statement this season.
Prediction: Since 1999, two-time champion Labonte has endured three
winless seasons and a declining number of top-fives and top-10s each year.
Should the trend continue this season, that would mean virtually no
top-10 finishes in 2003 and a finish way outside the top 25 in the final
points standings.
Your take
Can Labonte recapture some of that championship-caliber magic and get
back to running with the front of the pack, or has his time passed? Here are your thoughts on this driver's prospects for the 2003 season.
Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
