Bobby Labonte
Bobby Labonte
Robert Allen "Bobby" Labonteis an American professional stock car racing driver. The 2000 NASCAR Winston Cup Series champion, he currently competes part-time in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, driving the No. 32 Ford Fusion for Go FAS Racing, and the Xfinity Series, driving the No. 18 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing...
ProfessionRace Car Driver
Date of Birth8 May 1964
CityCorpus Christi, TX
change easiest excited forward grateful hard leave looking opportunity past point
It was hard to leave where I was. It was not the easiest decision. At this point in time, I really wasn't looking forward to a change. But I would not have made the change if I didn't feel like it was the right thing to do in my heart. I am really excited about this opportunity and very grateful for the opportunity I had the past 11 years.
built cars far good grip happened last obviously sticks time today track
It kind on mimics what happened the last time it was paved. Obviously our cars are different now from what they were then. ...The track is real smooth. ...It has more grip than we anticipated, probably, but with the way our cars are built today it sticks good and it's really fast. But as far as the paving job, it's really nice.
stock
We're going to be like the stock market. We're going to be up and down.
banking decent february handle hopefully improve less racetrack ran success track won
We've had some success at Fontana, but have never won there. It's a lot like Michigan, which is a track I really like, but the banking is a little less at California. I like the racetrack and, hopefully, we'll have some success there this weekend. We ran decent in February at Fontana, but we never really got a handle on the car. Hopefully we'll improve on that this week.
along best cherish continued drivers friend great past several success teammate tony wish
Tony Stewart has been a great teammate and friend for the past several years and is one of the best drivers that has come along in a long time. I wish him continued success and will always cherish our friendship.
build finish gives good
A top-five finish in the 150 is a good start. It gives us something to build on for Sunday.
car cool gone mean ten victory
It would mean a lot to me. Ten years from now you'd look back and the 43 car hadn't gone to victory lane. And then you were the one to take it to victory lane. It would be a cool thing.
enthusiasm goal heart matter week whether
Now it's a matter of getting everything together, and we'll do that. Whether it will take one week or 10 weeks, I don't know the answer. But I know the enthusiasm is there to do it, and our goal is to do it, and heart is in this.
best shot
I'd like to think we have the best shot here, but I'm not going to say that.
needed signs telling
Signs were telling me that this is what I needed to do,
came couple guys
A couple of guys got up in the fence, and then came down and clipped us.
cars crapshoot critical decent finish front good matter might miss places plate run runs start tracks weekend
It's going to be a crapshoot at Talladega. It always is. It doesn't matter where you start at places like this and Daytona. You get shuffled around so much there during the race, so qualifying is not as critical here as it might be at other tracks. The important thing is to be there at the end and see what happens. We've had some decent runs on the restrictor plate tracks this year, but we haven't been able to finish well. We've run up front at times and the cars have been good. Hopefully, we can miss everything this weekend and get a good finish.
forward found looking running tracks treat
It's one of those tracks I feel comfortable at and have always found that I can get around there pretty good. It's always a treat to go to Michigan. We're looking forward to running well on Saturday.
consistent forward happy longer looking race ran runs spend time tires trim truck turning
We are pretty good. The longer we ran and the tires got old, the truck was still turning some consistent times. I think we are going to race very well. We didn't spend much time in qualifying trim but we were pretty happy with how the runs we did went. I am looking forward to qualifying and then tomorrow's race.