40-somethings fight to stay relevant

Sporting News, The, July 28, 2003 by Lee Spencer

Will the real Dale Jarrett enter and sign in, please? The guy behind the wheel of the No. 88 Robert Yates Racing Ford has to be an impostor.

What about Rusty Wallace? His drought is reaching epic proportions. And as if those two 40-somethings weren't having enough trouble this year, look at Mark Martin and Sterling Marlin. Contenders for the championship last season, those two veterans might as well have pulled a Thelma and Louise and driven their cars off a cliff.

Admittedly, every Winston Cup driver over the age of 35 has been stranded in NASCAR's no man's land at least once in his career, but from the looks of it, this really might be the changing of the guard.

Jarrett, 28th after 19 races, hasn't been this low in the points standings this late in the season since the other George Bush was president. Wallace was 11th in points after the New Hampshire race, but his 81-race winless streak stretches back more than two years. This is a guy who won at least one race a year for 16 straight seasons through 2001.

Rookies, whose enthusiasm and fearlessness have yet to be tempered by years of contact with concrete walls, are jumping into championship-caliber rides as the demographic in the garage keeps getting younger.

It's hard enough for the veterans to stave off the onslaught of the younger drivers. When a team is ripped apart by uncertainty, dissension and lack of chemistry, the task becomes impossible.

That's what has happened to Jarrett, the 1999 Winston Cup champion. He has slipped into oblivion--seemingly overnight--amid the soap opera at Yates, which has gone through crew chiefs faster than George Steinbrenner used to cycle through managers.

It's difficult to predict when a driver at the top will tumble. Some cycle up and down from year to year, and then there's a racer such as Michael Waltrip, who's just hitting his peak. After 17 years on the circuit, Waltrip, 40, is having the best year of his career. He and crew chief "Slugger" Labbe have been a pleasant surprise this season, and they and their crew haven't received the recognition they deserve.

But Waltrip is bucking the trend. So, for that matter, is two-time champion Terry Labonte, who has risen from the ashes of a waning career, in stark contrast to most of his contemporaries.

His finishes have become increasingly strong as the year has progressed. Labonte, who drives for Hendrick Motorsports, has climbed from 33rd after the second race to 16th in points, and the confidence of the team is brimming, from crew chief Jim Long down.

"It hasn't been one thing but a combination of things," Labonte says. "I think a lot of it has to do with the bodies on the cars. They're good this year compared to the other cars. We've really made big improvements on the bodies, aerowise. That was one of our weaknesses last year. We know it was.

"And then we've worked together for a year now. Some of these races (at the newer tracks) Jim had not been to before, and now that we've had time to work together, that's helped."

Long joined Labonte's No. 5 Chevrolet team at the end of 2001, following a short hiatus from crew chief work. After 18 months at Hendrick, Long has strengthened the team and learned how to incorporate the wealth of resources at HMS into Labonte's cars. The Chevrolet's increased competitiveness has rejuvenated Labonte, 46.

"When you have confidence in your team and you know you're taking good cars to the racetrack and, when you unload them, you know they're going to be right, it makes a huge difference," Labonte says. "It's fun again. It's fun knowing that every week we have a car that can be competitive.

"Even when we didn't have a great car, like at Daytona, we had a chance at winning. I think restrictor-plate racing is our weakness right now, but we've had two good finishes at those tracks. Consistency is the key."

Labonte certainly has been consistent. The cars are stronger, the pit stops are stronger and the driver is stronger. Not only does he believe in the team, he believes in himself.

"We're getting back to the place where we can knock on the door to win a race," Labonte says. "You have to be consistent and get top 10s. If you're there, chances are one day you will whip 'em all. You have to keep at it."

There were times over the last few years when racing wasn't fun for Labonte. But if he can remain this passionate about his program, he'll "keep at it" for a long time.

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Down the road

Pennsylvania 500

Pocono Raceway

When: 1 p.m. (ET) Sunday

TV: TNT

Length: 200 laps, 500 miles

Run with this:

An elite Winston Cup team always has up to 15 cars in its shop. The cars are in various stages of preparation for different styles of tracks.

Frank Duryea, one of the founding fathers of the American automobile industry, used Mobil in his pioneering automobiles in 1893.

Mobil Command Performance

M@IL BONDING

LEE SPENCER ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS

When owners started fielding more than one car, I read about teams working with each other. Yet there continues to be a large sread in the finishing positions of teams building comparable cars. Add to that Robby Gordon's move at Sonoma (he passed teammate Kevin Harvick under yellow), and it makes me wonder what the team concept means to the drivers and owners.