Bobby Labonte Enjoyed Spring Sizzler Experience, Loves Running The Modifieds

By JOHN O’CONNOR

After spending 23-years competing in the NASCAR Cup Series, Bobby Labonte has
recently picked up a new interest in racing. The Corpus Christi, TX driver and NASCAR Hall of
Fame member has been racing a Pavement Modified for the last year.
The 2000 Cup Series champion and winner of 21 Cup events has raced down south with
the SMART Modified Tour and at Bowman Gray Stadium. But this past weekend, Labonte and
his team decided to do something different.
They made the 686-mile trek from High Point, NC to New England to compete in the
Spring Sizzler at the Stafford Motor Speedway. Labonte had raced to a top five finish at Stafford
last June as a part of the SRX field. But this was his first time running a Modified around the ½
mile CT facility.
As the weekend went on, Labonte picked up on some things and got better each time out.
Although the end result in Sunday’s feature wasn’t what he was hoping for, Labonte enjoyed
getting to take part in the event and hopes to eventually find to time to come back north and run
some more races in this area.
In the first 40-lap qualifier on Saturday, Labonte rolled off 13th for the start. He needed to
get in the top ten to make Sunday’s event and he did just that by coming across the line in eighth.
Labonte wasn’t afraid to mix it up with the others as he battled Jimmy Blewett for several laps
earlier on in the feature.
Going into the race, Labonte knew he needed to run his car as hard as possible to not only
make sure he gets in the race but to know what his car would do during the 100-lap race the next
day.
“I felt like I needed to run my car as hard as I could because we needed to be in the top
ten and these guys are tough so I needed to make sure I kept the car in a qualified position,”
Labonte said. “By doing that I also learned a lot about the car and what it is going to do in the
race tomorrow.”
What asked what brought him all the way up to Stafford, Labonte and his team wanted to
test themselves to see if they could run with some of the best in the country. They also wanted to
take the weekend to learn some more things about the car that they can take with them back
down south.
“We wanted to come up here to learn as much as we can and try to run with these guys,”
Labonte said. “I also wanted to see what some other guys are doing and learn from them a little
bit. I wasn’t sure if we were going to be able to run with them but we wanted to come find out.
I’m glad we had a great race and we’re locked in and we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.”
 Once of the biggest things Labonte took away from the qualifier is how different the
Modified handled compared to the SRX car and that he felt like he needed to do a better job with
looking after the tires.
“This car definitely handled a little more differently than I thought it would,” Labonte
said. “Running the SRX race here is one thing but it’s nowhere near like driving a Modified
around here. I just think I got to figure out how to maintain a better tire position for myself. We
have six tires for tomorrow and I feel like we got to change something but we just aren’t sure
what to change yet.”
The biggest difference Labonte noticed in the Modified when comparing it with the SRX
car was the speed discrepancy.
“I don’t know what kind of lap time we were running with the SRX car but these
Modifieds definitely feel a lot faster around here,” Labonte said. “I’ve run these things for a year
now and I felt like my car was pretty solid underneath me for the most part and I hope to keep
improving.”
Over the last year, Labonte has run about 14 races. He’s enjoyed the experience of
running a Modified and loves the way the cars drive.
“I really enjoy doing this and I guess I don’t have to do this but I really like it,” Labonte
said. “I like my crew and I like driving these things, they are a blast. When I grew up racing I
thought ‘why would I want to drive a car with no fenders on it?’ I thought that because I wanted
to take that path and run cars with fenders. But everything feels good with this and we run good
at home. I didn’t think it was going to be as a fun as it is and I’ve run a Late Model in the past.
But I think I’m having more fun with this than I would if I was driving a Late Model.”