Bobby Labonte is a former NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
After moving back into a facility of its own, JTG-Daugherty Racing will try to put former Sprint Cup champion Bobby Labonte in a better competitive environment as its also works toward adding a second team for the 2013 season.
It’s a lot of work for one of the tour’s smallest operations. Leaving Michael Waltrip Racing meant adding to and redesigning the team shop while also using the final months of last season to build toward 2012.
Labonte, who started racing full-time in Cup in 1993 on the way to winning the title in 2000, finished 29th in Cup points last season, scoring only two top-10 finishes.
He’ll be looking for better things this season with the arrival of new crew chief/general manager Todd Berrier, formerly a “lifer” at Richard Childress Racing. Berrier has led the team’s resurgence and also is overseer of plans aimed at adding a second car for 2013.
“There’s a lot of professionals in the team that have been around the sport as long as I have in many different ways,” Labonte said. “I look at it that we all are going to share the thoughts and experience that we might have together. Not one person can do it, and not one person can take the load.
“Hopefully, that’s the key – that we all will be able to make it happen together and not really put it on anybody’s shoulders. Hopefully, we take some off of Tad (Geschickter, team owner) having to do some things and let him do what he does best and give Todd the reins to do what he does best and all that stuff.
“That’s the thing that I’ve seen over the last 10 years and through racing – it’s built on a team, it’s not built on one person.”
Labonte said Berrier, who started last season as Jeff Burton’s crew chief and who has been a crew chief in all three NASCAR national series, gives the team an added advantage.
“He can do a lot of things that maybe some people can’t do,” Labonte said. “He’s going to be able to multitask and do those things. He’ll admit that maybe he doesn’t know anything about that, so he will let somebody else take care of that.
“I’ve known Todd for a long time. He’s got a great track record and is very successful. I’ve never worked with him one-on-one, but he’s worked on my cars before when we had problems at a short track here and there back a long time ago. I know him real well, and I know that he will be able to do things that I haven’t had in the past. He’s the perfect fit for this organization and for this team because he can multitask.”
Labonte said his team picked up the pace late last season and that more can follow this year.
“There’s a lot of things that we can do and that we even started doing toward the end of the year with the same people and same equipment,” he said. “We said, ‘Hey, let’s do some different things.’ With pit strategies and this and that – it resulted in better finishes.
“All of a sudden when you’re out finishing 15th, 16th, 17th – it’s way better than 22nd, 23rd, 24th. The equipment didn’t change. It was just a matter of thought processes and things like that on how we handle things. … All in all, it’s going to be a great way to build our race team into a bigger team.”
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
