Staying Cool, Calm and Collective at Richmond
Labonte knows one of the secrets to success

Labonte will be making his 448th career start this weekend and his 27th start at Richmond. He has 10 top-10 and four top-five finishes at the track in Nextel Cup competition. He also has nine wins at the track in the Busch Series.

Questions for Labonte as he prepares for this weekend’s Crown Royal 400:

What do you think about guys losing their “cool” on short tracks?

“There are a lot of things you see on short tracks that probably really aren’t necessary. You see guys bumping or getting into each other when, maybe, it’s not the right time. That usually creates problems and things escalate from there.

“I really don’t like getting into that stuff. I’m not sure where it gets you in the end. I like racing guys clean and racing hard. I just want to win and do it the right way. I think if you just race hard you don’t have to worry about stuff happening. Sure, things are going to happen, but it probably doesn’t make any sense to lose control. It doesn’t get you anywhere in the end. You always have to look at the big picture.”

Does Richmond bring out tempers in drivers?

“I guess it depends on the situation. We have a little bit more room at Richmond. We don’t need to beat on each other. It’s probably not as bad here as it is at some other places, but I don’t think letting your temper get the best of you is good at any track. You don’t win races by letting your emotions get the best of you. You have to race smart.”

This is the 10th race of the season. How has this season been so far?

“We are still a new team for this season. I’m new. Todd (Parrott) is new. We have a lot of new guys at Petty Enterprises. We’re all getting on track. I think we have come together faster than what we thought. That has been good. We have had a top-five and we have had a couple top-10 finishes. We just need to do that every week.

“We are at the point now where we have to pinpoint the little things. We have to see what is working and not working. We know we can run up front, we have proven that, but now we need to do it every week. That’s possible too. It’s not like there are huge problems. This is all little things. You just take the next race to work on it. Richmond is the next race. We’ll take this Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge there and see what we can do.”