Golden Corral 500 - Terry Labonte Notes

LABONTE IMPROVING ON STARTS: Through the first three NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series races of the 2004 season, Terry Labonte is one of only four drivers who have finished in a higher position than they started in each event. Despite an average start of 36th, the two-time champion has three top-20 finishes, including a 17th-place effort last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The only others who have improved from start-to-finish in each of the first three races are Ward Burton, Derrike Cope and Matt Kenseth.

TAKING NO CHANCES: The members of Kellogg's Racing are not overly superstitious, but the team did have an issue with occupying the No. 13 garage stall at Las Vegas. After Labonte struggled in practice Friday and qualified just 37th, the crew found yet another novel use for duct tape, applying a black strip to the garage entrance to transform the "13" into "131." Although the change didn't yield a victory, Labonte's fortunes did improve somewhat. He was ninth in Saturday's early practice and finished 17th in the race.

GOING FOR EIGHT: Car owner Rick Hendrick has seven victories at Atlanta, tying him with Joe Gibbs for third on the all-time list. The Wood Brothers have a dozen, while Junior Johnson and Richard Childress have nine apiece.

STRIKING DISTANCE: Labonte is 17th in the NEXTEL Cup standings entering this weekend's Golden Corral 500 at Atlanta, but is just 35 points behind 10th-place Casey Mears. Only drivers in NASCAR's Top 10 and others within 400 points of first place after 26 events of this year's 36-race schedule will be eligible to participate in the "Chase for the Championship" over the final 10 weeks of the season.

LABONTE STILL GOING: By running to the finish at Las Vegas, Labonte extended his series-high streak of consecutive races without a DNF (did not finish) to 45. The last time he failed to complete a race was in the fall of 2002 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. The modern-era record is 56 in a row, set by teammate Jeff Gordon in 2001-02.

ANOTHER STREAK: Labonte has now gone 18 races without the need of a provisional starting position, his longest such streak since he put 24 straight races together in 1998.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Brad Pickens, gas man for Kellogg's Racing, will celebrate his 30th birthday Friday. A native of Greer, S.C., Pickens is in his fifth year with the No. 5 team.

HOMECOMING: Two of Pickens' teammates are natives of Georgia. Tire carrier Jason Jones is from Rhine, located about 150 miles southeast of Atlanta, while Richard Young, who provides pit support and cooks the team's meals at the track, is from Atlanta.

TERRY LABONTE, DRIVER OF THE NO. 5 KELLOGG'S CHEVROLETS: (ON THE NEED TO IMPROVE THE TEAM'S QUALIFYING PERFORMANCE.) "There's no doubt that part of our program (qualifying) needs to get better. We qualified poorly for both races in Atlanta last year, but hopefully our test there (March 2) will help us."

LABONTE: (ON NASCAR'S "CHASE FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP.") "I'm really not in favor of the new points format for the final 10 races, but we have to play the game like everyone else. We really haven't had what you'd consider a 'great' run through the first three races this season. But we're only 35 points out of 10th place, which is a lot better than where we were a year ago."