Auto Club 500 - Terry Labonte Notes

LABONTE AT CALIFORNIA: In seven career starts at California Speedway, Terry Labonte has two top-five finishes, running second to teammate Jeff Gordon in the track's 1997 inaugural event and placing third in 1998. Hendrick Motorsports has three victories there -- two by Gordon (1997 and 1999) and one by Jimmie Johnson (2002).

LABONTE'S CALI CAR: Kellogg's Racing has entered one of its most reliable race cars for Sunday's race at California. Chassis No. 286 has been raced twice this season and totaled 218 points -- 25 percent of Labonte's 2004 season total. Earlier this year, the car finished 17th at North Carolina Speedway and 19th at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.

STAYING BUSY: Labonte is in the midst of one of his busiest weeks of the year -- on and off the track. In addition to the NASCAR weekend at California Speedway, the No. 5 Kellogg's team had tests scheduled for Monday at Kentucky Speedway and Wednesday at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway. Labonte also has personal appearances slated for Thursday evening in San Bernardino, Calif., and Saturday afternoon in Arcadia, Calif., plus two VIP visits with Kellogg's guests Sunday morning prior to the NEXTEL Cup drivers' meeting.

TERRY LABONTE, DRIVER OF THE NO. 5 KELLOGG'S CHEVROLETS: (ON LOOKING FOR A SPARK TO THE SEASON.) "We're not where we want to be or where we thought we'd be at this point. Some of these tracks we've raced on recently -- Bristol, Texas and Talladega -- have traditionally been good for us, but not this year.

"The bright spot is that we qualified better at Talladega last weekend (13th) than we had in a long time and we're testing a lot of things right now we hope will help pull us out of this slump. The reality is that we're not too far from where we were a year ago, but we must start moving forward rather than sliding back."

(NOTE: Labonte's qualifying effort last weekend at Talladega represented his best start since qualifying ninth last fall at Dover, Del., 18 races ago.)