Looking at The Gains
Cheerios/Betty Crocker Team Knows It Has Learned

This weekend, Bobby Labonte and the #43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge team head to the two-mile California Speedway, located in the city of Fontana, for Sunday’s SONY HD 500. Sunday’s race will be a twilight event and one of the final races before the ‘Chase fort the Nextel Championship’ begins.

Labonte finished 31st earlier this season at California, the second race of the season, but since has earned four top-10 and one top-five finishes throughout the remainder of the season. Labonte has also qualified 10th or higher six times this season. The team qualified a season best third last weekend at the tough Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.

Comments from Labonte as he prepares for this weekend’s SONY HD 500:

This team has gone through a lot since the first time you were here. What are the biggest changes?
“I think you obviously look at Todd (Parrott) going back to Yates and the change we have with Greg Steadman coming in as the crew chief. We had that change, but luckily for us Greg has been around Petty Enterprises for a long time. He’s been a crew chief. He knows what we are looking for to win races. I think that was a change we went through, but the biggest thing is just having more knowledge.

“We have come a long way since February. We have better notes, better ideas and just a lot more knowledge within ourselves. We really have a great base here. We are all on the same page and are really working hard to get good finishes. That base will make us a better team the rest of this season and into next.”

Do you expect to be better at California this weekend?
“We were a little snake-bit at the beginning of the season. We were strong at Daytona, but we got caught in a wreck. We missed some things at California in February, but we know where we need to be now. We know what we need to do to be better. I think we’ll have a better run.

“You can’t go in there thinking negative. That’s not going to help. February was a long time ago. This team has grown and learned so much since then. I’m excited because it’s a good track and we’re going to be better. We have had good cars at tracks similar to this. I’m ready to get back there.”

Is a ‘twilight’ event harder?
“It’s hard to keep the car handling all night. You just have to keep ahead of the curve. The sun can be brutal out there. It can be really hot and make the track extremely slick. You just skate around for an hour and then you can be screaming tight. What do you do? It’s hard to keep up with the track conditions when the sun is going down.

“Hey, it’s just hard to see too. The sun can be right in your eyes and that’s not fun. Maybe they can build bigger billboards or something? I don’t know. It’s just the things you deal with. It’s still pretty cool. The night races are always special and this one ends at night. It’s almost a night race, but it’s still pretty exciting.”