DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’RE STARTING OVER?
Bobby Labonte: “I think the team is really solid. For me, it’s a clean piece of paper and what I mean by that is it’s a new opportunity for me, it’s a new ride, we’ve got a great new sponsor and a lot of new things are happening. That just makes it exciting. Obviously starting the year off in 2009, we haven’t had any testing in the race car, so there are a lot of new things I don’t know yet. How is this car gonna feel? I know the Ford is gonna be great, but I call this a clean sheet of paper. It’s like I’m moving houses and when I moved I got to clean out the attic.”
ARE YOU A BELIEVER IT TAKES TIME FOR CHEMISTRY TO WORK OR CAN IT START RIGHT AWAY?
Bobby Labonte: “I think that there is something to that, but I also know with Todd Parrott that we were together before just two-and-a-half years ago, so that’s exciting to me. I already know him. We had some great runs together knowing that we were just starting out in a new deal. Hitting the ground running is gonna be awfully important because we’re both committed to this thing and I know he’s gonna get the job done and together we’re gonna have to get the job done. Like he said, ‘We’ve got unfinished business that we started,’ so we’re gonna go at it as hard as we can.”
DALE JARRETT AND TODD PARROTT WON THE 500 IN THEIR FIRST RACE TOGETHER, SO DOES THAT GIVE YOU HOPE THAT YOU CAN BE A FACTOR HERE AT SPEEDWEEKS?
Bobby Labonte: “Exactly. I think we’d be disappointed if we didn’t qualify way up front. Todd and Doug take a lot of pride in qualifying and I know Doug takes a lot of pride in the engines, so the confidence is there to do that. When we were at Pettys and Todd was there we qualified sixth and that was huge at the time for us. So knowing the resources and how important and how focused he is and everybody else is, I feel like we’re gonna do way more than what people might anticipate I suppose.”
THIS SOUNDS WEIRD BUT EVEN THOUGH YOU HAVEN’T BEEN IN THE CAR YET OR WORKED WITH MANY OF THESE GUYS, YOU MIGHT BE DISAPPOINTED IF YOU DON’T WIN THE POLE ON SUNDAY.
Bobby Labonte: “That would be a disappointment because I know the potential. This car sat on the pole at Talladega. We’re gonna qualify well, I know that, but this is weird. The last time I was on a race track was at Homestead or Harvick’s go-kart track. You can look at it both ways, but we’re just glad to be here and excited to go racing.”
DO YOU FEEL AN URGENCY TO MAKE THINGS HAPPEN FAST?
Bobby Labonte: “We talked a little bit about that the other day. You shouldn’t be comfortable in any situation, especially nowadays, but you want to make sure that when you go home that night and you put your head on that pillow that you gave 100 percent and that’s what we’re gonna do. The first few races we don’t need to go out in a ball of fire. We need to be smart about what we’re doing and then get ourselves in a position where we can continue to improve if we’re not already there to start with. There are a lot of new things for me that are gonna take place. We want to make sure we do hit the ground running fast, but five races in is one small goal just to get yourself solidified, learn more, and go to these tracks with Todd and this Ford Fusion with a lot of things that are different than what I’m used to and then making those things happen.”
| 
|