THURSDAY, MARCH 2. 2006
SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN 7B
NASCAR
Labonte to drive Petty's famed No.43
CHRIS JENKINS
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kyle Petty's improbable recruiting effort finally paid off.
For three years, Petty nagged Bobby Labonte to come drive the family team's famed No.43 car.
He'd stop Labonte on the streets of their subdivision in Trinity, N.C., where Petty jogs and Labonte rides his bicycle. They'd talk on airplane rides. One day, they ran into each other getting a bite to eat at Panera.
Petty delivered the same
plea every time: "Come drive that 43, man."
Petty was joking — at least he thought he was. Why would Labonte, the 2000 series champion, leave an elite team such as Joe Gibbs Racing for a once-dominant team that has fallen on two decades worth of hard times?
Turns out, the chance to help turn around Petty Enterprises proved more attractive to Labonte than Petty anticipated.
Todd Parrott, who won a championship with Dale Jarrett in 1999, will be Labonte's crew chief.
"He had people throwing money at him, fortune and fame and houses and cars and all kinds of stuff," Petty said.
"But in the end, this is where he chose to come."
Labonte's move is the latest and most high-profile step in a recent talent infusion that has the Petty people talking turnaround.
"In a short period of time, morale really went through the ceiling," Petty said.
team last season.
Robbie Loomis, who left the Pettys to become Jeff Gordon's crew chief in 2000, has returned to become the team's executive vice president.
Labonte and Petty both were involved in crashes in the season-opening Daytona 500, but Labonte showed the team's potential in the middle of the race by climbing into the top 10 and staying there, weaving his way to as high as sixth.
Asked to list reasonable goals for the season, Petty talks about trying to develop chemistry and becoming more consistent in the first half, then going after steady top-five and top-10 finishes in the second half.
They join Paul Andrews, another championship-winning crew chief, who came to the
NASCAR driver Bobby Labonte talks with crew chief Todd Parrott, right, and car owner Richard Petty during preparations for the Daytona 500 auto race.
AP Photo/John Raoux
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