|
Throughout the first half of the 2004 Nextel Cup Series season, it appeared as if Bobby Labonte was a lock to qualify for
the 10-race playoff. After a crew chief change mid-season, the team struggled to find a setup Labonte was comfortable with.
Labonte fell to 12th overall by season's end, marking just the third time since 1996 he failed to finish in the top 10, and
the first time in a decade-long tenure at JGR that he failed to win a race. "Obviously last year was a unique situation for
our race team to make a change in the middle of the year," Labonte said.
While Kasey Kahne was close on several occasions last year -- he recorded five second-place finishes -- he never did
break through to Victory Lane. That, he says, should change in 2005 with the help of new personnel and an upgraded restrictor-plate
package. "With me being a rookie last year, it was tough on the team to know (in what areas) to work," Kahne said. "This year
we have a better idea where we have to get better. We'll be much better at plate races and can save tests until the end of
the year."
Dale Jarrett isn't ready for the rocking chair just yet. And he hopes to prove it in 2005. With Rusty Wallace and Mark
Martin ending their Nextel Cup careers this season, many have wondered who would be next to head out to pasture. Jarrett,
at 48 -- the same age as Wallace and two years older than Martin -- is approaching retirement age. But not so fast, Jarrett
said. "If anything is going to wear on me physically, I want it to be the actual racing itself," he said. Jarrett, though,
is fighting an uphill battle.
|
