Mowing yards? Not Bobby Labonte. Credit: Autostock

10 Questions: B. Labonte

Bobby Labonte has such a firm fix on -- and a wry sense of -- the reality of Nextel Cup Series racing that he did not take his older brother Terry's final ride in a competitive stock car last weekend in Texas too badly.

After all, he said, he'd still get to see his brother regularly, which is more than 99.9 percent of the other people who were there could even dream of.

But right now, with two races remaining, including Sunday's Checker Auto Parts 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, Bobby is most concerned with keeping his No. 43 Petty Enterprises Dodge team solidly in the top 20 in the drivers' and owners' standings.

Bobby took a break recently to answer 10 questions not necessarily connected to his racing career.

1. What's at the bottom of your "honey do" list?

Bobby Labonte's break from racing is another kind of ride. Credit: Autostock

Inside the Numbers Labonte's 2006 statistics Race Start Finish Status Daytona 8 35 crash Fontana 27 31 running Las Vegas 17 30 running Atlanta 4 43 engine Bristol 30 5 running Martinsville 13 32 running Texas 10 10 running Phoenix 21 8 running Talladega 31 29 engine Richmond 35 24 running Darlington 11 22 running Charlotte 5 17 running Dover 28 13 running Pocono 23 12 running Michigan 5 28 running Sonoma 21 35 crash Daytona 34 42 crash Chicago 6 12 running Loudon 27 23 running Pocono 27 8 running Indianapolis 38 40 engine Watkins Glen 36 24 running Michigan 25 19 running Bristol 3 23 running Fontana 28 26 running Richmond 27 22 running Loudon 29 40 crash Dover 26 7 running Kansas 16 17 running Talladega 39 10 running Charlotte 21 5 running Martinsville 30 3 running Atlanta 20 12 running Texas 13 16 running Average 21.6 21.3

Labonte: Hmmm. Mowing the grass. I'm allergic to grass, so I ain't going to do it. We have three-quarters of an acre that has to be done.

I got a son who you might think would get a kick outta that, but I think he'd say he's allergic to it, too. If he was smart, he would.

2. What's your ideal break from the racing grind?

Labonte: Riding my bicycle. I think I counted eight of them the other day, so that's my bicycle fetish. My weekly mileage is not much, because I just don't have time. If I can get 75 to 100 miles in, that's pretty good -- and that's over two or three days. My Trek is my favorite.

I sometimes take a bike on the road with me. The favorite place I've found to ride is out in Pasadena, Calif. Me and a friend of mine, Jeff, go riding around out there out by the Rose Bowl and through the mountains and stuff like that. It's not bad.

3. Which athlete outside of racing do you most admire?

Labonte: I'd say Lance Armstrong, for what he's overcome -- and I did a commercial with him and I've kind of stayed close with him as far as knowing people that know him.

So you mention him or you ask questions to see what they're doing and to see what he's doing, and I think just the focus that he has on what he's focused on -- and that was winning, just winning.

I think that he tunes things out and he puts everything into doing what he's doing. There's no bull in it. To me I'm so impressed by his focus, his leadership, his determination, his stamina and his commitment that, by God, second is just not good enough.

Second ain't even in the picture. Don't worry about second, because it can't happen.

When I met him, he was really nice, really intellectual and very smart; but you can tell that he had that persona about him that you could tell that he was a person that gets everything out of everything.

And that's why he is, and why he was, as successful as he was.

4. Who are you glad you're not?

Labonte: Probably Mike Tyson. I don't know why I said that one; I just came up with it. He'll probably whip my tail, now.

It's his reputation. He had great athletic achievements, but it just didn't work out for him, did it? I mean, he could have controlled that better, I think.

5. What is must-see TV for you?

Labonte: You know, the Discovery Channels, the Home & Garden TVs, the History Channels -- but no reality shows. Those drive me crazy, so I'm never on that one.

Real stuff, but not 'reality' -- exactly. Nothing real about 'em, and that just drives me crazy.

6. If you could go back in time, what period in history would you like to live in and why?

Labonte: I guess in the 1800s. When did they go west and discover everything out there -- the late 1700s or early 1800s?

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I'd like to be the cat -- who was it that discovered the Grand Canyon? He went from the East Coast to the West Coast in a freaking wagon and a horse. What did he do when he got to the Grand Canyon?

What did he think -- you know what I mean? What were they thinking? I mean, today we cross over and it's pretty amazing, but back then there were no roads, so how did you get there, you know what I mean?

You think about this. Me, if I don't eat six times a day, I'm starving to death. Back then, there were no grocery stores and you had to fight for your food to live.

That, to me, would make you -- that would put hair on your chest. You'd have to be pretty damned tough to get through that time, so I think that would be cool because America will never see that again.

That was the time in America when that happened, whereas now, heck, people walk across America on a road or ride it on a bike and whatever. So back then was amazing.

7. What was your first job and your most vivid memory of it?

Labonte: My first job was selling used race tires to the cotton farmers in Corpus Christi, Texas. They bought 'em from me, and I was about 8 or 9 years old.

I was pretty sure that I was getting the better end of the stick and it was pretty well documented later that they bought these racecar tires from us -- and they weren't really wide, they were more like street tires, and they put them on their tractors -- or wagons -- to put the hay on them.

I got paid, but they didn't hold no air. Of course, they didn't know that at the time, but I thought that was pretty slick on my part but it didn't work out very good for them when they had flat tires.

I didn't have to worry about going back to the same place twice. Dude, I got my money and I was gone. I had my Whataburger money and my bicycle money and my skateboard money.

8. What is your favorite recent movie, and what is your favorite all-time flick?

	Don't ever buy tires from Bobby Labonte. Credit: Autostock
	Inside the Numbers Labonte's Phoenix statistics Year Start Finish Status 1993 20 8 running 1994 28 16 running 1995 23 37 running 1996 1 9 running 1997 4 23 running 1998 37 23 running 1999 6 3 running 2000 9 5 running 2001 18 12 running 2002 33 39 engine 2003 24 36 running 2004 27 9 running 2005 4 6 running   5 5 running 2006 21 8 running Average 17.3 15.9

Labonte: Walk the Line is my favorite recent movie.

My favorite of all-time would be that classic, Stroker Ace. I'm just kidding -- I'd never say that. But I was actually here when that happened, so I have a perspective.

I'd say that my favorite all-time movie has got to be that funny one that I watch over and over a lot of times, is Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? Have you seen it?

You need to watch that one. You need to watch it two or three times before you get it all.

9. Who is the coolest celebrity or most impressive person you've had the opportunity to meet?

Labonte: George Bush. To me he is the most impressive. I've listened to him speak in person and I've met him before he was president and after he was president, and I've listened to him talk to us in the White House and in the Oval Office.

He is just as genuine as they come. He's more of a human being than people give him credit for. People that don't know him, or know what's going on -- well, it's like anything else, or the way it is a lot of times.

You might not like that guy, but it's probably because you've never met him. You don't like him because, well, he just said something that I didn't like. But if you were ever to listen to him talk, or shake his hand and listen to him talk in person, he's pretty impressive.

He's a very admirable person and he's a person who, and I heard this the other night, but the polls do not sway how he makes decisions. You know, there are 69,000 people on television that talk bad about him because he's not doing the things that they think he ought to be doing.

But he's doing the things that he was raised to do -- that his upbringing brought him to do -- and that the people around him think is the right thing, which is better than being influenced by people that are not in his shoes.

10. What have you learned about yourself in the last year?

Labonte: I've learned to come into the garage area with an open mind on my race setups -- on my car setups for that day.