Inside the Halls of Petty: Off to Indy, then 'Dega

Hey guys, this is Bobby. I wanted to give Robbie this week off and give everyone an update of what's happening with the No. 43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge team. Obviously it has been a very busy time. We're in a long stretch of races that will eventually lead into the Chase. Each race is important, and we have to make the best of them.

Phoenix was a good weekend for us. It was our third run with the Car of Tomorrow and, by far, our best. We didn't have a qualifying run that we were hoping for, but the race fell into our hands. Our car was tight, but Paul [crew chief Andrews] made good calls in the pits and we ended up in the top 10. We got the breaks that we needed and ended with a good night.

Inside Petty

Bobby Labonte with VP of Operations Robbie Loomis

Yeah, we needed that. Martinsville and Texas weren't the runs we were looking for. We had some bad luck, but hopefully Phoenix got us back on track. I think we're hitting on some good things with this Car of Tomorrow. The Bristol race was just Bristol. We didn't get a chance to really run it at Martinsville. We learned more about it at Richmond testing and now we have a top-10 finish with it. Everyone has a long way to go, and we certainly need to learn more, but we're getting better.

We're heading to Talladega this weekend. We're going to head to Indianapolis first and do a Goodyear tire test. That's going to be really important for us. In the past, every team has had the opportunity to test Indy before the Brickyard 400. We don't have that test this season. We're hoping to take advantage of this tire test to learn more about our cars for the Brickyard 400. That's a big race, and having won it in the past, I know how cool it is to be in Victory Lane at Indy. I want to get back there.

So, the team is going to work hard there and then we'll board the planes and head out to Talladega. We're going back to restrictor-plate racing and anything can happen at these races. I've had a teammate's car land on my hood and I've taken the checkered flag, too. That's what Talladega is all about -- anything can happen and it's usually pretty big when it does happen.

We feel pretty good going into the weekend. Our plate program hasn't been bad. The Evernham engines have had good horsepower and our cars have been getting better. We had a top-10 finish in October. That's a lot of credit to the guys preparing the cars back in the shop and on the road. We have had good cars at Daytona and Talladega. Hopefully we have a good run and stay out of trouble. You need a little luck at Talladega.

We're running a Spiderman 3 paint scheme this weekend. That's pretty cool. The movies have been very popular with families and kids. We have a pretty awesome looking car this weekend. I think a lot of the guys at home are going to enjoy it. Who knows, maybe Spiderman can help us climb through the field.

We have a lot of things we're working on right now. Testing at Indianapolis, preparing for Talladega and still learning more about the Car of Tomorrow are the main objectives in the next few days. The evolution of the Car of Tomorrow is really important to us. Our engineers are studying data and learning how we can get better. It's good to know that we can be inside the top 10 with it, but we want to know how to win with it at Richmond.

The future of the sport is here with this car and we need to be on top of it. We're happy with what we did at Phoenix, but we want more. We need to learn more. The guys at the shop are working hard and hopefully we can give Dodge its first Car of Tomorrow win.

Until Richmond we're going to be up on the wheel at Talladega. That's the next race and come Sunday we'll have all eyes on the checkered flag.

See you in Victory Lane,
Bobby Labonte