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The Internet, what a great tool for finding answers. If you have a problem or a question you just go to one of those search engines, type it in and a wealth of information is in your hands instantly. I don't know how it happens. It might be magic or something. I don't know, but you can find anything on the Internet these days ... well, almost.

500 in a row

Bobby Labonte heads to Dover this weekend to make his 500th consecutive start.

"Making 500 career starts was a pretty high mark, but now to make 500 consecutive starts is something that is going to top that," Labonte said. "You reach certain marks in your career and you wonder if you can ever do something better."

In Labonte's 30 previous visits to the 1-mile track he has a win in 1999, 11 top-fives and 14 top-10s.

Labonte heads to Dover 17th in points, only 92 points out of the 15th position.

"Having 500 consecutive starts is pretty special because this is such a demanding sport," said Labonte, who is second by one race to Jeff Gordon in consecutive starts. "It's a very humbling sport, and you have to continue to work hard to reach new goals. This is something that is cool, but now it's time to move to the next goal."

Having taken over the crew chief responsibilities for Bobby Labonte and the No. 43 Dodge I've been responsible for taking the best cars to the track as possible, and then getting them better once we are at the track. The past few weeks that means preparing a lot of Dodge Avengers. The Avenger is our Car of Tomorrow that will hit the track full time next season.

Coming from Ginn Racing where I was working on their Busch Series program I wasn't as involved in the Car of Tomorrow. That doesn't mean it's a stranger to me, but I've been getting up to speed more and more.

I think I've tried every search engine possible on the World Wide Web for answers on the Car of Tomorrow. I typed in all sorts of different questions, even checked my spelling twice, but I just couldn't find an answer about the perfect setup for these cars. I found a bunch of great information about how the car is safer, is going to eventually cut costs and will increase the competition. That's great information and exciting for our sport, but it's not going to help me win this weekend in Dover.

I was starting to get a little frustrated, and my family was mad at me for taking all the time on the computer. I looked all over the place. I scanned over NASCAR.COM nearly a dozen times. I just came to the realization and the fact that there just isn't a whole lot of information about the setups for these cars yet. Hey, I know. I've looked. This car didn't come with the manual. NASCAR left that out. They gave us the rules about what the car needs to look like, but it didn't have the setup pages in it.

So the biggest challenge that I've faced since coming over to Petty Enterprises has been learning the Car of Tomorrow. It's a delicate piece and it's a bit sensitive to changes. There are different elements to it. You have a wing on the back and a splitter on the front. It's bigger and boxier. It's a different racecar than anything we've had, but it's still a racecar and we're still a race team.

I've been fortunate to have a great support group to work with preparing and racing these cars. The mechanics on the No. 43 team, Robbie Loomis and Billy Wilburn have pitched in ideas and Bobby Labonte has given a lot of feedback on the track.

It didn't take us long to get rolling with it when I came over. We went to Bristol and just raced to the front and put it in the top 10. Richmond and New Hampshire weren't where we wanted to be, but we were better than a lot of other guys, too. There isn't anyone that has the answers for this new car. It's still a huge learning process for every person in the garage.

This weekend it's Dover and the next opportunity to learn something new about this car. It will be my first time at the track with this Avenger, but Labonte and this team have already put this car third on the grid in June and finished 18th. I'm not going to stop looking for all the right answers on this Car of Tomorrow. I'm going to keep studying and learning and come this Sunday we're hoping to finish a lot better than 18th.

See you in Victory Lane,
Doug Randolph