Catchfence

Yates Racing has added former NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion Bobby Labonte and Paul Menard to its team for 2009, joining Travis Kvapil in what will start the season as a three-car team.  Labonte and Kvapil spoke about their situations during last week’s Lowe’s Motor Speedway media tour.

BOBBY LABONTE – No. 96 Ask.com Ford Fusion — HOW HAS THIS VENTURE GONE SO FAR?  “Well, it’s been nine or 10 days into is so things are still new for me, but I’m so excited.  It’s a great opportunity and it’s just weird that it happened in January.  The good thing is it happened before the media tour because that way now we can get Ask.com and the folks at Hall of Fame Racing out there in the media.  But if it was a perfect world, it would have happened in September, October, November, but it’s gonna be great.  A lot of things have transpired the last 10 days and we’re going racing.  The guys at the race shop, the race cars are built and we’ve got cars going everywhere, so it’s a flurry of activity.” 

IS GETTING READY FOR THE SEASON AS EXCITING AS EVER OR IS IT HARD TO GET UP FOR?  “I look at this as a reset.  I figure the next race I win will feel like the first one because you have success and you want more success, if you really want to do it.  You want to have it.  It’s about winning and being the best you can be in the sport that you’re in, so I view it that way myself.  I feel like this is a great opportunity and it’s given me that reset button that I can push and go forward, so, hopefully, great things will come out because of that.” 

HOW STRESSFUL IS IT TO GO THROUGH THAT?  “My agent, Terry Labonte, and advisor and all that stuff has always advised me of things to do and not that I took everything into perspective, but I think I’ve done a lot of the right things and I guess I’ve made him proud because I did take a lot of his advice and made it to wherever something were to happen to anybody – if something were to happen, we’re OK.  But, obviously, just the opportunity and the desire to do what you want to do, and being able to get up everyday with the desire to race to win, is still there.” 

DID YOU BEAT UP THE PHONES TO GET THROUGH THE OFFSEASON?  “I beat up the phones some and then I kind of laid off, and then my wife said, ‘You need to beat them up,’ but I hated to bother people too much because I didn’t want to wear people out.  I’ve seen that happen before, so I said, ‘Well, I’ll go back to the phones and start wearing people out again.’  I think that was the rollercoaster part of the movie.  Then there were some horror times in it, but then we could laugh about it sometimes, too.  I got a lot more done and kind of realized a lot more than what I might have worried about before and took for granted before.” 

WHAT WERE THE THINGS IN YOUR MIND WHEN THE YATES OPPORTUNITY CAME UP?  DID YOU THINK IT WOULD BE A GOOD PLACE TO LAND?  “Oh yeah, definitely.  Like I said the other day, I had a conversation with Doug late last year and the complicated part about life and stuff like that is I couldn’t do anything, really, until after my release was signed.  That wouldn’t have been right.  But he (Doug) was one of the first guys I called and left him a message saying, ‘Hey, I finally got out of this deal,’ and I knew if he could have, or if we could have made the deal happen then, I think it could have, but a lot of things had to take place before it could happen.  There’s no doubt in my mind that with Todd and the resources that are there, and the group that’s been put together – and the Hall of Fame thing has added to it.  I’m not saying it’s a great opportunity just because it’s a ride, it’s a great opportunity because it’s more than just a ride.  It’s hard to explain it over what I’ve done, but I don’t think I even know the potential of it yet.  What we’re gonna make of it is what the potential is.” 

DOUG SAID JUST HAVING UNIFORMS WITH SPONSORS ON IT IS A BIG DEAL AROUND THE SHOP.  “Yeah.  I think that definitely would boost anybody’s morale and I think we need to be appreciative of that.  If the bat would have swung the other way, what would have happened?  We all feel this is a great opportunity and Todd being the main focus for me by being the crew chief and making sure the chemistry is right and having great teammates and great resources, there’s a lot more there that I haven’t even probably seen and touched yet or felt yet.  Obviously, I haven’t even been to the race track.  It’s a weird time because we haven’t tested yet.” 

IN A LOT OF WAYS YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE UNTIL YOU GET IN THE CAR.  “Yeah, until you get the first practice and at this point in time, the first practice will be it, so that will be unique and challenging in itself.  I’ve talked to Biffle before.  I’ve talked to Paul before, so I can actually go and ask those questions that you wanted to ask before but you never did because my personality wouldn’t let me go and dig into things that would probably be private, so this is a great opportunity for me and I don’t think I could ask for anything better.  If it was September of last year or January this year, it would be the same feeling.  I guess that’s the key thing we’ve got to put our focus on.  We’ve been given a great opportunity and we’ve got to make the best of this.” 

TRAVIS KVAPIL – No. 28 Yates Racing Ford Fusion — YOU HAVE TO BE OPTIMISTIC WITH THE SITUATION YOU’RE IN.  “I’m very optimistic.  Just knowing where our team was a year ago and how much we’ve grown since then, we’re going to work on building on the success that we had a year ago.  I mean, when I came to Yates Racing a year ago, I never drove the COT and didn’t know anything about a bump stop, but I just learned so much.  I just feel like we’re gonna be pretty strong to start the year off.  Obviously, we don’t have sponsorship but we are gonna go to the first five and they’re gonna give me a chance to go out and perform and run good and, hopefully, we can piece it together.  We did a great job of doing that last year.” 

DO YOU HAVE TO JUST FOCUS ON ONE RACE AT A TIME AND NOT THINK ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE FIRST FIVE ARE OVER?  “Yeah, obviously we’d like an ideal situation where we know we’re going racing with sponsors, but that’s just not the case.  I’m disappointed that we are only going to potentially only run a partial schedule, but at the same time, I know there is a great list of drivers that are on the outside looking in right now, so I’m just grateful to Ford and Yates Racing and everybody involved that they’re gonna give me a chance to go out and try to perform.  If we do that, it will all come together.” 

WHAT OTHER THINGS TO YOU HAVE WORKING BESIDES CUP?  “Right now during the offseason we’ve been working on trying to get the Cup situation figured out and what direction we’re gonna head, and we’re working really hard with the marketing team trying to be on the phone and call sponsors myself and do everything I can.  I think there will be opportunities for us in Nationwide or possibly truck races throughout the year, but right now I’m just really focused on trying to get the 28 car running up front and if we can do that, hopefully we’re doing that all season long.” 

HOW FAR HAS THIS ORGANIZATION COME?  “You see so many new teams that are young and starting out and they say, ‘We’re gonna go racing,’ but I think the thing to think about with Yates Racing is this is an established team and we definitely have some credibility and proved ourselves with what we did a year ago, and now bringing in Paul and Bobby is even adding to that credibility.  So if there are deals that are gonna be put together, I hope it’s with us – a team that is established and ready to go.  Everything is in place, and that’s gonna be our goal to do that.  Ideally, it’s not what we want to do, but I think that’s definitely a possibility.” 

WHAT ABOUT GOING TO DAYTONA AND THE CHANCE TO GET OFF TO A GOOD START?  “I think Yates Racing, Roush Fenway, Ford – all in general we have a great plate program.  I think the biggest part of that is our engine program.  Doug and the guys do a great job over there and obviously having Todd Parrott on my side last year was a great asset as well.  Unfortunately, we wrecked a lot of speedway cars at Talladega between the Ford group, but at the same time it gave us an opportunity to build all brand new stuff pretty much, or take what we had and rebuild it.  I know our fleet is pretty solid and I think we’ll all qualify good – especially for the 28 it’s important because we’re gonna go in without points and it would be pretty cool to win the pole for the 500.  I think that’s our goal.” 

ARE YOU GOING TO BE ABLE TO STEP IT UP THIS YEAR?  “I hope so.  We showed last year we could do it, but we’d have a top 10 once and then it would be another month before we’d do it again, so we need to be a lot more consistent.  A lot of that I feel like with me understanding the car and working with Todd for the first time last year, I was just kind of getting back into it.  Just having a year under our belts as a team, we actually look like a race team now when you go to our shop, instead of just moving into the building and here we go.  The team is much more prepared.  Our relationship and the understanding of our relationship with the Roush group is stronger.  A year ago we were trying to get set up with information from them and we weren’t sure where the boundaries were, but now we know where we all stand and all that engineering and stuff is behind us.  I’m confident going into the season.  We do need to run in the top-15 or top-20 every race and that’s our goal.  If we can do that and get a few top 10s in there, we can contend.  We really don’t have much to lose.  Right now, our team is kind of looking at doing a limited schedule due to the finances, so we’re gonna go out there and try to win races and run up front and try to take chances.  We’ve got to get our 28 car up front and get it noticed, so that’s what our plan is.” 

CAN YOU ELABORATE ON YOUR LIMITED SCHEDULE?  “I guess we don’t have anything set in stone, but I know we’re going to the first five for sure and we’ll take it from there.  This is an established team.  It’s not like this is something that has been piece-mealed together.  We’ve got a lot of talent.  There was a lot of talent in the industry that came to work for us at a moment’s notice, so we’re really excited about what we’ve got going on.” 

DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE A LEG UP ON SOME OTHERS AS FAR AS SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES?  “Not just a leg up on putting deals together, but if there was any money that was going to come into this sport or a sponsor that wanted to look at moving, I think the 28 team is the first place you look.  We ran all season.  We ended up 23^rd in points last year – reasonable – we definitely expect better, but it was not bad for what we had to work with and this season we’re established and have a solid group of people and I’ve got a few years under my belt.  We can go out and compete, so we’re planning on going out in these first five races and running really competitively and get as much exposure as we can.” 

WHO IS GOING TO CREW CHIEF THE 28?  “Ben Leslie.  He’s actually on a dual assignment.  He works for Ford and is kind of a liaison between the manufacturer, the teams and NASCAR.  He was key in developing the COT for Ford and the manufacturer, so he’s a proven winner.  It’s been a couple of years since he’s been on the pit box calling a race, but he’s very familiar with the Ford program and the Roush group and the Yates group and he should slide right into place and be up to speed.”