Defiant Labbe accepts 4-week suspension
CHARLOTTE -- Suspended crew chief Richard "Slugger" Labbe will grudgingly sit out the next four NASCAR Nextel Cup events while the No. 88 Robert Yates Racing team races under the leadership of car chief Jason Burdett.
Labbe, who attended the Nextel Pit Crew Challenge on Wednesday night, said he will spend his time getting ready for upcoming tests at Nashville and Virginia International Raceway. He also said he hopes to attend a tire test at Indianapolis and the "car of tomorrow" test at Charlotte over the next four weeks.
The National Stock Car Racing Commission denied Labbe's appeal Wednesday afternoon over penalties stemming from an illegal sway bar at Richmond. The team and driver Dale Jarrett were docked 25 points, and Labbe was fined $25,000 in addition to the suspension.
Labbe said he didn't have much hope going into the appeal because of previous suspensions to crew chiefs Chad Knaus of Hendrick Motorsports' No. 48 Chevrolet for Jimmie Johnson and Todd Berrier of Richard Childress Racing's No. 29 Chevrolet for Kevin Harvick over the last year and a half.
"I went in there expecting to lose just because of past history," Labbe said about the appeal. "When you sit down and really think about it, it wouldn't have been fair to Chad Knaus or Todd Berrier if they wouldn't have suspended me because they had violations.
"They're trying to set a trend. ... It's their game, and we breathe the air. I still don't believe what I did was wrong. That doesn't matter right now. The thing that matters is I'm out for four weeks."
Labbe said sitting out will be tough and he has not thought about how much contact he will have with the team during his suspension. He picked Burdett the car chief, to run the team. Raymond Fox III, who is the crew chief for RYR in the Busch Series, will help call the races, if needed.
"I'm not going to kill myself over it, that's for sure," Labbe said. "In four weeks it will be over with. I will go to Michigan and everything will be just fine."
In its statement denying the appeal, the Commission stated that the team had been warned about the rear of the car earlier this season.
"Just like anything else, we had something at Texas that was not the same with what we got caught with at Richmond," Labbe said. "They warned us about it. And when I went to Richmond and got caught with something different, I guess they felt that I was pushing the rules too much and it was time to shut me down."
Appealing the penalty allowed Labbe to be with the team at Darlington last weekend and also address the media and his critics there. He also said he wanted to take the heat and not team owner Robert Yates, who had said that blatant cheaters should be fired.
Labbe said he didn't think what he did was blatant.
"I wanted to set the story straight that it wasn't Robert, it wasn't the team - it was me that pushed the rule," Labbe said.
Labbe said he hopes that NASCAR remains consistent with how it dishes out penalties in the future.
"I just hope that the next person that gets caught, they don't put him on probation. I wasn't on probation," Labbe said.
