Atlanta track suits Bobby Labonte just fine
If there is any NASCAR track where Bobby Labonte can feel especially confident about his ability to pick up a win, it has to be Atlanta Motor Speedway, site of this Sunday’s Pep Boys 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race.
With six victories to his credit at the 1.540-mile track, Labonte has the most wins of any active Cup driver.
Although Labonte hasn’t won at Atlanta since the spring race there in 2003 and hasn’t finished in the top five since the fall race that same year, the 2000 Cup champion remains confident for Sunday’s Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta.
“Our intermediate track program has improved a lot over the last month or so,” said Labonte, driver of the No. 43 Petty Enterprises Dodge. “We’ve proven that we can run up front.”
In this year’s spring race at Atlanta, Labonte qualified fifth but had to settle for a 12th-place finish.
“I can’t think of a better track for us to continue the progress that we have made,” Labonte said.
In 31 career starts at Atlanta, Labonte has 12 top-five and 13 top-10 finishes.
Labonte said that NASCAR’s new model Cup car gives drivers plenty of opportunity to use the entire track to gain ground.
“With this new car we’ve seen guys run the very top, the bottom or the middle, even more than we did the last couple of years with the old car,” Labonte said.
“Atlanta gives you the ability to do that. We’ve had all year to work on getting the car to turn, and that has improved as well. That’s not been as big of an issue over the last several events on the intermediate tracks. The fans will be in for a great race this weekend.”
