| | | | | | PAIRING OFF | Bobby Labonte, Meendering settling into relationship | |
| | By SceneDaily Staff DAYTONA BEACH, FL -- Bobby Labonte says new crew chief Jeff Meendering is an intense competitor with a lot of knowledge of the the Sprint Cup Series' race car.
Meendering, the former car chief for Jeff Gordon at Hendrick Motorsports, joined Labonte's Petty Enterprises team during the offseason. This week, he and Labonte were among the drivers involved in the NASCAR Sprint Cup test at Daytona International Speedway.
Labonte said that he and Meendering are still getting to know one another.
"He is a very intense guy, has a lot of knowledge and knows the race car very well," Labonte said. "He has raced in the past, so all of those are pluses. The only minus is it's going to take some time to gel. I don't think that is going to take long. But I wish we could already be six months into this relationship.
"He is a hard worker, dedicated, and I think he has a great head on his shoulders. It will be part of the chemistry that we need at Petty Enterprises. He knows Robbie Loomis [Petty executive vice president of racing operations] real well, and he understands the ins and outs of racing. He has a wealth of knowledge, and he backs himself up with good people. He understands that he has to have good people behind him to make it all work."
Labonte is looking forward to more testing with Meendering. All the Cup teams test at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and California Speedway in the coming weeks, giving them a chance to learn more about this car on the intermediate tracks.
Labonte says that these tests are crucial as the teams try to get a handle on NASCAR's new model.
"I think it is going to be real important," he said of those tests.
"The biggest track that we've had this car on was Atlanta. That was for a couple of days. I think we're going to get a wealth of information at Vegas at Fontana. Our learning curve, for everybody, is going to be a lot. We're not going to drop in there like we did last year at Vegas.
"All the teams have a lot of information already that will help it. Track time will be big for all of us to try and get better. To try and get our cars to handle good and understand what they do, I think it will be a big swing for us."
| | Posted January 19, 2008 , 7:58 am EST
Last Updated January 19, 2008 , 7:59 am EST | | | | | | | | | | |
