TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) Bobby Labonte & Todd Berrier — Notes & Quotes JTG-Daugherty Racing (JTG-D) — Media Tour — January 25, 2012
BOBBY LABONTE, No. 47 Kroger Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing What is it like to be a small team in NASCAR? “It’s got its pros and cons. It’s definitely not going to be easy, but there are a lot of things that we can do as a small team that will make some differences. The great support of Toyota and their facility and what they give us is like being a part of a big organization. It’s just now that Tad (Geschickter, team owner), Jodi (Geschickter, team owner) and Brad (Daugherty, team owner) have to put the funding into it to make that happen. There are a lot of good things with that and I think that’s a plus for us. With a small group — everybody has to pull their weight. I do believe there is a challenge for us, but at the same time we’ll have to hit everything right and if we do then we’ll have more success than not.”
Do you feel a responsibility to lead the team with your experience level? “I think there is a part that is a responsibility that I have, but its spread out. There’s a lot of professionals in the team that have been around the sport as long as I have too in many different ways. I look at it that we all are going to share the thoughts and experience that we might have together. Not one person can do it and not one person can take the load. Hopefully, that’s the key, is that we all will be able to make it happen together and not really put it on anybody’s shoulders. Hopefully, take some of the relief off of Tad (Geschickter, team owner) having to do some things and let him do what he does best and give Todd (Berrier, crew chief and general manager) the reigns to do what he does best and all that stuff. That’s the things that I’ve seen over the last 10 years and through racing — it’s built on a team, it’s not built on one person. Trust me, what I might say or what I might think I have seen in the past might not work today and it might not be the best thing for our team. Hopefully, we can just work together and make the right decisions together and proceed on like that. All the experience we have will help out.”
Do you think making the 2013 cars look more like production cars is good for NASCAR? “I think so. I hated to see it when it went to the common template or a common looking race car with just decals looking different. It definitely takes something out of it. The fans that we have look at that and really want to see that. That’s the cars they go buy. It’s not a F1 car, it’s not an Indy Car — you don’t go buy those at the dealership. I do believe that’s a big key for all the manufacturers and I think that’s going to get them enthused more than they have been. I think it’s definitely a key that we can go back to that, ‘Win on Sunday, sell on Monday’ thing, which is what it was based upon.”
What does Todd Berrier bring to the race team? “With his (Todd Berrier, crew chief) experience that he has — what he can bring to the table. He can do a lot of things that maybe some people can’t do. He’s going to be able to multitask and do those things. He’ll admit that maybe he doesn’t know anything about that so he will let somebody else take care of that. If you admit that and know that going into it then it’s always a better way than saying, ‘Hey, I know everything.’ I’ve known Todd for a long time — he’s got a great track record and is very successful. I never worked with him one-on-one, but he’s worked on my cars before when we had problems at a short track here and there back a long time ago. I know him real well and I know that he will be able to do things that I haven’t had in the past. He’s the perfect fit for this organization and for this team because he can multitask and he can do several things. He can make people accountable for what they need to be accountable for.”
What are your expectations for this year? “We’re looking for a top-20 at the end of the year for sure. There’s going to be some stronger race tracks for us that we will go to and we’ll know we have more confidence at than we will at some of them because we may not have all the best of everything that a lot of the other guys might have on us. It will all be good and we will all make it happen. There’s a lot of things that we can do and that we even started doing towards the end of the year with the same people and same equipment that we said, ‘Hey, let’s do some different things.’ With pit strategies and this and that — it resulted in better finishes. All of a sudden when you’re out finishing 15th, 16th, 17th — it’s way better than 22nd, 23rd, 24th. The equipment didn’t change — it was just a matter of thought processes and things like that on how we handle things. I think every Sunday — no different than any other team, we’ll give it our best and have some races that we know we will have more confidence going into. All in all it’s going to be a great way to build our race team into a bigger team next year as well.”
How do you think NASCAR’s ‘Boys, have at it’ has impacted the racing? “I guess it kind of comes and goes every so often. They (NASCAR) will let everybody have at it – then they’ll fine you a lot. Then you don’t have at it. Then they’ll say, ‘We need to have at it again.’ Then they won’t fine you as much. Then they will fine you a lot so you don’t have at it anymore. I think this is just one of those things where you have to just find your balance.”
TODD BERRIER, crew chief, No. 47 Kroger Toyota Camry, JTG-Daugherty Racing Do you want to wait until 2013 to become a two-car team in order to wait for the new car design? “The new car is going to be a fair amount of work going in and this year we had a fair amount of work starting in October to get this thing going. We would love to have two cars now, but it just didn’t make sense having to put all the development work in and all that stuff knowing that all the new stuff is coming in 2013. Having another team would also allow us to have greater resources and anytime we have other people to bounce ideas off of and teammates and things like that — it’s just going to enhance our whole program. We’re focusing to be that. I don’t really want to be a whole lot bigger than that. I’ve been a part of things a lot bigger than that and I think two is the number we’re shooting for at this point.”
How do you compare working with a smaller team versus the large teams? “I’ve been a part of things smaller than this up to things larger than this. It is cool to know that we do have a small group of people and we all impact it a lot. If one person lays out of work today — everybody is going to have to work five minutes to make it up. Before, when you grow these things into monsters, you can have 10 people lay out and you didn’t even know anybody was missing. The only thing different is that we have resources and pretty much the same resources — I think with Toyota and their backing and the things they support us with, it’s no different than what I’ve been used to.”
Are you surprised by all of the resources from Toyota Racing Development? “I’ve only been part of virtually one racing team my whole life and we had, what I thought, was everything to race and I thought we had more than anybody had. We did have a lot of things as a team, but then when you go and look at what Toyota has done and the facility they built and some of the equipment they have. Toyota has made a huge commitment to it and a lot more of a commitment than any of the individual teams have made. Those guys have everything it takes — above and beyond anything I’m used to. The way you schedule it and the way you work on things and all that stuff there is pretty cool. On our side of things, we just have to empower a group of people to be able to use that part of it.”
What are your expectations for this season? “My expectations are to be able to go win one or more of the speedway races and to run 15th to 20th every week. I’m really content with that this year. I think if I expected to go run in the top-five every weekend and then we ran 15th to 20th — we would be too worried about finishing in the top-five rather than working to make our car as good as possible during the race.”
