Burning Questions: Michigan

By B. Duane Cross
August 14, 2001
5:29 PM EDT (2129 GMT)

1. Has Bobby Labonte turned the tide after a roller coaster first half?

"We know how to be consistent," says the defending Winston Cup points champion. "We just weren’t through the first half of the season. We have to work harder and harder to overcome what we did in the first part of the year." Indeed.

While he is in eighth place, 508 points behind leader Jeff Gordon, Labonte is only 89 points out of fifth place. Labonte’s victory in the Pennsylvania 500 ended a 24-race winless streak, a tough pill to swallow for a team that last year had four victories, 19 top-5's and 24 top-10's.

Still, a strong finish could take some of the chill of this year’s early season struggles. "If we can go out and be competitive and be consistent, not have any problems like we did at the beginning of the year, who knows where we can end up," says Labonte.

2. Will other teams follow Dodge’s lead with its diversity program?

What do Bill Lester, Willy T. Ribbs and Preston Tutt have in common? Each is a black driver in the Truck series. As a matter of fact, they are the only three black drivers in NASCAR’s top series -- and Ribbs is the only one who is full-time. Lester, who made his debut last week at Nashville driving for Bobby Hamilton’s team, qualified 10th and finished 30th after a crash. Tutt will try to make the field this week at Chicago.

"Everybody had been saying for years that NASCAR needed to enhance its minority presence," says Ray Richard, head of Dodge Motorsports’ truck racing division. "Dodge put its money where its mouth is."

Says veteran driver Denis Setzer: "I’m glad to see it [the minority presence]. If somebody is willing to give these guys an opportunity, which they obviously deserve, I don’t blame them for taking it. I’d take it, too."

3. Is there a double standard for perceived “major” sports and NASCAR?

The good ol’ boys are basking in increased TV ratings and stock car racing has become chic on Madison Avenue -- two factors that make NASCAR a player in sports marketing. However, as Larry Woody of The Tennessean points out, "NASCAR didn’t cause the death of Dale Earnhardt any more than the NFL caused the death of Korey Stringer. Yet it’s interesting that the armchair experts who have launched such an incensed crusade against NASCAR have not similarly taken the NFL to task."

Woody also notes that football -- from high school to college to the pros -- has experienced more participants’ deaths than NASCAR in recent years.

NASCAR will present the findings of its six-month investigation into Earnhardt’s fatal crash Aug. 21. But here’s the bottom line: A pack of cars went screaming into a corner at 200 mph, one spun out and hit a concrete wall. The driver didn't survive.