I have attended a handful of races, been on some pit roads and in a few garages, and enjoyed a few motorsports shows. I belong to a few racing message boards, and have 'instant messaged' with some of my racing friends in cyberspace. I have been writing racing columns for a few years now, and have exchanged emails with some very fine racing fans.

Having said all that, however, I can't say that I personally know even a fraction of the racing fans out there. The NASCAR publicity machine quotes that there are 75,000,000 of them, and despite the controversy of whether that's an accurate tally or not, I can reliably state that I am sure I do not know even a paltry 1,000,000 of them.

Whether or not that enables me to speak for fans out there everywhere, I still feel very confident in saying that I speak for most of them when I say that I want Bobby Labonte in Victory Lane, and I want him there soon.

There are other drivers with large fan bases experiencing downturns in their careers, and less popular drivers struggling every week to make races. There are 'superstar' drivers showing new sides to themselves and veterans experiencing a blaze of glory before their impending retirement.

It is Bobby Labonte, however, the driver of the No. 43 Dodge, that remains the one driver that I have never heard a bad thing about. No matter what form of conversation I have been involved in about drivers, be it face-to-face or over the internet, Labonte remains the single one that, it seems, everyone wishes well. Whether they are speaking of him as a previous NASCAR Champion, a racer on the track, or a husband and father, all comments are complimentary. This has spanned the years of Bobby's career, and has followed him from Joe Gibbs Racing to his current home with Petty Enterprises.

Fans know that Bobby is fiercely competitive, and the recent transmission woes at Martinsville and engine failure at Atlanta must have been hard to take. But there have been glimpses of possible glory during these first few months of racing, including his fifth place finish at Bristol.

The fans' reaction to Labonte wheeling that No. 43 and all its history into Victory Lane would be relished by racing fans everywhere. With the news that STP will be returning to the hood of Bobby's car for two races this year (at Talladega at the end of this month, and Richmond in early September) everybody's heart ought to be … well… racing at the thought.