Catching up with ... Robbie Loomis

LOOMIS

Robbie Loomis, longtime NASCAR crew chief, is vice president of racing operations at Petty Enterprises. He oversees preparation of the No. 43 Dodge driven by Bobby Labonte and the No. 45 Dodge of Kyle Petty. Although the Petty cars haven't been up to par in recent seasons, Labonte has four top-10 finishes in the past seven races, while Petty scored a top-10 at Martinsville and was 11th at Texas Motor Speedway. Loomis spoke with reporters at Texas about his new role in the sport:

On moving the Petty team to a higher level: "I think Petty Enterprises has grown a lot this year.We've got a lot of great personnel. We're still looking to add some personnel, especially in our pit-crew area and engineering. We want to step it up. The cars are so equal now, we really want to work hard on our pit crews performing on the top level.We've got some good guys in there with great hearts, and we just want to keep complementing it.We're on a hard search for pit crew members right now."

On the particular pit-crew position he needs to fill: "I think when it comes down to it, it's obvious that we need to look for tire changers, and that's probably the toughest position in this garage to fill. A lot of teams are looking for

them, and we want to make sure we keep stepping our program up."

On the drawbacks of having the team headquartered in Level Cross, N.C., away from the racing hub around Charlotte: "The distance of being an hour from Charlotte sometimes hurts us.We're trying to figure ways to get extra incentives in there for the pitcrew guys, even if it's a part-time pit-crew guy coming in to change the tires. I feel like we can find someone in the truck series or Busch Series that will turn out to be four- or five-year veterans at Petty Enterprises. I just want the best tire changer we can get out there on pit road. I don't care if he's full time or not."

On new plans for 2007: "We've got a lot of plans in place. We can't do anything with hitting one home run.We've got to have a lot of singles first, make a few errors and just take small steps. We've come a long way this year, and we hope to continue the growth. I hope we can make big strides next year like we've made this season."

On the impact Bobby Labonte has had since joining the team last winter: "I think the winning attitude he brings has meant the most. He's instilled in these guys that they're winners. A lot of them haven't won yet, but he makes them feel like they're winners and treats them great."