...shortcuts. As many as 80 percent of the ideas never make it pass the drawing board, Joe Gibbs Racing vice president Jimmy Makar said. "After they come up with a bunch of ideas, then you have to figure out if you can produce that part. These...

...contender for the championship since. Why? "When you can answer that question, you let me know," team vice president Jimmy Makar told the Sporting News. "I'd love to know the answer to that one. It goes back to the old thing, 'Why ask why...

...Also, the three car chiefs were placed on probation, as well as the company's vice president of racing operations, Jimmy Makar.Although teams know NASCAR is getting tougher with its penalties, it doesn't seem to stop them from bending the...

...couldn't get back to him. I just ran out of time.'' The calculated effort on the part of Labonte and crew chief Jimmy Makar paid off with the driver's first victory in Rockingham and the 13th of his career. The series runner-up ended 1999...

...two-time winner. ''A lot of the argument we've heard from the competitors is that we are too good already,'' said Jimmy Makar, Labonte's crew chief. ''But I say that's not a valid argument. I think the gap between us and the other teams...

...high-banked Michigan track comes down to fuel economy. Bobby Labonte, Stewart's Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, and crew chief Jimmy Makar played the fuel mileage game in the first Michigan race in 1995 and won. They used the same strategy in the August...

...hauler after the race, where medical technicians helped him work out the cramps and gave him vitamins and fluids. Jimmy Makar, his crew chief, said character and determination got Labonte through the race. "At one point he didn't know how...

...don't talk about the points race." Instead, the usual businesslike Labonte whispered inside jokes to crew chief Jimmy Makar as the two laughed together in celebration of the outcome of the UAW-GM Quality 500. "When you win you have fun...

Jimmy Makar just laughs when people mention the rumor that he will leave his job as crew chief for Bobby Labonte if the team wins the Winston...

...him his first DNF since 1999. "Am I surprised we had two mechanical failures? Yes -- very surprised," crew chief Jimmy Makar said. "But in this business, sooner or later you run into those kinds of things. You can't expect to be immune...