'Fatback' is back

BRISTOL, Tenn. – He's gone from Fatback to Comeback McSwain.

Six weeks after surprisingly being fired by Joe Gibbs Racing as crew chief for Bobby Labonte, Michael "Fatback" McSwain has proven that time and NASCAR are both of a forgiving sort.

McSwain made his official debut with the Wood Brothers Racing team Friday, rejoining veteran driver Ricky Rudd as his crew chief.

"We're real excited to have the opportunity to work again with Fatback," Rudd said. "We had a lot of good things together [in the past]. The car was always competitive and we made a pretty good run at the championship a couple years back. Our chemistry was really working and I'm real excited about having him come back on board."

The reunion couldn't come at a better time for both men. It's no secret that Rudd has struggled this season in the No. 21 Ford. While he sat on the pole at Talladega in April and started third at Daytona in July, he's managed no better than just one top-10 finish (eighth at Watkins Glen two weeks ago) in the first 23 races in 2004. Rudd is a lowly 27th in the standings.

When Rudd's crew chief, Ben Leslie, accepted a position with Ford last week, the door opened for McSwain to walk through.

"There's no doubt about it that the performance has not been there," Rudd said. "To go this long and finally get a top 10 finish [at Watkins Glen], that's not really something to be proud of.

"I commend the Wood Brothers for looking at it and saying, Hey, the performance is not good. We've got to look at making some adjustments and changes.' There's no doubt about it, the team will run better and I pretty much guarantee that [now that Fatback is back in the fold]. I know that fairly quickly you're going to see some better results."

Although the team qualified a disappointing 32nd Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway for Saturday's Sharpie 500, McSwain and Rudd both know that sometimes it takes small steps before big gains can be realized.

"Compared to where we've been, I'm pretty happy," Rudd said after his qualifying effort Friday afternoon.

One of the most underrated crew chiefs in the business, McSwain wasn't released from JGR because of lack of performance. He directed Labonte to a sixth-place finish in the standings last season, and had Labonte in eighth place when he was fired in mid-July.

While the reasons for the firing remain cryptic – rumors range from an alleged run-in with a crew member to a major difference of opinion in how best to run the No. 18 team – McSwain found himself without a job.

"It was as big a shock to me as it was to the rest of the world," McSwain, 37, said shortly after his departure from JGR. "If we were 25th in points, I probably wouldn't be so disappointed. But being in the position we're in, it's disappointing."

In a sense, McSwain and Rudd are like a couple that went through a trial separation, realized they're better together than apart, and fate and circumstances brought them back together again.

The pair had a highly publicized falling out midway through the 2002 season as Rudd was preparing to leave Robert Yates Racing, to be replaced by Elliott Sadler (ironically, Rudd would replace Sadler himself with the Wood Brothers.) McSwain also wound up leaving Yates Racing, eventually joining Labonte and JGR, which many felt was perhaps the most significant – and best-ever – jump in his entire career.

McSwain did not disappoint, at least from a performance standpoint. After directing Rudd to three wins and four poles in their nearly three-year stint together at RYR, McSwain led Labonte to two wins (both last season). This season, while Labonte has been winless in the No. 18 Chevrolet, he still has one pole, five top-fives and four other top-10 finishes.

Prior to McSwain being fired, he had directed Labonte to four top-five and three other top-10 finishes in the preceding 11 races. But since McSwain was given his walking papers, Labonte has unquestionably struggled with interim crew chief Brandon Thomas. His best finish of late has been 11th (Watkins Glen); he's coming off a 26th-place showing last week at Michigan.

"It was different," McSwain said of working at JGR. "It was a more corporate type of deal. I'm not saying that's wrong. Whoever goes there has success and we had success over there, so you can't say it's wrong or it isn't right – it's just not for me."

All that is history now. McSwain won't dwell on what happened neither with JGR, nor with his run-in with Rudd two years ago. All that matters is his driver and the No. 21 going forward.

"I think there are a lot of strengths and there's a lot of hunger," McSwain said. "You've got a lot of people who work just as hard as anybody else in this garage area, but they just haven't seen the success. I think there's a lot of talent here that people don't know about and that I don't know about. My job is going to be to take all of that talent and corral it up together to get everybody pointed in the right direction."

McSwain comes to the No. 21 team expecting a lot from both himself and his crew. Known as one of the hardest-working crew chiefs in the business, Fatback is no slack, for sure. In fact, he's already predicting some significant performance jumps in the not too distant future.

"I think when Ricky's mind is right and when the cars are right that he can run good anywhere," McSwain said of Rudd. "We proved that in 2000, 2001 and 2002. We won at a short track, the biggest track we run at and a road course, so that they're alone pretty much says that he can get it done anywhere. As long as we get our pieces and parts together, I think our strengths could be everywhere.

"We're going to work hard and we're going to have some fun and we're going to win some races. That's what it's all about."