Labonte finds Martinsville to his liking
Bobby Labonte became the first driver to win in each of NASCAR’s top three series at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway on Saturday, capturing the closest Craftsman Truck Series event at the track.
Labonte passed Chad Chaffin for the lead with 30 laps to go, then held off Ricky Craven and Ron Hornaday on a restart with five laps to go. His Chevrolet beat Craven’s Ford to the finish line by just 0.257 seconds.
Labonte, making only his fifth start in the truck series, also became only the 12th driver to win in the truck, Busch and Nextel Cup series.
“Every win here has been awesome,” said Labonte, the 2000 Nextel Cup series champion. “It had its highlights and its moments of, ‘Well, we’re not sure if we’re going to get there or not.’ “
One of those came on the last restart when Hornaday, running third, immediately pulled alongside Craven to challenge for second heading into the first turn. The duel allowed Labonte to take control, but barely.
“(Hornaday) and Ricky were beating and banging behind me, and it gave me just enough to get away,” he said in Victory Lane.
In a season when his Nextel Cup team has struggled – he’s 34th in points through five races – Labonte said any success was appreciated.
“Our Sundays haven’t been that great, but we take it one day at a time and today was another day and that helped out,” he said. “We can’t even tell if we’ve really got great race cars because we really haven’t run long enough in a lot of races to even know that.”
Kevin Harvick, trying to become the first driver to win in each of NASCAR’s three top series in consecutive starts, wound up 12th.
Bad memories
Emotions are always high after racing at tight, testy Martinsville Speedway, but Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon had to contend with emotions even before today’s Nextel Cup race.
The last time NASCAR’s premier series raced here, Johnson’s postrace celebration ended abruptly with the news that a Hendrick Motorsports airplane had crashed nearby, killing all 10 people aboard.
Thoughts of the lost team members and friends are constant, the drivers said, and since the racing goes on, Johnson views today’s Advance Auto Parts 500 as a chance to pay tribute with another winning run.
“I’d love to be able to go back myself and go through all the ceremonies,” said Johnson, one of four Hendrick drivers. “Either way, I just hope it’s a Hendrick car so we can keep the spirit alive.”
Tracy on pole for opener
Paul Tracy spent most of last season watching the Newman/Haas Racing duo of Sebastien Bourdais and Bruno Junqueira win races and listening to people question the commitment of the former series champion and his Forsythe Racing team.
After running away with the Champ Car World Series title in 2003, Tracy won only twice – including the season-opening Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach – in 2004. He slipped all the way to fourth in the standings as Bourdais and Junqueira combined for nine wins and finished 1-2 in the points.
A new season begins today at Long Beach, Calif., where Tracy is not only the two-time defending champion and a four-time winner, but also goes into the 81-lap race on the 1.968-mile downtown street circuit as the pole winner.
“I’m definitely very motivated for the team,” Tracy said after setting a track record with his lap of 1 minute, 7.485 seconds (104.982 mph). That broke the mark of 1:07.494 (104.969 mph) set in 2000 by two-time series champion Gil de Ferran.