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Monday, April 2, 2001
Labonte brothers flip-flop
Terry, not Bobby, thrives at Harrah's
By George Vondracek
Caller-Times
FORT WORTH - Race No. 7 on this year's NASCAR Winston Cup schedule could have turned out a lot worse for Terry Labonte.
   For brother Bobby, however, things can't get much more dismal.
   Forced to use a provisional start to make the 43-car field at the Harrah's 500, Terry Labonte overcame a 42nd-place start to finish 13th in front of an estimated 210,000 people at Texas Motor Speedway.
   But the trials continued for Bobby Labonte, the defending Winston Cup champion. His day was cut short after 149 laps Sunday. The culprit: a broken rod in the engine of his No. 19 Interstate Batteries Pontiac.
   A two-time Winston Cup champion, Terry Labonte couldn't crack the best 36 qualifying times on Friday and needed his exemption as a past titlist to make the 43-car field. Then, he was limited to 10 laps during Happy Hour, seemingly losing two engines to oil problems.
   But on Sunday, all that was just a memory for the Corpus Christi-born Labonte.
   "We kind of started cold turkey with just a couple of laps of practice," said Labonte, whose seven-position climb to 14th in the point standings was the best of any driver.
   "I wish we'd have gotten to run a little more in practice. But I can't be too disappointed," he said. "We stayed on the lead lap and got a top-15 finish.''
   That he did, thanks to a steady move through the field that dealt with 10 caution flags. Terry Labonte - who won $111,355 - made a steady climb in his No. 5 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, gaining 23 positions through the first 80 laps and moving to 14th at the 100-lap mark.
   "We couldn't get it any better," said Labonte, who won the race at TMS in 1999 and still holds the qualifying and event speed marks. "We just had a couple of things that weren't right."
   Labonte eventually closed to 12th at lap 160 of the 334 laps, and 11th at 280. He couldn't get any closer before finishing nearly 7 seconds behind the winner, Dale Jarrett, who became NASCAR's first two-event winner this year.
   By then, Bobby Labonte had his trailer packed and was headed back for his residence in Trinity, N.C. Texas Motor Speedway had been a favored locale for him. In four previous races at TMS, Labonte had finished third three times and eighth once. And this year, he was starting next to pole-sitter Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the No. 2 qualifying spot on the outside of the first row.
   Instead, racing in his home state proved to be yet another scorch as Labonte continues to try to successfully defend his title.
   "It broke something in the bottom end of the motor," Labonte said in a statement. "When the mirror vibrates like mine was, it's usually a connecting rod or a crank or something. The oil pan has got dents in it from the inside, so something let go down there."
   Still, team owner Joe Gibbs said he isn't giving up on his driver, who in seven races has only one top-10 finish this season .
   "Not at all. We've got confidence we can run up front every week," said Gibbs, the former Washington Redskins coach.
   Bobby Labonte spoke briefly with television and radio reporters but did not comment further.
   "Anytime you're on the first row and this happens, it's disappointing," Gibbs said. "I felt like the way we qualified, we'd do well. We were great last year."
   Last year is, unfortunately for Gibbs' crew and Labonte, last year. Labonte's lone top-10 finish was a second in the second race of the season, Feb. 25 at the Dura Lube 400 in Rockingham, N.C.

Staff writer George Vondracek can be reached at 886-3731 or by e-mail at vondracekg@caller.com

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