Motorsports

Labonte turns triple trick at Martinsville

By wire services
Published April 10, 2005

MARTINSVILLE, Va. - Bobby Labonte became the first driver to win in each of NASCAR's top three series at Martinsville 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 0.257 seconds.

Labonte, making his fifth start in the truck series, also became the 12th driver to win in the truck, Busch and Nextel Cup series.

"Every win here has been awesome," said Labonte, the 2000 champion in NASCAR's top series. "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, pulled alongside Craven to challenge for second heading into Turn 1. The duel allowed Labonte to take control, but barely.

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.

Labonte was last in the season-opening Daytona 500 and his best finish is 13th. His other finishes have been 41st, 37th and 22nd.

Hornaday finished third in a Chevrolet, and Todd Bodine, who gave up the lead when he pitted with 39 laps to go, was fourth in a Toyota.

"We couldn't quite make it on fuel and our front tires were going away," Bodine said. "Any way you look at it, we probably would have finished where we did without the tires, or with the tires."

CHAMP CAR: The Grand Prix of Long Beach will be back for the 32nd consecutive year in 2006, but the question is which series will be featured.

Champ Car, formerly CART, has raced there since 1984 (after Formula One left) but the rival Indy Racing League is making a run at getting the race next season.

The IRL last week ran its first street race, the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, which drew an estimated 80,000 over three days. That made it second among American street races only to Long Beach, which annually draws at least 125,000.

Jim Michaelian, president and CEO of the Long Beach event, said a decision will be made within 30 to 60 days of today's race.

Meanwhile, in final qualifying, Paul Tracy, the two-time defending race champion, earned the pole. Tracy set a track record of 1 minute, 7.485 seconds (104.982 mph) around the 1.968-mile downtown street circuit. Bruno Junqueira, who took the provisional pole Friday, starts second.

[Last modified April 10, 2005, 00:40:18]