Labonte shakes Rusty

Rusty Wallace looks dominant until the series leader makes his move.

By KEVIN KELLY

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 6, 2000

INDIANAPOLIS -- Forty-three cars started the Brickyard 400 on Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Only two made it look like a race. Bobby Labonte passed Rusty Wallace 15 laps from the finish to win his first Brickyard 400, ending an attention-grabbing duel between the drivers in an often uneventful race.

"This is one of those races you dream about," said Labonte, who extended his lead to 87 points in the Winston Cup standings. "I've dreamed about it a long time."

Labonte's 14th career victory was his second this season and ended six years of futility at the 2.5-mile oval.

"Today, if I had finished second I probably would have been a little bit more heartbroken because we were a little bit closer than we have been the past three years," said Labonte, who took home $831,225 in prize money. "I didn't think we'd finish second, but I didn't think we'd win." One of the biggest victories of his eight-year career came on the same day his brother, Terry, broke a streak of 655 consecutive starts.

Still suffering the effects of a concussion sustained in a July crash at Daytona International Speedway, Terry Labonte missed his first race since 1979.

"Well, it's been a little bit of a tough weekend as far as not being able to run," Terry said. "It's bad to sit out one but it couldn't be a better one to watch Bobby win. When you look at it like that, it's pretty awesome."

While Todd Bodine drove the No. 5 Chevrolet normally driven by Terry Labonte to 15th, Terry sat atop his team's pit box and watched as his brother stalked then passed Wallace in the closing laps.

"I was so proud of him," Terry said. "I was just sitting there and I knew that it was going to be close between him and Rusty."

Wallace led 110 of 160 laps, the fourth time he's led the most laps in a race this season, but finished second in the 400 for the second time.

Wallace, who won the series' last race at Pocono, and Labonte had the dominant cars all day.

There were 10 lead changes among five drivers, but Labonte or Wallace led the final 116 laps which left many of the estimated 320,000 fans in attendance sitting with their arms crossed.

"I was up front all day long," Wallace said. "I didn't see what was happening behind me. I really don't care what happened behind me. I know that I had the damndest race I've ever had with Bobby Labonte, 75 laps with him 4 inches off my bumper. I mean, I felt like I was swatting hornets inside the car the whole time."

Wallace took his final lead on Lap 123 after the final round of pit stops. Labonte followed in second and they ran in that order until the deciding pass on Lap 146.

"All I saw was blue all day long, it seemed like," Labonte said. "I was never going to pass that blue car. Blue, blue, blue, blue. I just kept working him."

Labonte made the winning move as both drove into the third turn on Lap 146. He steered to the inside of Wallace's car and pulled ahead of the No. 2 Ford exiting the fourth turn.

"Bobby caught me, got around me and I just couldn't do anything with him at that point," Wallace said.

Side-by-side on the straightaway, Labonte bumped the left side of Wallace's car and led by .004 seconds at the start-finish line.

He beat Wallace by 4.229 seconds.

"I felt like we ran Rusty down several times today," said Jimmy Makar, Bobby Labonte's crew chief. "I think we just had a good race car all day long. Things played into our hands. We needed long green runs."

Bill Elliott, the 1988 Winston Cup champion, finished third but was never a threat to Labonte and Wallace. He trailed by 4 seconds with 20 laps left.

"It was pretty tough (to pass)," said Elliott, who started seventh. "I mean, even the slow guys were hard to pass."

Jerry Nadeau, who started 23rd, finished fourth followed by Indiana native and Bobby Labonte's teammate, Tony Stewart.

"When you've got a good team, you know you've got to run with the fast guys," said Nadeau, who tied a career-best finish. "When you're running with those guys it actually makes the race a lot easier. Those guys know how to run up there. This is our second fourth-place finish in the past three races, so maybe we're learning how to run up there, too."

Ricky Rudd, who started first and owned the track qualifying record for a day, led 17 laps but finished 21st. His teammate, Dale Jarrett, finished seventh and remain second in the standings.

With just two accidents, this year's 400 was the fastest in its seven-year history. The race took just 2 hours, 33 minutes, 55.621 seconds.

"I remember the very first lap we made around here in practice," said Joe Gibbs, who owns Bobby Labonte's car. "It was a special time just to stand out there and say, "Man, I've got a car that's even out there.' Then today to be able to win this race is just a great experience."

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.

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