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| | Sunday, October 1 Labonte gets what he needs out of Martinsville | |||||
| Associated Press MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Bobby Labonte hit the wall, spun out, had a bad pit stop and did everything possible Sunday to lose much of the 249-point lead he had before NAPA AutoCare 500 -- he still finished 10th. Labonte has to feel fortunate leaving the race with a 213-point lead over Dale Earnhardt with six races left in the Winston Cup season. "It was a good day," Labonte said, taking into account it could have been a far worse day in the chase for his first Winston Cup championship. "We did have some problems -- got spun around there and had some damage on pit road. It's just a tight pit road. "To come out of Martinsville 10th with everything that happened today, it could have been a lot worse." Labonte's trouble began after the caution flag flew on lap 281. He pitted three laps later but ran into the back of Jerry Nadeau on pit road. As Ricky Rudd and Dale Earnhardt took off, Mike Skinner stopped as Earnhardt left the pits. That caused Nadeau to hit the brakes, and Labonte had nowhere to go but into the back of his car. "They all stopped and I didn't," Labonte said. "It was one of those chain-reaction deals. I just didn't get stopped in time. "Typical. It's Martinsville. The front end didn't get torn up on the race track. That happened in the deal on pit road where everybody stopped. The back bumper got knocked off a few times, but that's typical. We were just trying to take it easy all day and tried to take care of everything. Labonte ran about fifth through 10th most of the day and after all was said and done felt he could have come out a little better than 10th. But he wasn't about to compleain with just six races remaining and his lead still over 200 points. "We should have ended up a little bit better than that. I think with about 140 to go we were 26th, so to come back to 10th -- I don't think many people passed that many cars," Labonte said. Labonte believes he did it all Sunday -- at least all he cared to. "It was typical Martinsville, and if you don't get to see everything I don't think you get to fulfill your life here. And today we did," Labonte said. "I missed a hot dog this time. I guess I should have had one." Burton keeps things clean Jeff Burton has gained a reputation for racing clean even with a victory within reach, and he did nothing to change that while battling Dale Earnhardt to the finish. With Tony Stewart pulling away for the victory, Burton was right on Earnhardt's bumper in turns three and four when his Ford clipped the back of Earnhardt's Chevrolet, causing it to wiggle briefly in the turn. Instead of trying to move into second place, Burton backed off. "If I can pass a guy, I'll pass him," Burton said. "If I can't pass him, I'm not going to knock him out of the way to pass him." Burton said his style is a matter of personal preference, and the people telling him to get more aggressive can save their breath. "Bobby Labonte is winning a championship and Dale Jarrett won a championship and Jeff Gordon won all his championships by not knocking people out of the way," he said." I just don't race like that." Earnhardt, who has won seven championships by racing like that quite a bit during his 26-year career, said the contact was no big deal. "It was just a little bump," he said. "Traffic was a bear all day. We raced hard and raced all day long. It was just a Martinsville race." Spin city Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Elliott Sadler spent more than their share of time going around in circles spinning out Sunday. Earnhardt Jr. three times brought out caution flags, finally having his day end with 20 laps to go when he slammed his already battered Chevrolet into the wall in turn one, ending up with a 36th-place finish. "It's a lot of fun to get out there and beat and bang," he said. Sadler, who started last in the 1,000th career start for Wood Brothers Racing, twice was part of cautions -- once when he and Earnhardt Jr. were among six cars involved in a frontstretch pileup, and later all alone. He also spun another time, but collected the car and continued. Other Burton bummed out Ward Burton started Sunday's race from the No. 4 spot, alongside younger brother Jeff, but didn't last long. On the 62nd lap around the .526-mile oval, his Pontiac died from a blown engine. Burton finished 43rd on the track about 60 miles from his South Boston home, and said his team got burned by taking a chance on a new engine. "We didn't run this motor in happy hour, and we learned," he said. Easy money Jeff Burton earned one of the easiest $40,000 bonuses for leading at the halfway mark in the 28 races run this season. Running second behind Ricky Rudd when a caution flew on the 244th lap, Burton won the race off pit road to take the lead for the first time. When the race went back to green on lap No. 249 with lapped cars on the inside lane, Burton pulled away easily while second-place Dale Earnhardt got hung on trying to get around Robert Pressley and Elliott Sadler. Tumbling tire Fans sitting at the exit of Turn 2 got a scare on the 282nd lap when a tire came off Bobby Hamilton's car and came rolling and bouncing in their direction. The tire eventually hit the outside wall and bounced high, then headed for the infield where it slammed into a truck. An annoyed off Hamilton, meanwhile, headed down pit road, then surprised his team by bypassing his pit and heading behind the wall to the hauler. Hamilton's Chevrolet didn't return to the track until lap No. 337 and finished in 35th place, 56 laps behind the 15 lead-lap cars. Spark plugs | ALSO SEE Stewart wins series-high fifth race at Martinsville AUDIO/VIDEO   Points leader Bobby Labonte spins, but keeps his car out of the wall.avi: 1551 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1   Points leader Bobby Labonte comments on his pit road fender bender.wav: 138 k RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6 Crew Chief Jimmy Makar feels Martinsville's tight pit road assisted in Bobby Labonte's troubles.wav: 133 k RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6 Things could have been worse, so Bobby Labonte will take 10th.wav: 304 k RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6 | |||||