Labonte Overcomes Early Problems to Earn 11th in Daytona 500

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., Sunday, Feb. 15, 2004 – Bobby Labonte overcame early problems in the Daytona 500 and fought back to finish 11th in the 46th Daytona 500 Feb. 15 at Daytona International Speedway.

Labonte, who started 13th in “The Passion of the Christ” Interstate Chevrolet, had worked his way up to sixth by the time he pitted on Lap 30. However, as Labonte entered pit lane, he ran over a cone and slid through the grass between pit road and the frontstretch before entering his pit stall.

“That wasn't very good on my part. (Fatback, crew chief Michael McSwain) said 'Pit if we can pit,' and I was on the high side and I didn't know if I'd run out of gas or not, so I figured it'd be better to try and pit rather than just stick it out, because if you run out of gas on the backstraightaway or something, I'd be in worse shape,” Labonte said.

Shortly thereafter, Labonte suffered damage to the front of his car when he bumped another Nextel Cup competitor while trying to avoid a spinning car. The car suffered damage to the oil cooler duct and the Interstate Batteries Racing Team began to repair the car during a pit stop.

Labonte had fallen to 40th when the race restarted on Lap 37, but managed to work his way up to 30th when a caution on Lap 58 enabled Labonte to get is lap back.

“The guys did a good job of getting me out,” Labonte said. “We lost a lap, but we were fortunate on the 'Lucky Dog' situation, and we got to make it back up.”

A 10-car accident on the backstretch helped Labonte gain several positions and by the halfway point of the race, he had worked his way back to 12th.

With the final 300 miles taking-place under green and the field spread out, Labonte could not crack the top 10 and wound up 11th. It was a major improvement from a 41st-place finish in 2003.

“It was almost a top 10,” Labonte said. “I think last year we finished like 80th or something like that, so it was better than that. I wish we could have finished a lot better. This racing was pretty good today, for me. Early in the race, we could pass a little bit better than at the end. I don't know why it didn't get any better toward the end."

“For us and a lot of guys, it seemed single-file, I don't know if it was the wind or what. If we could have made up a little bit on one series of runs, maybe we could have caught a couple of cars, maybe we would have been in the pack of cars in front of us."

The next NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series event is the Subway 400 Feb. 22 at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham, N.C. The race begins at 1 p.m. (EST) and will be broadcast live on FOX and MRN.