Last Lap Accident Takes Away Top 10 for Labonte

As Labonte entered Turn 1 on the final lap of the 400-lap, 600-mile event, Raybestos Rookie Kasey Kahne’s car made contact with the left-rear of Labonte’s car. Labonte spun and made contact with the SAFER Barrier on the outside retaining wall between Turns 1 and 2. The car suffered damage to the right front, but Labonte was able to bring the car across the finish line slowly for the 13th-place finish.

“I asked him (Kasey Kahne) what happened, and he just said he bottomed out when he got on the brakes going into Turn 1 and got into us in the left rear,” Labonte said. “Obviously, it wasn't what we wanted to see. We had a good car, but we could never catch back up to it. We were going to finish eighth if that didn't happen. It was good night until that happened.”

Labonte talked with Kahne in the garage area after the race and Kahne apologized for the incident.

“I've never had a run-in with him, and probably won't again,” Labonte said. “It was just one of those situations tonight.”

Labonte started seventh in the race, and was in the top 10 throughout most of the 600 miles. He was as high as third from Lap 245-281, but as night fell on the 1.5-mile oval, the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Chevrolet began to have handling problems, which caused Labonte to fall back to eighth late in the race. Even three late-race cautions and a red-flag with five laps to go, due to Ryan Newman’s blown engine, didn’t help Labonte move up.

“A lot of times when cars are handling really bad, nobody races each other, which is not a bad thing,” Labonte said. “I like that, because you can either make your car better or worse, you don't have to worry about everybody running the same speed. When the lights came on and the sun went down, we had a good car and were in seventh-place, but were as fast as the second-place car. The guys third through sixth were half a tenth slower than me, so you still couldn't catch them, still couldn't pass them.”

Jimmie Johnson dominated the event, leading 334 of the 400 laps en route to his second consecutive Coca-Cola 600 victory. Labonte’s teammate, Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet, finished ninth.

Despite his 13th-place finish, Labonte still managed to move up one spot in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup point standings, moving from seventh to sixth. He has 1,554 points and his 244 behind leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. and 33 behind fifth-place Stewart.

The next NEXTEL Cup event is the MBNA 400 “A Salute To Heroes,” June 6 at Dover International Speedway in Dover, Del. The race begins at 1 p.m. and will be broadcast live on FX and MRN.