Late Accident Causes Labonte to Finish 35th at Talladega

TALLADEGA, Ala., Sunday, Oct. 3, 2004 – An accident with less than 12 laps to go caused Bobby Labonte to finish 35th in the EA Sports 500 Oct. 3 at Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Ala.

On Lap 177 of the 188-lap race, Labonte was in 26th position and preparing to make his final pit stop on Lap 178. As the pack of cars made its way to the frontstretch of the 2.66-mile oval, rookie Brendan Gaughan’s car made contact with the car of Sterling Marlin who spun into the SAFER Barrier on the outside retaining wall and collected Labotne’s No. 18 Interstate Batteries Chevrolet.

Labonte’s car was unable to continue and wound up in the 35th position. Both he and Marlin were uninjured.

“I was on the outside, and I don't know if the 40 (Sterling Marlin) got pushed up or what,” Labonte said. “We were going to pit in a lap, and so were some other guys, and it gets a little crazy with 20 laps to go. It's one of those things, but we'll regroup and come back next week at Kansas.”

Labonte started the event in 27th and was as high as sixth on Lap 103. Throughout most of the event, Labonte used a conservative approach, waiting to make his move toward the front until after the final pit stop and not get caught up in an accident.

“We had a good car,” Labonte said. “I’d like to have seen what we could have done in the final 10 laps after we would have pitted. We tried to avoid the accidents and ended up getting caught up in a late one. It’s just part of being at Talladega.”

Labonte fell two spots in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series point standings moving from 13th to 15th. He has 3,425 points and is 17 behind 14th-place Kasey Kahne and 276 ahead of 16th-place Michael Waltrip.

The next NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series event is the Banquet 400 presented by ConAgra Food Oct. 10 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan.

The race starts at 2:30 p.m. (EDT), and will be broadcast live on NBC and MRN.