Labonte Scores Second Straight Top-10, Moves Up to 13th in Points
DARLINGTON, S.C., Sunday, Nov. 14, 2004 – Bobby Labonte finished ninth in the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, marking the second consecutive top-10 finish for the Interstate Batteries Racing team.
Labonte finished ninth last week at Phoenix, while Jimmie Johnson won the Southern 500.
“We got our second top 10 in a row, so we're making some progress,” Labonte said. “At the beginning of the race we were just really, really tight -- super tight. But, we were able to get the car pretty good at the end and had a good finish. We worked hard today, but managed to get a top 10, and we'll take that.”
Labonte’s second consecutive top-10 finish did not come easy as he fought a tight race car throughout most of the day and even spun exiting Turn 4 on Lap 119.
However, the Interstate Batteries crew worked on the car throughout the 367-lap event, using several wedge, track-bar, tire-pressure and spring-rubber adjustments in order to get the car into the top-10 at the end.
Labonte was consistent throughout the day, starting 15th, never running lower than 19th and managed to stay between 10th and 15th for much of the event. He was able to pass Jeff Burton for ninth late the event and now heads to Homestead still looking for his first victory of the season.
“We've got one more shot at a victory this season, at Homestead,” Labonte said. “We won there last season, so we'll see if we can make it two-in-a-row.”
With the ninth-place finish, Labonte moved up two spots in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup point standings, moving from 15th to 13th, ahead of Dale Jarrett and Kevin Harvick. Labonte has 4,145 points, 80 points behind 12th-place Kasey Kahne and 22 points ahead of Jarrett.
The final NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series event of the 2004 season is the Ford 400 Nov. 21 at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Fla.
The race starts at 12:30 p.m. (EST), and will be broadcast live on NBC and MRN. |
