Labonte Earns Best Finish of Young Season at Phoenix

FINAL RESULTS:
1. Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet
2. Tony Stewart, Chevrolet
3. Denny Hamlin, Chevrolet
4. Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet
5. Matt Kenseth, Ford
8. Bobby Labonte, #43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge
30. Kyle Petty, #45 Wells Fargo Dodge

OVERVIEW:

Bobby Labonte and the #43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge team crossed the line in eighth place during Saturday night’s Subway Fresh Fit 500 at the one-mile Phoenix International Raceway. Labonte started the evening in the 26th position, but move forward as the night progressed. Labonte had a “tight” handling car, but his performance on-track was good enough for him to advance into the top 15. Labonte continued his march to the front. It shouldn’t surprise many, as Labonte has finished fifty percent of his races inside the top 10 at Phoenix. He did again on Sunday to raise that percentage. Labonte finished eighth after passing Carl Edwards in the closing laps for that position. The Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge team made the biggest jump forward inside the top 20 in points. Labonte moved four positions to 19th in points. Labonte’s finish was also the best for the Dodge camp.

“It wasn’t’ a bad run,” said Labonte. “Obviously we got lucky when we caught that caution and some guys had already pitted. That helped us out a few positions. That was a gift that sometimes you get and sometimes you don’t. We were lucky to miss that wreck, but our car worked pretty good all night. It was just hard to pass. Once you got going you were the same speed as everybody else. That was kind of our first real run in the COT. We didn’t get to run Martinsville and Bristol was just kind of Bristol. Our guys did a great job and Paul did a great job yesterday making some changes. Things were OK. To come home with a top-10 finish is good. We’re only eight races in, so it’s good to get it. We’ve got a few other things to try with the COT, but look at who’s winning and who’s in the top five. They’re all good teams.”

“We didn’t make any bad calls," said Crew Chief Paul Andrews. "Our car was good. It wasn’t great. It was right there all night long. We were about a tenth off the leader all night. We didn’t pit early at all and that’s what the other guys did and that’s what got us a top 10 quite honestly. We had about a 12th-place car and we ended up eighth, so that’s awesome. This is a big learning experience here with the Avenger. We didn’t get to race at Martinsville because we wrecked about 30 laps into the thing because of the brake problems we had. This was really our first race. The Richmond test went pretty good and this went pretty good here. With just a little more time we can make it better. I’d like to see NASCAR make some changes, but I’m optimistic about it. We can work with it and make it better. All night long we tried to make it turn better. I think everybody has trouble making it turn. Everybody is tight in the middle. It’s just a matter of who is the freest and who is not as tight the longest. Darlington is going to be an interesting race. We’re going to go to Rockingham and test. It’ll be an exciting race. I don’t know if what we learned here we can apply to Darlington, but maybe we can.”

Jeff Gordon ties Dale Earnhardt for most wins in Nextel Cup. That’s the headline news coming out of Saturday night’s Subway 500. Gordon won his first race of the season and his 76th in his career. That mark is good enough to equal the late Dale Earnhardt.

Saturday night’s race was the first point’s race held “under the lights” in 2007. The “Car of Tomorrow” also made its debut on a track larger than a half-mile. Hendrick Motorsports won the first two “Car of Tomorrow” races earlier this season and now Gordon makes it three-for-three. Gordon passed Tony Stewart on the final restart with a little over 10 laps left to grab the win. The race featured 12 lead changes among seven drivers. Denny Hamlin was strong early in the race, but as the case has been Joe Gibbs Racing has been strong in Car of Tomorrow races, but can’t get the win. Tony Stewart led for 132 laps, but Gordon was just a tick quicker at the end to get the win.

Petty Enterprises collected their first top-10 of the season at Phoenix International Raceway. After a few weeks of bad luck, Petty Enterprises was able to come away from their west coast trip with momentum. The organization collected their 1,264th top-10 finish Saturday night.

Kyle Petty and the #45 Wells Fargo Dodge team didn’t have the result that showed the teams performance on Saturday. Petty started the evening in the 40th position, but showed a strong car at the start. The team wisely decided to stay out and lead a lap during an early race caution. That helped the team remain 34th in owner’s points after collecting five bonus points for doing that. Petty and the Wells Fargo Dodge team just suffered from track position. It’s very tough to pass in the new Car of Tomorrow, but Petty was still able to advance 10 positions by the end of the night. Petty remained 34th in driver and owner points.

“You just don’t go anywhere,” said Petty. “The car wasn’t bad, but it’s tough to get around guys. We didn’t see a bunch of passing from where everyone started. You had a few guys move up, but not too many. We got some bonus points. That helps us in owner points. We’ll head to Talladega and back to restrictor plate racing.”

The NASCAR Nextel Cup Series heads to the 2.66-mile Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway for next Sunday’s Aaron’s 499. The race will be televised live by FOX and broadcast live on MRN Radio.