Kansas Race Report FINAL RESULTS: 1. Greg Biffle, Ford 2. Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet 3. Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet 4. Casey Mears, Chevrolet 5. Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet 21. Kyle Petty, #45 Wells Fargo Dodge 42. Bobby Labonte, #43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge OVERVIEW: Bobby Labonte and the #43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge team was on their way to another solid top-15 finish in Sunday’s LifeLick 400 at the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway. Then the rains came and changed the complexion of the race. Labonte and the #43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge team used the rain strategy to get to 16th during the lap 146 caution period. Before the stop Labonte was fighting the handling of the car. It was “tight and loose”, but Labonte still made the charge before the caution. Like teammate Kyle Petty, Labonte continued on the lead lap once the race went back to green in the 13th position. The team was never given a chance to show what they had. Labonte was collected in a major crash that collected nearly a dozen cars on the first lap the race went back to green. The front of the Cheerios Dodge was shortened as the team immediately went to work to replace the radiator and attempt to complete the race. The safety of the team was the importance of crew chief Doug Randolph as the car was severely damaged and it was determined that too much damage was done to continue. Labonte finished 42nd. “It’s a very disappointing end to our day,” said Labonte. “We were in a good position, but there wasn’t anywhere to go when the guys started wrecking. We haven’t had problems with DNF’s this season, but we had a lot of lapped guys and lead lap guys all in the same group on the restart. It’s unfortunate that we ended our day like this.” Greg Biffle won the race. Biffle had just enough fuel to survive the race after NASCAR called the event short due to darkness. Rain had the biggest affect on the outcome of Sunday’s race. A beautiful, windy Midwest morning eventually led to darkening skies and torrential rain over the mile-and-a-half oval. The rain began right at the start of Sunday’s race and 18 laps into the event the race was halted for nearly 45 minutes. Once the race was restarted it was Matt Kenseth at the point. Kenseth, a contender in the championship chase, led the field until lap 47 before losing it to Kurt Busch. Meanwhile other contenders such as Kyle Busch and Martin Truex, Jr. ran into problems on Sunday. Busch wrecked hard and Truex, Jr. lost a tire. Busch, Kenseth and Tony Stewart continued to battle for the lead on the track before the next delay in the action came. The delay came when teams were preparing for pit stops. Stewart was the leader when the race was red flagged for rain- Busch and Kenseth had to pit for fuel. The second rain delay was a little over two hours. Stewart had to pit once the race went back to green. NASCAR then decided to shorten the race to 225 laps because of darkness. That changed the pit strategy for everyone, but a major wreck occurred on the restart. The wreck involved Matt Kenseth and Stewart also had damage. Stewart did not pit to make repairs and it cost them laps latter with a big wreck involving Kurt Busch and Carl Edwards. The cautions forced NASCAR to shorten the race again to 210 laps as team thought about fuel strategy. Denny Hamlin spun in the closing laps as he was the next chase driver to have problems. Darkness became the next problem for NASCAR to deal with and when Juan Pablo Montoya cut a tire NASCAR decided that it couldn’t go on any longer. Greg Biffle, low on fuel, was leading and took the win under the caution period. Clint Bowyer was closing and Biffle ran out of gas right after NASCAR called the race on lap 210. If the race would have gone been a green-white-checkered finish Bowyer might be celebrating today. Kyle Petty and the #45 Wells Fargo Dodge team did everything possible to earn five extra bonus points on Sunday. Petty stayed out during the first caution period in an attempt to gain bonus points. Two other competitors did the same and Petty had to hit pit road. The team then attempted the old fashion way. Petty charged to the front of the speedway and up to 14th when the second rain period came. Petty then had to hit pit road for fuel once the race went back to green, but not before finally leading a lap. Petty came back on the track and fought with the lead lap cars. Petty avoided both wrecks- doing a masterful job of avoiding the Stewart incident. Petty had no problem making to lap 210 and finished 21st. The team remains 34th in owner points. “We had a better run today than what we’ve had in the past few weeks,” said Petty. “The car really hooked up in the middle of the race. The rest, you just had to avoid the wrecks. We adjusted the car early and it was good the rest of the day.” The NASCAR Nextel Cup Series now heads to the 2.66-mile Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway for Sunday’s 500-mile race. It will be the first race on a superspeedway using the new cars.