Michigan Race Report

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
No. 43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge
August 17, 2008
2-mile Michigan International Speedway

RACE RESULTS:
1. Carl Edwards, Ford
2. Kyle Busch, Toyota
3. David Ragan, Ford
4. Greg Biffle, Ford
5. Matt Kenseth, Ford
27. Bobby Labonte, No. 43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge
32. Terry Labonte, No. 45 Marathon American Spirit Motor Oil Dodge

Carl Edwards made it a weekend sweep as he took the checkered flag in the 3M Performance 400 presented by Bondo at the Michigan International Speedway. Edwards also picked up the victory in Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series event at the track. His team got him out in front of Kyle Busch on the last round of pit stops and Edwards was able to hold him off at the finish.

Bobby Labonte and the No. 43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge team came home 27th on Sunday. They had a great practice on Saturday, with average lap times inside the top-15. When the green flag fell B. Labonte, like many others on pit road, had to deal with a ‘loose’ chassis. Crew chief Jeff Meendering made an early two tire stop to gain valuable track position, but B. Labonte lost a lap to the leaders early. He received a ‘Lucky Dog’ award when a caution flag fell on lap 84 that put him back on the lead lap. It was under this caution that Meendering made huge adjustments to the chassis. The changes began to work as B. Labonte was one of the fastest cars on the track at lap 115 and he had driven up inside the top-15. As the track changed the car began to lose overall grip and B. Labonte did a great job to wheel it to 27th. B. Labonte made 84 green flag passes, which placed him ninth of the 43 drivers.

“We fought problems with forward bite all day long,” said B. Labonte. “We weren’t the only ones. You could tell that a lot of guys were having the same problem. Jeff swung for the fences after we got the ‘Lucky Dog’ and those adjustments helped the car. The car was really fast around the halfway point of the race. I don’t know if the track changed on us at the end, but the car just felt different and we didn’t make hardly any adjustments. It just went away.”

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will head to Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway this weekend for Saturday night’s Sharpie 500. Friday’s qualifying session will be telecast on ESPN2. It will be broadcast on the Performance Racing Network (PRN) and Sirius Channel 128.