Labonte 17th at Kansas in Banquet 400

FINAL RESULTS:
1. Tony Stewart, Chevrolet
2. Casey Mears, Dodge
3. Mark Martin, Ford
4. Dale Jarrett, Ford
5. Jeff Burton, Chevrolet
17. Bobby Labonte, #43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge
29. Kyle Petty #45 Wells Fargo Dodge

OVERVIEW:

Labonte and the #43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge team started Sunday’s Banquet 400 at the 1.5-mile Kansas Speedway in the 16th position. Labonte’s Cheerios Dodge became tight and loose all race, but the team remained on the lead lap all afternoon. Labonte raced with the top-20 all day as crew chief Paul Andrews made adjustments to keep Labonte competitive. The team, like the rest of the field, had to pit for fuel inside the final 10 laps. The team hit pit road, and after the mad shuffle at the end finished 17th. Labonte remains 25th in championship points.

“We kept making adjustments to the car,” said Labonte. “We kept trying to make the car better. It wasn’t a bad day. It all came down to fuel mileage. We all had to pit and that’s how it all shuffled out at the end.”

Petty and the #45 Wells Fargo Dodge team started 24th in Sunday’s race and finished 29th. Petty’s day was looking bright at the start of the 400-mile event. He quickly raced to the 21st position where he remained for the first-half of the race. A quick pace by the leaders eventually had Petty a lap down. Petty was hoping for the ‘lucky dog’ award, but had to hit pit road for a green-flag pit stop. The Wells Fargo Dodge team was close on several different occasions to getting the ‘lucky dog’, but cautions came at the wrong time for the team. That left Petty with a 29th-place finish.

“We just didn’t catch any breaks today,” said Petty. “The car wasn’t bad and we had it pretty good. We just caught bad breaks with the cautions. We weren’t bad, just bad luck.”

If you had a gallon or two of gas to spare during the race it went a long, long way. In fact, for Tony Stewart and the #20 Chevrolet team it was just enough to get him to the last turn where he then coasted across the start/finish line for his second win of the season. Casey Mears also gambled on fuel mileage after the last 60 and more laps of the race went green. Mears was on the gas through the last turn, but 14 seconds behind Stewart. It was that cushion that allowed Stewart to win. The finish ties Mears career best in Nextel Cup.

The Nextel Cup Series now heads to the 2.66-mile Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway for Sunday’s UAW-Ford 400.