Bristol Race Report

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
No. 43 Cheerios/Box Tops for Education Dodge
August 23, 2008
.533-mile Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway

RACE RESULTS:
1. Carl Edwards, Ford
2. Kyle Busch, Toyota
3. Denny Hamlin, Toyota
4. Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet
5. Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet
23. Bobby Labonte, No. 43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge
31. Kyle Petty, No. 45 Wells Fargo Dodge

Kyle Busch led the most laps in the Sharpie 500 at the Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway on Saturday night, but he didn’t lead the most important laps. Carl Edwards used a textbook ‘bump and run’ maneuver to pass Busch late in the race to pick up his sixth victory of the 2008 season. The victory is the second consecutive for Edwards and his second consecutive Sharpie 500 win.

After the race, Edwards and Busch swapped paint in a clear disagreement on how the closing laps of the race played out. The two have dominated the season thus far, combining for 14 wins in the first 24 races. This has led to much ballyhooed speculation that the Sprint Cup Series may be on the verge of its first true ‘rivalry’ in recent memory, harkening to the days of Petty-Pearson and Earnhardt-Gordon.

Bobby Labonte and the No. 43 Cheerios/Box Tops for Education Dodge team came home 23rd in the Sharpie 500. Labonte started the race from the 37th position as the chassis was too ‘tight’ in qualifying. When the green flag fell, the condition of the chassis was the same. However Labonte, making his 32nd Bristol start, was able to rely on his veteran experience to race his way into the top-30 by the halfway point of the event. Crew chief Jeff Meendering’s adjustments, combined with fast pit stops from the pit crew, helped Labonte move into the 17th position late in the race. Labonte raced hard to stay inside the top-20, but the chassis was too ‘tight’ in the middle of the corners at the end of the race. For the second consecutive week, Labonte finished ninth of the 43 drivers in the field in the number of green flag passes.

“We were ‘tight’ in the middle of the corners and that was what killed our lap times,” stated Labonte. “That tightness had been there since we unloaded on Friday and we tried everything to get it out. We ran some good lap times during the race and the car was pretty good getting into and off the corners. If it would have turned better in the middle I know we could have finished in the top-10.”

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will head to California Speedway for this weekend’s 500-mile event. Friday’s qualifying session will be telecast on ESPN2. It will be broadcast on the Motor Racing Network (MRN) and Sirius Channel 128.