Labonte makes the most of Martinsville victory

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Bobby Labonte held off Ricky Craven after a restart with six laps to go to win Saturday's Kroger 250 at Martinsville Speedway.

Labonte became the 12th driver to win races in all three of NASCAR's major series -- and the fifth to do it this season.

On the final restart, Ron Hornaday was able to pull up even with Craven, setting up what could have been a replay of his Atlanta victory last month. However, Craven was able to hold the preferred line as Hornaday settled for third.




MARTINSVILLE, Va. (AP) -- Bobby Labonte became the first driver to win in each of NASCAR's top three series at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday, capturing the closest Craftsman Truck Series event at the track.

Labonte passed Chad Chaffin for the lead with 30 laps to go, then held off Ricky Craven and Ron Hornaday on a restart with five laps to go. His Chevrolet beat Craven's Ford to the finish line by just 0.257 seconds.

Labonte, making only his fifth start in the truck series, also became only the 12th driver to win in the truck, Busch and Nextel Cup series.

"Every win here has been awesome," said Labonte, the 2000 Nextel Cup series champion. "It had its highlights and its moments of, 'Well, we're not sure if we're going to get there or not."'

One of those came on the last restart when Hornaday, running third, immediately pulled alongside Craven to challenge for second heading into the first turn. The duel allowed Labonte to take control, but barely.

Labonte is just the 12th driver to win in all three series
"(Hornaday) and Ricky were beating and banging behind me, and it gave me just enough to get away," he said in Victory Lane.

In a season when his Nextel Cup team has struggled -- he's 34th in points through five races -- Labonte said any success was appreciated.

"Our Sundays haven't been that great, but we take it one day at a time and today was another day and that helped out," he said. "We can't even tell if we've really got great race cars in our Cup deal because we really haven't run long enough in a lot of races to even know that."

Labonte finished last in the season-opening Daytona 500 and his best finish was a 13th. His other finishes have been 41st, 37th and 22nd.

Hornaday finished third in a Chevrolet, and Todd Bodine, who gave up the lead when he pitted with 39 laps to go, was fourth in a Toyota.

"We couldn't quite make it on fuel and our front tires were going away," Bodine said. "Any way you look at it, we probably would have finished where we did without the tires, or with the tires."

Kevin Harvick, trying to become the first driver to win in each of NASCAR's three top series in consecutive starts, wound up 12th.

Harvick won Busch and Nextel Cup races at Bristol last weekend.

 

*note* Lap 11 or so, Bobby Hamilton was moving up swiftly and was up to 9th place. He was spun out by a nother driver who did not slow up. He ended up having to go to the pits during caution to get a new tire. There was not enough laps to catch up ofcourse.

Fin St Car Driver Make Sponsor Pts/Bonus Laps Status
1 5 #47 Bobby Labonte Chevrolet Rodeway Inn/Econo Lodge/Trick Pony 185/5 250 Running
2 4 #99 Ricky Craven Ford Superchips 175/5 250 Running
3 11 #6 Ron Hornaday Chevrolet GM Goodwrench 165/0 250 Running
4 2 #66 Todd Bodine Toyota Fiddle Back Racing 170/10 250 Running
5 12 #30 Chad Chaffin Toyota Germain Toyota/Arnold Development 160/5 250 Running
6 10 #15 Shane Hmiel Chevrolet Win Fuel 150/0 250 Running
7 18 #1 Ted Musgrave Dodge Mopar 146/0 250 Running
8 21 #2 Jimmy Spencer Dodge Team ASE 142/0 250 Running
9 7 #5 Mike Skinner Toyota Toyota Tundra 138/0 250 Running
10 13 #10 Terry Cook Ford Power Stroke Diesel 134/0 250 Running
11 3 #16 Jack Sprague Chevrolet Chevy Trucks 135/5 250 Running
12 15 #192 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Yard-Man PE 250 Running
13 20 #13 Tracy Hines Chevrolet ThorSport Rcg/Zoriki Mtspts 124/0 250 Running
14 16 #52 Ken Schrader Chevrolet Federated Auto Parts 121/0 250 Running
15 27 #88 Matt Crafton Chevrolet Menards 118/0 250 Running
16 29 #50 Todd Kluever * Ford World Financial Group 115/0 250 Running
17 17 #23 Johnny Benson Toyota TRD 112/0 250 Running
18 25 #4 Timothy Peters * Dodge Bailey's 109/0 250 Running
19 8 #12 Robert Huffman Toyota Toyota Tundra 106/0 250 Running
20 1 #04 Bobby Hamilton Dodge Bailey's 108/5 250 Running
21 14 #14 Rick Crawford Ford Circle Bar Motel/RV Park 100/0 249 Running
22 23 #75 David Starr Chevrolet Spears Manufacturing 97/0 249 Running
23 19 #17 David Reutimann Toyota NTN Bearings 94/0 248 Running
24 22 #62 Steve Park Dodge Orleans Hotel & Casino 91/0 247 Running
25 36 #59 Robert Pressley Dodge Virginia Mtspts Tech. Ctr/Patrick Henry CC 88/0 247 Running
26 31 #22 Bill Lester Toyota Toyota Tundra 85/0 246 Running
27 34 #02 Kelly Sutton Chevrolet Team Copaxone 82/0 245 Running
28 32 #8 Deborah Renshaw Dodge Easy Care Service Contracts 79/0 245 Running
29 6 #38 Brandon Whitt Toyota Cure Autism Now/McMillin Homes 76/0 242 Accident
30 30 #18 Chase Montgomery Dodge Bobby Hamilton Racing 73/0 242 Running
31 28 #07 Sean Murphy * Chevrolet Green Light Racing 70/0 236 Electrical
32 33 #21 Mike Harmon Chevrolet Global Pigeon Supply 67/0 236 Running
33 9 #46 Dennis Setzer Chevrolet Chevrolet Silverado 64/0 218 Running
34 24 #08 Tam Topham Chevrolet Suzuki Motorcycles & ATVs 61/0 170 Rear End
35 26 #29 Brad Keselowski Ford SUBcrews.com 58/0 146 Rear End
36 35 #24 Casey Kingsland Dodge Speed Zone Energy Drink 55/0 104 Parked


* Denotes Rookie