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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.
"(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." |