Race Recap: Bobby Labonte

BRISTOL, Tenn. -- In what can be best described as an emotional roller-coaster of an afternoon, Bobby Labonte, who led the Food City 500 at one point, was able to overcome two spins during the middle part of the race to finish a very respectable third place. Battling Kurt Busch and Matt Kenseth for the top stop in the late stages of the event, Labonte just didn't have enough car for either of them over the course of the final 20 laps or so.

"I can't be mad at that," said Labonte following the three and a half hour event. "Our car was really good at times, but on that last restart, I was a little looser than I would have liked. I'm not sure if there was fluid down on the track or what, but it seemed like I was having a really hard time keeping the car on the bottom. All in all though it was great. It was better than great. I spun out twice and finished third. That's a pretty great day."

Driving a purple Advair Diskus/Interstate Batteries Chevrolet, Labonte rolled off the grid in the 12th position and quickly established himself as one of the better cars on the track. Although only leading one time for 26 laps, Labonte was able to overcome the two spins with a little bit of luck and some great pit strategy by Crew Chief Michael "Fatback" McSwain and the entire team.

"The guys on this Advair Chevrolet did a great job today," Labonte noted. "They worked real hard. We had a couple mishaps there and got behind, but everything worked out pretty good to where we got back up there. Just right there at the end the car wouldn't go as good. I think someone was dropping some fluid down and it got real slippery for a while. Then, it got better after that. But still, to come home third today is pretty good. I wish we could have run that as a green flag run there at the end instead of having a couple cautions, but that is the way it goes."

While Labonte is not one to speculate and think of all the what if scenarios, he does feel that if the caution had not come out with 27-laps remaining, he had a great shot at tracking down Busch for the victory.

"I thought before that caution came out that we were gaining on Kurt (Busch) really good there," admitted Labonte. "Then the caution came out. After the restart we weren't as good. Matt (Kenseth) got by us there. But, I got a little bit better there the last couple laps. We were getting pretty good up until that caution came out with 30-some-odd laps to go and then after that, we couldn't get going again."