Labonte 'fine' after fiery crash at Chicagoland

JOLIET, Ill. -- Bobby Labonte escaped serious injury after his car burst into flames late in the Tropicana 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.

"I smell like a BBQ pit, but other than that I feel fine," Labonte said.

Labonte was clipped by the sliding car of Johnny Benson as the field roared through Turn 3. Labonte's car kicked sideways and backed into the wall, apparently rupturing a fuel line.

With a full load of fuel aboard, flames encompassed the No. 18 Chevrolet as it slid along the outside wall before drifting to the apron.

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With his car burning, Labonte got out as quick as he could, falling to the grass and grabbing his helmet before emergency workers got to him.

Labonte was taken to the infield care center, where he was examined and released.

"The car caught on fire, and we got out," Labonte said. "All the safety stuff worked pretty good, except it takes a long time to get out in a fire. We wish we could fix those two things. Everything else was great."

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Benson was making a three-wide move to the inside of Casey Mears, but Mears and Benson touched, sending Benson sideways down the track. As Benson tried to save his car, it shot back into traffic entering Turn 3.

After Labonte pounded the wall, the cars of Steve Park, Bill Elliott and Robby Gordon spun but didn't hit anything. Mike Wallace was involved, too.

"They just had a big incident there in front of us," Labonte said. "Somebody clipped the 10 car and got him spinning down to the inside. Thought I could make it to the outside because that looked where I should be.

"I don't think I could've slowed down enough to get to the bottom and get below him because I probably would've wrecked everybody else."