Notes: Junior enjoys Darlington despite woes

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- From a possible career day Sunday at Darlington Raceway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was frustrated -- but not devastated -- at finishing 25th in the Mountain Dew Southern 500, nine laps down to winner Terry Labonte.

SOUTHERN 500  Results  Standings  Video Highlights  Yarborough honored  Lap by Lap

Earnhardt was a fixture in the top 10 for the first 150 laps of the race, running as high as second after a 12.9-second, four-tire pit stop, but his car stopped under caution on the racetrack at that point.

"I'm not sure what happened with the rear axle -- I was just cruising around under yellow and all of a sudden, I had no drive to the rear wheels," Earnhardt said. "It happened all of a sudden -- I wasn't shifting and I had no warning -- there was no noise, just silence.

"Something came loose or we broke the axle cap. One second it was working and the next second it wasn't. It's frustrating to have that kind of thing happen -- a real fluke deal -- because we had a great car today."

POPULAR VICTORY  NASCAR's oldest superspeedway produced a very popular win on Sunday, as Terry Labonte won the Mountain Dew Southern 500 for his first victory since 1999.  •  Complete story, click here

The worst aspect to the deal was that Winston Cup championship leader Matt Kenseth, despite slapping his car off the wall early in the race, finished 14th and swelled his point lead over second-place Earnhardt to 389 with 11 races to go.

Earnhardt rejoined the race 11 laps down and had a car good enough to out-race the leaders no less than three times to get laps back. He ultimately gave Labonte one lap back at the end of the race when Earnhardt's finishing position was all but settled.

"That was the best race car I've had at this place," Earnhardt said. "I told the guys on the radio, I don't hate Darlington like I used to.

"It was because I really had a car I could drive. A driver can't help but improve each time he comes back to this place, but having a car that can run like that is a much better feeling."

Search for traction control?

	Casey Mears finished 35th in the Southern 500. Credit: Autostock

NASCAR officials weren't sure what they'd found when an accident midway through the Southern 500 tore the side of Casey Mears' Target Dodge open as if it had been attacked with a can opener.

But they removed a small yellow "brick" with wires attached from inside the side of the car. After the race, Winston Cup technical director Steve Peterson supervised the dismantling of the dashboard of Mears' car.

After inspecting the back of the car's gauge package, picking and probing at the wiring, Peterson gave the OK to Ganassi Racing crewmembers to load the car.

Later, Winston Cup director John Darby said the device was simply a voltage monitor designed to track the voltage of the car's battery.

Kenseth bumps wall, series lead

No one can say Winston Cup point leader Matt Kenseth isn't trying to win races -- despite coming into the Darlington weekend with a 351-point lead -- after the Roush Racing driver made a "stupid" mistake early in the Southern 500 and cracked the wall.

	Matt Kenseth extended his points lead Sunday at Darlington. Credit: Autostock

"I get so much crap -- people think I'm riding around all the time," Kenseth said, laughing. "We had a great car today and I hit the wall early.

"Today I just made a mistake that I usually don't make (and) that was really stupid. I was trying to lead the most laps and it was dumb. I should have let (Jeff) Burton go and race the racetrack like you're supposed to do here and wait until the end, but I just drove it too hard and I got in the wall."

Kenseth said he bent his Ford's suspension and his car was never the same, but the bottom line was that both Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon also had trouble and Kenseth's lead is now 389 points over Junior.

Kenseth won a league leading five races in 2002 and has won only once this season -- despite logging an incredible 23 top-15 finishes in 25 starts. Still, it was not hard to pick the pain out of his voice.

"It could have been worse," Kenseth said of the day, "but we had a shot to win so it kind of hurts."

Hendrick teams stepping up

Terry Labonte's victory Sunday means all five full-time Hendrick Motorsports operations in Winston Cup and the Busch Series have won races this season, a historic occurrence.

Jimmie Johnson has won twice in Winston Cup and Brian Vickers has two Busch scores, while Jeff Gordon, Joe Nemechek and Labonte have all won once. Conicidentally, both of Hendrick's No. 5 cars: Vickers' and Labonte's, won at Darlington.

Biffle had a shot

Along with Ryan Newman, Greg Biffle appeared to have one of the dominant cars in the Southern 500, but unlike Newman's mistake of hitting his car's emergency kill switch on a pit stop, Biffle's Grainger Ford was bitten by mechanical trouble.

	Greg Biffle finished 10th Sunday at Darlington. Credit: Autostock

"It's pretty unfortunate," Biffle said. "My stomach dropped when I had about a four-second lead and the flywheel broke coming off Turn 2. We found out that's what it is now, but I thought the motor broke so I started slowing down.

"Everything was shaking so bad inside the car that the car wouldn't handle anymore -- it wouldn't accelerate. When I left on the last pit stop, a chunk of the flywheel was still in the pit box (so) I had no clutch."

Along with the pain of seeing his chance for a second career victory disappear, Biffle also saw Jamie McMurray widen the gap on Biffle in the rookie of the year standings after McMurray finished fourth to Biffle's 10th.

"I think it cracked my ribs it was shaking so bad inside the car," Biffle said. "I was in so much pain for the last 70 laps -- I never felt so much pain in my life.

"You can imagine how unbalanced it would be with half the flywheel gone, but that's what this team is made of with how we ran today. I promise you we're gonna win a couple of races before this year is out."

Sadler, Parrott coming together fast

How much of an impact has new crew chief Todd Parrott had in his return to Robert Yates Racing, with Elliott Sadler? In their second race together, at Darlington, Sadler scored his first top-10 finish in seven races.

Teaming Parrott with former solo crew chief Raymond Fox creates a tandem similar to what the team had at the beginning of the season with Fox and Shawn Parker, a combination that produced five top-10s in the first nine races.

"We weren't that good yesterday in Happy Hour, but the guys made some good changes," Sadler said. "We weren't that good at the beginning of the race, but they made some great changes during the race and we definitely had a top-three or top-four car."

Sadler said that despite being worn out from the intense heat at Darlington, he was more than enthused over the chemistry his team is showing.

"We got better as the day went on and that's a great feeling," Sadler said. "The guys are working good together -- Raymond and Todd and everybody on the crew."