Tony Stewart (front) and Bobby Labonte (top) run 1-2 during the Advance Auto Parts 500. Neither would score a top-25 finish. Credit: Autostock

Frustration mounts at Joe Gibbs Racing

Labonte and Stewart finish poorly after strong Martinsville runs

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- Regardless which member of Joe Gibbs Racing was asked - driver, crew chief or pit crew member -- the reaction and response were the same: Head down, shaking, shoulders shrugged, frustration palpable.

Final lapsGordon comes back from three laps down for the victory Tough breakStewart loses a tire and his chance for a win Spin cycleGordon bumps Busch and sends him into the wall Tire troublesDale Jr. touches Bliss and gets a severe tire rub Heavy damageEdwards gets loose and collects H. Sadler on Lap 68 Early cautionNewman suffers damage after contact with Riggs Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

"I can't even describe it right now, to be honest," said Tony Stewart upon emergence from the No. 20 transporter.

"It's... Bad."

Stewart's frustration permeates throughout the Gibbs camp, the hardest luck bunch in the Nextel Cup Series in 2005.

But never has it been more evident than it was following Sunday's Advance Auto Parts 500.

Stewart and teammate Bobby Labonte spent the first 400 laps at Martinsville Speedway running among the top three, only to have an engine failure drop Labonte from contention and a miscue on pit road end Stewart's bid run at Victory Lane.

"Like I told the guys on the radio, and again when I got out of the car -- we've got a lot to be proud of, and when the emotion of the disappointment goes away, we're going to have a lot of things to be happy about and look forward to," Stewart said.

"This is the best car we've ever had at Martinsville. We can't change it now. It's all over with. But what won't change is that we had a great car, the best car here, and everybody knows it."

Stewart was running third on Lap 432 when he entered Turn 1 and the right front wheel broke off of the No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet, the result of loose lugnuts on the previous pit stop.

"It's called loose lugnuts. You don't tighten the wheel, you'll have problems like that," said Stewart's crew chief, Greg Zipadelli. "We made a mistake today and it cost us a win. We, for sure, had the best car after 20 laps."

Jeff Gordon won the race, but Stewart led the most laps -- 247.

Tony Stewart led the most laps for the second time this year. Credit: Autostock

"Everybody here knows who had the best car today," said Stewart, who finished 26th. "Jeff's gonna get the trophy and Jeff's gonna say he had the best car all day, but all you've gotta do is look at the lap times. That's the win for us today, I guess."

Like Stewart, Labonte is frustrated with his season's best effort being foiled. But, like Stewart, he takes solace in how well he ran.

While running third on Lap 399, smoke began trailing from behind the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Chevrolet.

Labonte stayed on the track and fell back to eighth before pitting on Lap 435. The car never returned to the track, the victim of a broken valve.

"Well, we can't build a motor to go 250 laps I guess, right now," Labonte said.

Ultimately, Labonte would finish 33rd, dropping him from 34th to 37th in the championship point standings.

	Strong runs, poor results Joe Gibbs Racing has only top-five among its three teams in 2005 despite strong cars all season: Driver Top-5s Standing Tony Stewart 1 5th Jason Leffler 0 33rd Bobby Labonte 0 37th

He is 561 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson, and 13 points behind 35th-place Bobby Hamilton Jr.

Because he is outside of the top-35 in points, Labonte must qualify on speed next week at Texas, as only the top-35 in points are guaranteed spots in the race.

Fortunately, Labonte has the past champion's provisional to fall back on should he fail to qualify on speed. Labonte has never qualified worse than 15th at Texas.

"I don't feel bad. I feel great," Labonte said. "The only thing is that I know we can prove we can go fast on tracks where it matters. Get to an aero track, where we're a little bit off on that, need to work on that and get better.

"So I guess if we go to Texas and sit on the pole and win the race it won't matter, ya know? But our ambitions are high. It's just that we've got stupid stuff happening.

"It doesn't matter how many years you've been here, you still get frustrated. We just have silly stuff happening. It's unfortunate. We've got a great group of guys, great sponsors, great team.

"Today, at least we were leading the race when it happened. That's better than running 33rd and it happen. We're running good, we just need to be able to stay there."