Bobby Labonte's run ended 14 laps early, resulting in a 42nd-place finish. Credit: Autostock

Labonte's season of frustration continues

Probable top-five run ruined after getting pinned to wall late

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Bobby Labonte the pro performed every function he had to Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway -- every agonizing interview.

But after all the cameras and live radio reporters were gone, he took one last, elegant moment to voice all the frustration his season on the brink for Petty Enterprises has entailed.

Official Results Pepsi 400 Pos. Driver Make 1. T. Stewart Chevrolet 2. Ky. Busch Chevrolet 3. Ku. Busch Dodge 4. B. Said Ford 5. E. Sadler Ford 6. M. Kenseth Ford 7. C. Mears Dodge 8. J. McMurray Ford 9. K. Harvick Chevrolet 10. C. Bowyer Chevrolet • Complete results, click here • Official standings, click here Victory LaneTony Stewart celebrates after winning the Pepsi 400! Final lapsThe Pepsi 400 at Daytona ends in a three-lap shootout Lowe's turns highJimmie Johnson gets loose and collects Bobby Labonte Late-race wreckJ. Gordon gets the worst of a late-race pileup at Daytona Sign up for TrackPass now BUY THE NEXTEL i836

Labonte had seen a virtually certain top-five finish, which would have been only his second this season and his fourth top-10, wiped out in a two-car crash with less than 15 laps left in the Pepsi 400.

Earlier this season, Labonte led 13 of the first 56 laps at Atlanta before his car's engine failed, but that feeling of despair was nothing compared to Saturday.

"Yeah, this was probably the best car we've had this year, at least in restrictor-plate racing," Labonte said. "This is pretty much way more frustrating than something like a broken engine.

"If we were in the top 10 in points and you have a bad race, you could kind of survive it sometimes, but when you make two good races and then you have three stupid things happen to you, or if you screw up one, that's OK.

"But then if something stupid happens to you, you don't have enough of a cushion to play with, so yeah, it's frustrating."

Since rebounding from 38th in the points after four races into 23rd three races ago, Labonte has spiraled back to 26th.

With as little as a fifth-place finish -- which seemed certain at the point at which he was taken out -- Labonte could have been 21st, and about 50 points out of 20th, heading to this week's race at Chicagoland Speedway.

Labonte, in the classic Pepsi 400 -- his 17th race for one of Nextel Cup racing's most historic franchises, the Pettys -- had a legitimate chance to win his 22nd Cup victory.

But after a typically hectic superspeedway race that lacked only one thing -- a big accident -- Labonte and 2006 Daytona 500 winner Jimmie Johnson set the table for one when they entered Turn 3 with 14 laps to go.

Labonte came down the backstretch running behind eventual race winner Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon and trailed by Johnson, Kurt Busch and Elliott Sadler.

Johnson dove to the middle of the 31-degree banking trying to pass Labonte, who remained in the high groove. Busch, coming from a ways back, saw an opportunity with drafting help from Sadler.

"I looked up ahead and saw [Johnson] was side-by-side with [Labonte], but just before that it looked like he could have fallen in line," Busch said. "So we tried to pass him and with the big head of steam from [Sadler], I went to the yellow line.

"I was very clear of those two guys [Johnson and Labonte]. I hate that [Johnson] was in that position in the middle, but I was on the white line going around the corner with a push from behind, and I didn't know what had happened behind me.

"I'm guessing Johnson got a little loose and got up into the 43. He must have felt like he was in a vulnerable spot and the car got loose underneath him."

That helped explain Labonte's bewilderment.

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"We went single file and nobody wanted to stick with me, so I just went to the outside," Labonte said. "They went three-wide and I guess we need to move the wall up a little further because I was up as high as I could go.

"I don't really know what happened. I was up against the wall and the next thing I knew I was in the wall. I knew [Johnson] was beside of me so I don't know if somebody got into him or just got him loose and we collected the wall and he collected us and that was our night."

Johnson was just as mystified.

"I've got to look at the video," Johnson said. "I mean, we were three-wide and I got loose inside of [Labonte], chased him up the track and just ran out of real estate. I'm not sure what was really going on around me but I got loose, was chasing him and off the gas, trying not to get into him and did.

"Once we got together my steering wheel pulled to the right and it just turned my steering head-on into his and I couldn't turn off of him. I just sat there grinding him into the wall, destroying both of our cars even more. I feel really bad about it."

"It was a tough break for our guys," Labonte said. "We weren't that fast, but it drove good, then it was fast and then it was everything; we were sitting in the right place and then all that happened there at the end.

Inside the Numbers Bobby Labonte in 2006 Starts 17 Wins 0 Top-5s 1 Top-10s 3 DNFs 4 Points 26

"It was very unfortunate because all the guys in the fab shop did a great job, they worked real hard and we just had a good run go away for us. We ran steady and consistent and didn't do anything wrong before that, we didn't think."

And the standings after the race helped explain his frustration. Labonte sits 26th in the standings after losing a spot from where he entered the night.

"We're getting there," Labonte said. "But stuff like this just makes it hard."

In the end, Labonte was philosophical about what racing at Daytona means, as he offered an epitaph for his 28th points race start at Daytona -- as the cleanup for the race's next-to-last caution, which was a five-car accident four laps after the restart from his and Johnson's wreck, went on.

"If it hadn't been for that crap there, we would've been in this one or something else," Labonte said. "I mean, we ran good all night and it's very frustrating, sitting here in the garage.

"Nobody knows how tough it is except for us out there -- and this is just heartbreaking."