Earnhardt, Labonte known for Thunder Valley dustups (cont'd)

Earnhardt admitted that was his only chance to win.

"We couldn't catch him," he said. "We got all jammed in behind some slow cars. Then I hit him in the rear and he still won the race."

“

I didn't mean to turn him around but I wanted to rattle his cage.

”

DALE EARNHARDT

Jarrett wound up third, followed by Waltrip and pole-sitter Mark Martin.

Four years later, the circumstances were eerily similar, but the results were very different.

Labonte was in first place when on Lap 490, Jeremy Mayfield spun out on the backstretch and Darrell Waltrip tapped the leader and sent him spinning as the field raced back to the yellow. However, with only a handful of lead-lap cars, Labonte was able to stop for four tires and return to the race in sixth.

The field, now led by Earnhardt, took the green with five laps remaining -- and Labonte furiously battled his way back to Earnhardt's rear bumper as the two navigated the backstretch. Labonte bumped the side of Earnhardt's car, then drove under him right at the start-finish line as the white flag flew.

Then what happened next is the stuff of legends.

Coming out of Turn 2, Earnhardt's No. 3 Chevy tagged Labonte in the left rear quarter panel. And as the No. 5 Chevrolet spun crazily in a cloud of white tire smoke, the Intimidator held off Jimmy Spencer in the final two turns to record the win.

"I didn't mean to turn him around," Earnhardt said as he celebrated a victory that obviously didn't sit well with a majority of the 140,000 fans in attendance, "but I wanted to rattle his cage."

Later, Earnhardt continued to deny that he wrecked Labonte on purpose.

"I bumped him too hard and turned him loose," he said. "I know he's upset. He has a right to be."

A smoldering Labonte, saddled with an eighth-place finish, wasn't having any of that.

"He never has any intention of taking anybody out," Labonte said. "It just happens that way."

The only question was whether NASCAR officials might penalize Earnhardt for rough driving -- but the decision stood.

"When you're trying to draw the line in regard to winning races, you need to have something more absolute than what we had," NASCAR operations director Kevin Triplett said.

And Labonte knew there wasn't any sense complaining about it.

"I wouldn't even waste my time to go down to the trailer and talk to them about it," he said. "We got spun, came back, took the lead, then got spun again. Guess it just wasn't our night."