In case you've ever wondered why Bristol Motor Speedway packs more than 150,000 fans into a half-mile racetrack on a steamy Saturday night in August, you only have to look at a pair of "tag, you're it" incidents between Terry Labonte and Dale Earnhardt under the lights to understand a little of the intensity.

In both 1995 and 1999, it was a hard-charging Earnhardt who rammed leader Labonte's rear bumper on the final lap. In the first instance, Labonte somehow skidded across the finish line first to win. In the second, it was Earnhardt who wound up in Victory Lane amid a chorus of boos, adding another chapter to his legend as the Intimidator.

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And it led to one of Earnhardt's greatest post-race quotes: "I wanted to rattle his cage."

In the rain-delayed 1995 Goody's 500, it wasn't Labonte who confronted Earnhardt after the race. Instead, it was Rusty Wallace who chucked a water bottle in Earnhardt's direction after the two made contact on Lap 32, sending Wallace's Ford hard into the concrete wall.

Despite being sent to the tail end of the field for that move -- courtesy of a rough driving penalty issued by NASCAR -- Earnhardt time and time again drove his way back to the front on a track known as a notoriously difficult place to pass.

On Lap 108, he fell back to 29th after pitting twice to repair damage from contact with Morgan Shepherd. But by Lap 195, Earnhardt had made up enough ground to blast past Jeff Gordon to take the lead, only to give it up after a slow pit stop 65 laps later.

While the lead changed hands between Derrike Cope, Lake Speed and Darrell Waltrip, Earnhardt once again rallied. He blew past Waltrip in Turn 3 on Lap 308, and handed it off only when the field came into the pits for service under caution.

Earnhardt made his final pit stop on Lap 390, giving him fresher tires than leader Dale Jarrett and the rest of the front-runners. And when Labonte got by Jarrett on Lap 432, Earnhardt appeared to be steadily closing ground. The only question would be if Earnhardt would have enough laps to catch Labonte -- and it initially seemed that the answer would be no.

However, Labonte was pinned in behind several slower cars, and as he took the white flag, Earnhardt aggressively threw his black No. 3 Chevrolet in the corners in one last effort to close the gap.

"Those guys didn't show any respect for the leaders," Labonte said. "Dale had fresher tires and he was catching us, but I thought we had enough laps. Then we caught that traffic and it got close."

Yes, it did get close, almost too close for Labonte.

Earnhardt wound up right on Labonte's bumper coming out of Turn 4 and turned the No. 5 Chevy sideways just as the two crossed the finish line. Labonte fishtailed, then slammed head-on into the outside concrete wall. He was able to drive his damaged car -- steam hissing and spurting from the wadded-up radiator -- into Victory Lane.

"Dale caught me and gave me a little shot in the back," Labonte said. "I stayed in the gas and just beat him across the line."

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."