THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 19, 1995 TAG: 9506190121
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BROOKLYN, MICH. LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
Brotherly love, V-8 style, was the story at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday as Bobby Labonte used brother Terry's spare engine to beat Terry's teammate, Jeff Gordon, in the Miller 400.
Bobby Labonte, taking advantage of more power on the straightaways, held off Gordon during the final 10 laps and crossed the finish line with Gordon on his bumper. The official margin of victory was 0.27 seconds.
Gordon was none too happy about the turn of events.
``We gave it everything we had. Bobby beat us today,'' he said as he walked back to his transporter.
Did Bobby Labonte have a little bit more engine in his Chevrolet Monte Carlo?
``Heh? Little bit?'' Gordon responded, an edge to his voice. ``Yeah, I'd say so.''
Rusty Wallace finished third, followed by John Andretti, Morgan Shepherd and Dale Jarrett. Six other cars finished on the lead lap, including Terry Labonte, who was ninth.
The race was marred by one bad crash that sent Ricky Rudd to a local hospital and another that left Dale Earnhardt limping and in second place in the Winston Cup championship race, six points behind Sterling Marlin. And there was a post-race, two-punch assault by Michael Waltrip on Lake Speed's helmet.
But for Bobby Labonte, it was victory No. 2 in four races. And this was only his 14th race in Joe Gibbs' Interstate Chevy. It also comes on the heels of Terry's victory, also his second of the year, last Sunday at Pocono.
``This one here was really difficult,'' Bobby Labonte said. ``I felt good today, but I didn't know if we were as good as we were at Charlotte (where he won the Coca-Cola 600 last month). ``I knew if we made the right adjustments on our car and had some luck on our side, we'd be OK.''
A smattering of confidence came from the toy soldiers Labonte and his team have glued to the front dashboard and back window well.
``We used to put them in the tool box to protect the spark plugs,'' he said. ``They did a good job, so we put 'em in the car at the beginning of the year. They protect us. The guy in the back keeps somebody from running into us. And the guy in the front, if somebody gets too far in front of us, he shoots them.''
But more of Labonte's confidence no doubt stemmed from the power in the Hendrick Motorsports V-8 Chevy engine.
Gibbs leases engines from Hendrick for his cars, but this particular power plant was pure Hendrick stuff, not a rent-a-motor.
As Bobby Labonte explained it, bad luck was the genesis for the brotherly loan.
``We had a new oil pan in our primary engine and it blew oil out of the oil tank'' on Saturday, he said.
That prompted an engine change. But Bobby Labonte had used up his spare, and another power plant as well, during a test at Indianapolis last week. He also wrecked a new car there on the second lap of his session. So Bobby turned to big brother Terry, who said, sure, borrow my spare.
That must have unnerved Gordon, because in the closing laps of this 200-lap affair, as Labonte pulled away from him on the long back straight and the big, curved front straight of this 2-mile speedway, Gordon was howling.
He told his crew chief, Ray Evernham, that Labonte was killing him on the straights. The corners weren't the problem, he said. He wanted to know why his engine wasn't running like Labonte's.
Evernham advised him to keep digging. But it was a lost cause in those final 10 laps, even though Gordon at one point managed to pull even with Labonte.
``I could never pull away,'' Labonte said. ``He was always right there.''
Following the race, when he had time to cool down a bit, Gordon said: ``Bobby had us covered today. . . . He's got one of those Hendrick engines in there, and it's tough to beat your own stuff. He out-motored us.''
Terry Labonte told Chevy's Ray Cooper: ``I don't know if we're going to give him any more motors or not.''
On the last lap, Labonte said, ``I just wanted to run my own line. I didn't worry about where (Gordon) was on the racetrack. I didn't let him dictate where I was going to go. I knew I needed to get off turn two real good (on the last lap). I knew if I had him off that corner real good, I'd be OK.''
And as he sped toward the finish line, he shouted into his radio:
``Is that the checkered flag?''
``Yes, it is!'' shouted crew chief Jimmy Makar.
``I've been waiting a long time for this,'' Labonte replied. by CNB