Put Bobby Labonte so far in the rear
that he's starting south of the gnat line. Give him a car said to be handling
like a rodeo bull on a frozen pond. Then go ahead and ink him in as your
winner at Atlanta Motor Speedway, regardless. He owns the place. Bruton
Smith is only leasing. "Bobby's just the man here," said Winston
Cup champion Dale Jarrett, deeding over this little piece of his kingdom.
Labonte's victory in Sunday's otherwise inconsequential NAPA 500
was his fourth in the past seven races at the Hampton proving
grounds. So poorly did he qualify that Labonte began the day back
with the rest of the provisional starters, on the 19th row.
Provisionals normally are the wretched refuse of race day.
The provisionals are the kids shuttled into the frat house
kitchen during rush week. They are the books on the back of the
discount shelf. Yet, there was Labonte running away and hiding at the close
of the business day, leaving the real racing far behind him.
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He may have been chasing two other mulitcar
teams at the end of the season finale, but Jack Rousch couldn't help
but leave Atlanta Motor Speedway with a smile on his face. Of his four
Winston Cup drivers returning next season, one started on the pole
and led the most laps of his career. The other three finished the
season racing each other for fourth. Mark finished fourth, Jeff Burton
fifth and Chad Little sixth, giving Rousch three of the top six
cars in the season finale. Pole-sitter Kevin LePage led 17 laps early
in the race before losing two laps and finishing 17th.
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"That's a really good way to end the season,"
Little said. "We've had a lot of ups and downs this year and to end up on
a positive is the best you can make of it. When the race ended,
that was the best we were, so that's the way to go." Mark, Burton,
Little and LePage will all return next season. They will be joined
by rookie of the year contender Matt Kenseth, who will be driving
for a new Rousch team. While Robert Yates Racing won its first
championship and Joe Gibbs Racing emerged as a mulitcar power,
Rousch's organization proved that it still has one of the best teams
in Winston Cup racing. Mark, a perennial championship contender,
won two races and finished third in points, his third straight
top-three finish.
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Burton, meanwhile, won six races,
one less than Jeff Gordon's series-leading seven. But he edged
Gordon for fifth in points, giving him three straight top-five
points finishes. And as always, they were contenders until the very
end. Mark led 17 laps early in the race, faded with a cut tire,
then rallied at the end to finish fourth.
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"We gave it all we had," said Mark, who
finished 319 points behind Dale Jarrett and 118 out of second.
"We had a great car. We tore a tire up under green. We came
in and got tires when we didn't know if we should or not and
we got back to fourth. It was a tough day, but we really fought
hard. We tried to win, we didn't try to just get a top-five
finish. We worked on the car and tried to make it a winner and wound
up with a good result." Burton led just three laps, and those
turned out to be a mistake. He gambled with a two-tire pit stop
late in the race, only to lose positions to four cars that
had taken on new rubber. But it was the last of the season.
It was a perfect time to gamble. "We had a little better car
than a fifth-place car," Burton said. "We were running the leaders down
pretty good... we gambled a little bit and took two and that
didn't work for us, but it's the last race of the year and
we gambled a little bit."
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