Monday, August 04, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

CHECKERED FINISH: Busch's move angers Terry Labonte

Las Vegas native hits foe's car, causing wreck

By JEFF WOLF
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Kurt Busch Las Vegas native finishes seventh in race, remains eighth in Winston Cup points standings The car driven by Terry Labonte (5) comes down on the car driven by Ricky Rudd, left, near the end of the Brickyard 400. The accident occurred after Kurt Busch's car hit the rear of Labonte's. Photo by Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS -- Kurt Busch shouldn't expect a birthday card from Terry Labonte today, but Busch can celebrate finishing seventh in Sunday's NASCAR Winston Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Busch, who turns 25 today, was running 10th behind Labonte on the 145th lap when the race was restarted after a brief caution.

When the pack hit the backstretch, Busch hit the rear of Labonte's car, sending Labonte into a spin that eventually involved five other cars.

While Busch escaped any damage to his No. 97 Ford Taurus, Labonte lost a lap from damage to his car and finished 19th in the 160-lap Brickyard 400.

"He drives off the end of the hood," Labonte said of the Las Vegas native. Labonte implied Busch should have seen someone slow in front of them and been prepared for Labonte to slow.

Busch, who was not available to comment on the incident, started the race sixth and ran in the top five early in the race but began drifting toward the middle of the field after about 40 laps.

"It was just one little thing wrong here, one little thing wrong in the back of the car," he told a Ford publicist.

"We're able to start the race where we need to start it and, for some reason, we had been chasing it until halfway. After that, that's when the car started coming back."

Busch, who earned five bonus points for leading laps 39 and 40, maintained his eighth-place position in the standings.

• JARRETT'S BAD DAY -- John Bryan, the jackman for Dale Jarrett's No. 88 Ford Taurus, and a photographer for the Muncie (Ind.) Star Press escaped serious injury when Jarrett spun entering pit road on lap 36.

Bryan was hit by Barrett's car, and the photographer was hit by a tire dropped by a member of Jarrett's crew. Both were taken to an Indianapolis hospital but released after being treated for minor injuries.

"This is probably the worst day of my life," said Jarrett, who returned to the track after missing several laps and completed 143 laps to finish 39th. "It's the most devastating thing I've been associated with and it was just stupidity on my part."

• STEWART DISAPPOINTED -- Reigning Cup champion Tony Stewart was the dominant car in the field until faltering to a 12th-place finish for the second straight year.

He led three times for a race-high total of 60 laps, but faded from contention after a bad pit stop on the 106th lap was followed by another stop 16 laps later under green-flag conditions and a final one under caution on lap 142 with 18 laps left.

"We had a bad pit stop (lap 106) that pretty much got us behind," said crew chief Greg Zipadelli.

Zipadelli also questioned NASCAR's call for caution on lap 106 for oil on the track.

"You work all day to get a 10-second lead and the yellow comes out for nothing," he said. Stewart's lead at the time actually was 4.4 seconds, but he had led by 10 seconds on lap 88.

"Right now it's just severe disappointment for all of us," said Joe Gibbs, who owns the No. 20 team for whom Stewart drives. "We came here with a great race car and finished 12th. Everyone fought their guts out and it just didn't work out for us."