Labonte beats Wallace in Brickyard 400

Mike Harris

Sunday, Aug. 6, 2000 | 10:21 a.m.

INDIANAPOLIS - Bobby Labonte played the hunter to perfection Saturday, stalking Rusty Wallace until it was time to win the Brickyard 400.

Labonte finally made his move 15 laps from the end of the 160-lap race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, pulling alongside Wallace and bumping past to take the lead for good.

It was easily the biggest of Labonte's 14 wins, and it came on the day that his older brother Terry's NASCAR record of 655 consecutive starts ended because of the recurring effects of a concussion from a crash last month.

The usually low-key Bobby Labonte jumped out of his car and climbed onto the top, throwing his arms in the air in jubilation.

He then jumped to the ground and hugged teammate Tony Stewart, crew chief Jimmy Makar, his wife Donna and just about anybody on the team he could get his hands on.

"I can't think of a better day," the nearly breathless winner said. "My brother, I wish he was out there. And to beat a great driver like Rusty Wallace, it was just awesome.

"Rusty put up great fight. I was better than him in turn two and at times I could outrun him a little bit better than other times. I got by him and he gave me a big shove, I guess that helped me out."

The victory ended a run of frustration for Labonte. Despite holding the lead in the Winston Cup standings virtually all season, he hadn't won since February in Rockingham, N.C.

It also gave Labonte the second NASCAR major of his career, having won the Coca-Cola 600 in 1995. The 36-year-old Texan had been agonizing close in the Brickyard, finishing second last year and in 1997 and third in 1998.

"This is one of those races you dream about," he said. "Like I said, a lot of things happened this week. I'm just glad it turned out like this."

Wallace dominated most of the race, hardly thrilling a crowd estimated at 320,000 by leading lap after lap on the 2 1/2 -mile oval.

But Labonte's Joe Gibbs Racing Pontiac was never far behind Wallace's Penske Racing South Ford.

Wallace, the 1989 series champion and winner of 51 races was trying hard to give owner Roger Penske a record 11th Indy victory - the first 10 came in open-wheel cars in the Indianapolis 500.

He made his final pit stop on lap 121, moments after Labonte had passed to take the lead on lap 119.

Labonte made his final stop the next time around and came back onto the racetrack about two car-lengths ahead of Wallace.

But the No. 2 Ford got right by again and stayed out front until Labonte made his move in the third turn on lap 146. The two were side-by-side coming off turn four and Labonte's right front banged into Wallace's left rear panel as they sped toward the finish line.

Labonte's car was 0.004-seconds ahead at the line and gradually took control.

With Wallace ahead, the two had been running almost nose-to-tail after the pit stops. But Labonte pulled away steadily after the pass, beating Wallace to the finish by 4.229-seconds - about 20 car-lengths.

Wallace, who led four times for 110 laps, said, "My car just got a little too tight when the clouds came out. Second is pretty good. But to get that close, it's a little hard to smile."

Referring to the pass that gave Labonte the victory, Wallace shrugged and said, "I couldn't shake that No. 18 and I knew I had a tiger by the tail.

"I was real tight in turn three and I was afraid he would get me there. Then we were side-by-side and there's no way we could go into turn one like that, so I backed out of it. That was it."

The race was slowed by just two caution flags and Labonte's average speed of 155.918 mph broke the race record of 155.206 set in 1995 by Dale Earnhardt.

Bill Elliott wound up third, followed by Jerry Nadeau, Stewart, Jeff Burton, two-time Brickyard winner and series champion Dale Jarrett and Earnhardt.

Both yellow flags were brought out by accidents.

The first came out on lap 16 when Mark Martin slammed into the first-turn wall.

The accident was ignited when Martin backed off to keep from hitting Michael Waltrip, which whom he had been racing for position. Mike Skinner banged into the rear of Martin's Ford, sending it skidding rear-end first into the wall.

Rick Mast slowed to keep from hitting Skinner and two-time Indy winner Jeff Gordon hit his car, damaging both enough to knock them out of contention.

John Andretti was the next track victim, banging into the third-turn wall after cutting down his right front tire on lap 42. The green flag came back out on lap 47 and the rest of the race was completed without interruption.