Labonte win brings Cup year, name to its finish

HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- Following dominating Bill Elliott into the last lap of Sunday's era-ending Winston Cup race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Bobby Labonte was resigned to a runner-up finish.

"He was really motoring, and I knew I wasn't going to win unless something happened," Labonte said. "Then something happened."

Coming off turn two on the reconfigured 1 1/2-mile oval, Elliott's right rear tire exploded, costing the former series champion a second straight win and giving Labonte an unexpectedly happy ending to a disappointing season.

It was the last race for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. after 33 years as a major sponsor for NASCAR. Beginning with the Daytona 500 in February, NASCAR's top stock car series will be sponsored by Nextel Communications and will be known as the Nextel Cup.

Elliott won a week earlier with a strong performance at Rockingham and was even better Sunday, leading 189 of 267 laps on a considerably faster Homestead track, newly changed from a nearly flat 6 degrees of banking to 20 degrees.

He held off Labonte on a restart nine laps from the end and pulled away, driving into the first turn of the last lap leading by about five car-lengths and apparently on the way to an easy win.

As Elliott drove off turn two, his Dodge wiggled and slowed as his tire came apart. That sent pieces of sheet metal and rubber flying and ignited a fire in the wheelwell.

Labonte, who struggled early in the race and had not led a lap all day, shot past Elliott on the backstretch and beat runner-up Kevin Harvick to the finish line by 1.749 seconds -- half the front straightaway.

Crew chief Michael "Fatback" McSwain kept telling Labonte on the radio in the final laps not to give up, but Elliott's problem caught the winner by surprise.

"Oh man, I couldn't believe it, I just couldn't believe it," Labonte said, shaking his head. "Fatback kept saying, 'Keep going, he'll make a mistake.' But I told him Bill was just playing with me."

Labonte won three races in 2003 but also failed to finish five times and wound up eighth in the series standings. He said luck just did not seem to be with his Joe Gibbs Racing team, particularly in the second half of the season.

Sunday appeared to be more of the same, until the final lap.

"Our day was definitely more down than up," Labonte said. "The car was just terrible, miserable early in the race. We ran over some stuff from the first crash and were second from last on the restart.

"Michael made some changes and we had a good car after that and that dropped us back again. I didn't think it was going to be our day and then we finally got some luck."

Elliott, the 1988 series champion, held on to finish eighth and took the loss in stride.

"Our Dodge ran so well today and it's just an unfortunate thing," he said. "I don't know if I've ever won one like that, but I've sure lost them like that. Obviously, it wasn't our day."

Despite the disappointment, Elliott appeared to spike the season-long rumors that he will retire.

Asked how soon he might have a decision on whether to retire or race in 2004, Elliott said, "I ain't got no decisions to make. I'm ready to go."

Elliott's was just the last of a series of tire problems in the race. Goodyear spokesman Mike Stucker said.

"It's just the nature of a new, repaved race track," Stucker said. "A new fresh asphalt, black racetrack, makes a lot of heat and we're seeing some blistering."

It was not a good day for Matt Kenseth, who wrapped up the last Winston Cup championship a week earlier at Rockingham, N.C. He had an engine failure and finished last in the 43-car field Sunday.

Jimmie Johnson was third in the race and easily held onto second place in the standings, finishing a deceptively close 90 points to Kenseth, who led from the fourth race of the 36-event season.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 24th Sunday and wound up third in the points, 117 behind Johnson.

Johnny Benson had a season-best fourth-place finish. It gave Pontiac, also leaving NASCAR, its top finish in the race.

Harvick's second-place finish came despite being involved in a three-car crash on the fourth lap. Harvick was trying to pass Ryan Newman and defending race winner Kurt Busch in a three-wide move, but hit Newman. Newman and Busch then hit the wall and Harvick spun himself into the grass in turn two.

Busch and Newman eventually got back into the race after repairs to their battered cars, but finished 36th and 37th, respectively. Busch wound up losing 10th place in the standings to Terry Labonte by 12 points. Labonte finished 15th in the race.

Newman, who came into the race fourth in the points, was helpless to stop Jeff Gordon, who finished fifth in the race, and Harvick from moving past him in the standings.