NASCAR Cup

Bristol: GM - Bobby Labonte press conference

BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 ADVAIR CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (3RD): ON HIS RACE OVERALL "It was great. It was better than great. I spun out twice and finished third. That's a pretty great day." HOW MANY TIMES DID YOU WRECK TODAY? "I got spun out twice ...

Published: Mar 25, 2003, 4:28 PM

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BOBBY LABONTE, NO. 18 ADVAIR CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO (3RD):

ON HIS RACE OVERALL "It was great. It was better than great. I spun out twice and finished third. That's a pretty great day."

HOW MANY TIMES DID YOU WRECK TODAY? "I got spun out twice or was in two wrecks. I was on the back straightaway twice backwards.

ON COMING BACK FROM THAT... "Our car was really good that one segment - we had the long green flag run before lap 380 or whenever the caution came out there. We made up a lot of positions and got to the lead there. We probably started 26th. The car was really good at that point in time - the best it was all day. We weren't quite as good towards the end. We needed a little bit longer run and then we had a caution and it screwed us up again. But heck, it could have been a lot worse. I can't complain about it. I just wish that we hadn't had a caution. But, at the same time I say that - there the last 10 laps the car got real loose, so I don't know. I might have cut down a tire when I tried to chop him off."

WITH ABOUT 20 TO GO, DID YOU FEEL LIKE YOU WERE BETTER THAN THE '97'? "I thought before that caution came out that we were gaining on Kurt (Busch) really good there. Then the caution came out. After the restart we weren't as good. Matt (Kenseth) got by us there. I think there was fluid on the track. I think Tony (Stewart) might have been dropping it. Somebody came in and then it dried up a little bit. But, I got a little bit better there the last couple laps. We were getting pretty good up until that caution came out with 30-some-odd laps to go and then after that, we couldn't get going again."

ABOUT 40 LAPS FROM THE END, COULD YOU HAVE GOTTEN AROUND THE '97' OR WERE YOU JUST TRYING TO BE PATIENT? "We had some lapped traffic there and we were both being pretty careful getting through it. I think I was getting a little bit better at that point in time. I saw his car was going up the racetrack a little bit more than it was the first few laps of that run and my car was digging on the bottom a little bit better. At that point in time, my car was getting better and his car might have been giving up just a little bit."

ON GOING TO TEXAS AND TALLADEGA...WHAT ARE YOUR CHANCES THERE? "I don't know. We'll have to wait and see, but we look forward to each and every race we go to now. Yesterday afternoon I didn't think we were that spiffy there and we made a lot of changes this morning before the race started. It makes you confident. You go to a racetrack, you start off pretty good and you might stay pretty good. If not, maybe we'll pick up and get better as the day goes on, so we're looking forward to it."

ON PIT STRATEGY TODAY, WITH ALL THE EARLY CAUTIONS AND THEN THE LONG GREEN FLAG RUN... "It worked out pretty good for me because we had just taken the lead at that point in time. 'Fatback' (crew chief Michael McSwain) said, 'Pit.' The lap he said, 'Pit,' the '88' car hit the wall of turn four, so I stayed out there for two more laps and the caution came out. I'm not sure if it was for debris or something else. But, we caught a lot of guys a lap down or two laps down at that point in time, so pit strategy worked out good for us, just because we didn't strategize to pit any earlier than we did and it just worked out. We were able to pit under caution and a lot of guys were a lap down, just by virtue of having to pit under green. We got crashed earlier and pitted a couple times, probably later than some of these other guys did. At that point in time, I guess we could go a little bit longer than they could, so it was kind of unlucky for us at one point in time, but then turned out to be fortunate for us."

-gm racing-

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