
DATE: Monday, October 13, 1997              TAG: 9710130136

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: TALLADEGA, ALA.                   LENGTH:   89 lines

LABONTES FINISH 1-2 IN TALLADEGA THRILLER A SPECTACULAR 23-CAR CRASH TRIMS THE FIELD.

The strange hybrid that is superspeedway racing displayed all of its glory and terror Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway before Terry Labonte made a rare end-of-the-race pass to win the DieHard 500.

Labonte, with a boost from his little brother, Bobby, squeezed past Ken Schrader with less than two laps to go to win his first race as defending Winston Cup champion. Bobby Labonte was second, followed by John Andretti, Schrader and Ernie Irvan. Eighteen cars finished on the lead lap.

``I didn't want to be the defending champion and go all year and not win a race,'' Terry Labonte said.

The glory of Sunday's DieHard 500 was 32 lead changes among six drivers. The glory was a 32-car lead pack still intact after more than two hours of racing. The glory was Labonte's swooping pass of Schrader on lap 187 of the 188-lap event.

The terror was the almost inevitable megacrash, this one triggered late in the mostly trouble-free race by Winston Cup points leader Jeff Gordon, who blew a tire near the front of a double-wide pack on the backstretch.

Twenty seconds and 23 cars later, it was over. Not only was Gordon involved, but so were championship challengers Mark Martin and Dale Jarrett, as well as Dale Earnhardt, Sterling Marlin and Jimmy Spencer, all of whom had led laps.

The crash did its usual destructively efficient job of rooting out all sorts of strong race cars. But the nature of superspeedway racing in the 1990s is that even if half the field is wrecked, as it was Sunday, there are still enough good cars to have a dandy race.

And with just 10 laps to go, the lead pack was still two-by-two back to eighth place, with Schrader and Labonte leading the way.

Moments later, Schrader used a boost from Andretti's draft to take sole possession of the lead. And with seven laps remaining, Schrader, Andretti and the Labonte brothers fell into a four-car breakaway, moving out ahead of the rest of the pack to settle it among themselves. Terry and Bobby Labonte then managed to get past Andretti.

The final pass was something of a throwback to the old days - a modern-day, slow-motion variation on the old slingshot move that used to characterize superspeedway racing before the era of carburetor restrictor plates.

Labonte drifted high in turn 2, then cut back across to the bottom of the track at the exit of the turn. And with just enough momentum to do it, he got past Schrader on the inside as brother Bobby followed with an outside pass.

Terry Labonte, in his typical low-key fashion, said the winning pass was ``just one of those deals.''

``My car was awful good, but I needed somebody behind me to pass,'' he said. ``I didn't really have any strategy. I was just trying to get back to the front.

``I knew I was running out of time. I had some momentum there. I had a good run at (Schrader) and I was able to pull it off.''

And, as Terry Labonte noted a few moments later, ``I was really happy with Bobby behind me.''

Schrader, who hasn't won since 1991 and hasn't been this close to a victory in ages, said his car just wasn't good enough.

``I knew I was in trouble when I looked back and I saw . . . two brothers,'' Schrader said. ``I figured if it came down to Terry or I, Bobby had to go with Terry. It didn't look real good.''

Said Bobby Labonte: ``We (Terry and Bobby) had a plan. We had already figured out when we were going to go. It just didn't quite work out. It worked out for Terry, but it didn't work out for me. I was going to help Terry anyway.''

Everyone knew that much. As Andretti said, ``I thought, man it's going to be hard to hold the two Labonte brothers back. And we didn't.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

ASSOCIATED PRESS

His win in Sunday's DieHard 500 was the first of '97 for series

champion Terry Labonte, whose brother Bobby came in second.

Graphic

RUDD REPORT

Here's how Chesapeake native Ricky Rudd did in Sunday's DieHard

500 at Talladega:

Started:41st

Finished:34th

Laps:153 of 188

Winnings:$36,745

Points: Dropped from 12th to 15th place