In Tuesday’s edition of the Bristol Herald Courier, assistant sports editor Mike Connolly summed up why Monday’s Busch race was such a wreck fest and described the circumstances that led to Justin Labonte’s 40th-place finish in the Coast Guard Shield of Freedom #44 Chevrolet.

Justin wrote:
"Bristol's tight confines create enough problems without drivers looking for trouble. Many of the wrecks in Monday's Busch race were caused by driver error and impatience. Sunday's Cup race had plenty of cautions as well. But they were caused more by bad luck than dumb moves.

"A lot of these wrecks at Bristol, the drivers just say: 'That's Bristol,'" Cup veteran Jeff Burton said after finishing second in the Busch race. "Bristol doesn't hold the gas on the floor. We are the ones in control. We are the ones who cannot run into the guy in front of us."

The Labonte-Haas Motorsports team worked hard and planned smart for Justin’s first race at Bristol. They tested there the previous week and formulated a race plan that would let Justin get experience on the track while having the best odds of surviving the often crash filled 250-lap event. Team general manager Joe Custer called a meeting with Justin, spotter Eddie Masencup, crew chief Bryant Frazier and competition director Bill Ingle before the race to make sure they stayed focused on that plan. “What we wanted to do was to be smart, patient and survive,” Custer said. “We told Eddie that if faster cars came up on Justin to let him know so he could get out of the way and maybe just lose a spot or two, not 20 if they tried to move him out of the way with their bumper. We wanted to have a solid finish and focus on the points.”

Despite this well laid plan a hit from behind on lap 163 sent Justin slamming hard into the turn-two wall, destroying the car. Justin was running 22nd at the time and on the lead lap. Twenty three cars finished on the lead lap in the race and Justin had passed or easily run with more than half of them. The car that hit him finished 11th.

Though Justin had taken a very hard hit on the track and was not happy with what had happened, he faced the TV and radio reporters with class and professionalism. “The Coast Guard Chevrolet was running good,” he said. “We were trying to stay out of trouble and get a top-15 finish, but that is hard to do when you get run over from behind.” The race tied the Bristol record of 14 cautions and broke the Bristol record for caution laps with 102.

Justin and the team didn’t have much time to reflect on Monday as they left the track and headed for Richmond for a two-day test Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday Justin will go to Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas, to participate in a media event organized by the public relations departments of Nascar and the Texas Motor Speedway. This weekend the Busch Series will be off for the first time this season before returning to run at the Texas Motor Speedway April 16.

Source: http://www.coastguardracing.com

Date: 4/11/2005 4:08:28 PM