Yahoo Autos What You Probably Missed from Bobby Labonte's SRX Win at Nashville
He may never hit the top of the Billboard Country Music charts, but Bobby Labonte is the proud owner of a new hit record in Nashville.
The NASCAR Hall of Famer is now 2-0 racing in Music City, earning his first Superstar Racing Experience win Saturday night at Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville. Labonte has raced at the Fairgrounds track just one other time, in 1996 in a Busch Series event, and won that race as well.
And in typical Nashville tradition, Labonte received a special guitar to commemorate earning the victory. It will join the guitar he earned back in 1996 in his personal trophy case.
“I can’t believe I won one,” Labonte told CBS Sports. “I thought I wasn’t going to win one, that I’d finish third or fifth. But my nephew, Justin Labonte, his kid won a quarter-midget track in Salisbury (N.C.) earlier today, so I had a little pressure on me.
“I just thought I wasn’t going to win. This is so intimidating with these drivers. I got nervous, like I’m going to puke with 10 (laps) to go (for the final restart). I seen Matt Kenseth coming and I’ve seen this story before. Oh God, here he comes. It’s just so hard. It’s not easy. Maybe I made it look easy tonight, but it wasn’t easy.”
The Texas native set another record of sorts Saturday night. At 58 years old, he became the oldest winning driver in an SRX race to date, including last year’s first season and this year’s sophomore season.
“We had a great night and a lot of fun,” Labonte said.
Labonte led all 75 laps of the main event and became the fourth different winner in the first four races. Helio Castroneves won the season-opening event in Pensacola, Florida, Tony Stewart won at South Boston (Va.), and Ryan Newman won last week at Stafford, Conn.
Saturday was the fourth race of the six-race SRX season—and the last race on asphalt. The last two races will be on dirt: next Saturday at Federated Auto Parts Speedway in suburban St. Louis and the season finale in two weeks at Sharon Speedway in Ohio.
Labonte had has hands full with late race challenges from the other three top finishers, runner-up Marco Andretti and third-place Matt Kenseth on the podium, as well as Paul Tracy, who faded in the closing laps but still finished a respectable fourth.
“He shot out of a cannon right from the start of the feature, so I knew that he was a force to be reckoned with,” Andretti said of Labonte to CBS. “I think the fastest car won, for sure. Those Cup guys know just how far to pull away at the end so you can’t get to their bumper. But it was a fun one and I keep running steady.”
Championship Picture
With four races in the books and two more left to go on the next two Saturday evenings—both on dirt tracks—Andretti’s consistency has kept him in the running to potentially winning the championship.
But a win next Saturday at Federated Auto Parts Speedway in suburban St. Louis, or the season finale in two weeks at Sharon Speedway in Ohio could potentially put Andretti over the top for the series crown in the six-race championship battle.
“We’ve just got to keep being steady and maybe we’ll get it right one day,” Andretti quipped.
The son of IndyCar team owner and former champion Michael Andretti and grandson of the legendary Mario Andretti has now earned top-5 finishes in five of the last six SRX races, dating back to the last two events last season, which included his only SRX win to date at Slinger Superspeedway in suburban Milwaukee.
Points Standings after 4 Races
Bobby Labonte 140
Marco Andretti 137
Ryan Newman 135
Tony Stewart 109
Greg Biffle 103
Paul Tracy 88
Ryan Hunter-Reay 76
Tony Kanaan 71
Michael Waltrip 60
Helio Castroneves 45
Kenseth Makes Successful SRX Debut
Set to be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame next January, and not having raced competitively since the end of the 2020 NASCAR Cup season, Matt Kenseth made a very successful SRX debut, finishing third.
“It would have been better to get the win,” Kenseth told CBS. ”I felt like I really flopped around in the heat races (finished eighth in the 13-car field in the first heat and 11th in the second heat). My car got real loose, I burned the rear tires up. I felt like I didn’t have any clue of what I was doing.
“In the feature, the car was better once I put new tires on and fixed the stagger. I just kind of putted around for the first 50 laps or so. I was trying to figure out how much time I needed to get to the front, I quick passed two or three of them, thought I was good, then we got a couple cautions, outside restarts and I kind of got mixed up. So I kind of ran myself out of time.”
Newgarden's First Stock Car Race
In his first-ever stock car race of any type, two-time IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden, who grew up about 15 miles north of Nashville in Hendersonville, was quite impressive in his one-off SRX debut. Newgarden drew the pole and led virtually the entire first heat race, holding on to take the checkered flag. After the field was inverted for the second heat, Newgarden struggled to a tenth-place finish.
Then came the main event. He ran consistently between fifth and 10th, but ran into trouble on Lap 55 (20 laps to go to the finish) when he lost control and hit the wall in a solo spin, damaging the left rear of his car.
He had been having handling issues for the previous few laps and he eventually just lost it in Turn 2. While his team tried to repair the car under caution, the handling on Newgarden’s car went from bad to worse and he ultimately finished seventh in the main event.
Helio's Return
The winner of the season opener in Pensacola, Florida, Helio Castroneves, was forced to miss last week’s race in Stamford, Conn., because he was competing in the IndyCar race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
Castroneves returned for Saturday’s race at Nashville and looked strong early on until he had contact with Ryan Hunter-Reay in the second heat race. The incident tore off the right front fender of the four-time Indianapolis 500 winner’s car.
Castroneves was able to continue and, at times, looked almost like he had a bit of a competitive advantage without the right front fender.
As it turned out, he turned lemons into lemonade, so to speak, finishing fifth. If there had been maybe another 10 laps, Castroneves potentially might have even reached the podium.
But Wait, There's More
Defending SRX series champion Tony Stewart had a rough night. While he figured early on as a contender, he faded later in the event and finished 11th, his worst-ever finish in 10 career SRX races. … One of the biggest surprises of the night didn’t even come on the race track. John Oates, half of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame duo Hall & Oates, was featured in several segments of the CBS Sports broadcast, including interviewing Newgarden. Frankly, Oates has a potential decent career in sports broadcasting if that rock-n-roll deal fades away anytime soon. … Tony Kanaan finished last in the 13-driver field, suffering a late-race flat tire that caused him to pit after tangling with Newgarden with 10 laps to go in the race. … The temperature at the start of the first heat race, shortly after 8 pm ET, was 92 degrees, with in-car temperatures approaching 110 degrees. Even so, that was a better situation than earlier in the day with heavy thunderstorms, including one overnight that caused damage to several SRX car haulers and other equipment. In fact, Kanaan’s car suffered significant damage that was repaired by race time after a metal pole from an awning broke away and went right through the sheet metal of Kanaan’s ride.
Results
Superstar Racing Experience
Fairgrounds Speedway, Nashville
Bobby Labonte
Marco Andretti
Matt Kenseth
Paul Tracy
Helio Castroneves
Ryan Newman
Josef Newgarden
Michael Waltrip
Greg Biffle
Ryan Hunter-Reay
Tony Stewart
Cole Williams
Tony Kanaan
