Labonte grabs Talladega Busch win

On the last restart with two laps to go, Stewart drove a high line from fifth place and Labonte went with him, bump-drafting the No. 33 car until they went past race-leader Casey Mears and opened a safe gap to ensure that the fight for victory was between them alone.

Out of the last corner, Labonte came out of Stewart's slipstream and drove on his outside to take his first Busch Series victory since 1998 by only 52 thousands of a second.

"Tony was great to follow there in the end," an emotional Labonte said after the race.

"I saw in the mirror and said, 'well, 24 cars run in the back, I'm sure if we get side by side they are not going to catch us now'. So I went to drive on the outside of him and the thing just took off!"

The 1991 Busch Series champion crossed the start-finish line with an overheating engine, as the water coming out of the left side of his car showed in the last two laps of the race.

Despite losing out to Labonte in the last lap, Stewart went straight over to victory lane to congratulate and celebrate with his teammate.

"It was awesome. That is the most thunder restrictor plate race finish I've ever had in my life," Stewart said.

"I've never liked losing in my life but that's the most excited I've ever been with a second place finish. If it wasn't for Bobby we wouldn't have led in the first place.

"He outsmarted me in the end. There was nothing I could do. He made a very good move there and got a good run on us. If you're going to get beaten, you don't mind getting beaten by your teammate like that. That was just an awesome finish."

Stewart recovered from a slow start to the race which saw him run last for the first three laps, but after the first caution came out he steadily climbed up the field to become a contender for victory.

He was also involved in two incidents, the first of them a spectacular crash with Kyle Busch. On lap 26 he was running third behind Busch when the Hendrick driver went out of Mears' slipstream and tried to follow him but ended up tapping Stewart's left rear corner.

Busch's car hit Mears and then spun and flipped upside down - crashing into the outside wall first, then sliding across the racetrack. Everyone was able to avoid hitting the No. 5 car, while it barrel-rolled several times before coming to rest with a small fire at the front.

Busch was able to come out of the wreck unscathed but wasn't very happy with Stewart.

"I got a good run out of Turn 2 and pulled out, pulled along my teammate Casey there," Busch said after leaving the medical centre.

"Stewart got a run on me I believe. I don't know if he decided last minute to go with me or what but he just decided to turn me sideways into my teammate there and turn me back across the racetrack.

"Not very happy about that but fortunate enough to be okay."

Stewart said he was bumped from behind and that rammed him into Busch.

"He moved to the outside and I tried to move with him and I got a push from the 42 car. He was a good pusher but just pushed me into Kyle at the wrong time," Stewart added.

Later on lap 56, Stewart was also involved in a similar incident with David Gilliland which forced him to pit several times under caution to repair the right front fender of his Chevrolet, the same area that had made contact with the left rear of the No. 5 car of Busch.

With eight laps to go the race was red-flagged to clear debris from a multi-car incident caused by Steven Wallace spinning after being tapped from behind by Reed Sorenson.

The wreck on the backstretch ended the race for several drivers, including innocent victims like Australian Marcus Ambrose, Stephen Leicht and David Reutimann.

The final caution of the race, which forced a green-white-chequered finish, came out after debris flew out of Kasey Kahne's car, which had also been involved in the previous incident.

Juan Pablo Montoya finished seventh, running solidly all afternoon but falling behind in the last part of the race after choosing to pit with 15 laps to go as most of the front-runners stayed out.

The late cautions didn't help his progress as he looked a clear contender for victory, leading the race twice and drafting consistently with Mears, who led nearly half the distance but eventually finished third.

"It's crazy but fun, man," Montoya said. "I think we could have had a little bit more. I had a damaged right front bumper and they didn't see it in the last pit stop. We just lost a bit of performance there.

"But we still had a great car. We pushed people all day long and we stayed out of trouble."

The race was a very spectacular one by Talladega's standards - as the statistics showed. There were 36 lead changes and a track-record 20 different leaders.

Results

Pos  Driver                 Make       Laps
 1.  Bobby Labonte          Chevrolet  120
 2.  Tony Stewart           Chevrolet  120
 3.  Casey Mears            Chevrolet  120
 4.  David Ragan            Ford       120
 5.  Kyle Krisiloff         Ford       120
 6.  Kevin Harvick          Chevrolet  120
 7.  Juan Montoya           Dodge      120
 8.  Ward Burton            Ford       120
 9.  Brad Coleman           Chevrolet  120
10.  Carl Edwards           Ford       120
11.  Danny O'Quinn Jr.      Ford       120
12.  Bobby Hamilton Jr.     Ford       120
13.  Clint Bowyer           Chevrolet  120
14.  Mike Bliss             Dodge      120
15.  Shane Huffman          Chevrolet  120
16.  Brent Sherman          Chevrolet  120
17.  J.J. Yeley             Chevrolet  120
18.  Eric McClure           Chevrolet  120
19.  Robert Richardson, II  Chevrolet  120
20.  Aric Almirola          Chevrolet  120
21.  Kasey Kahne            Dodge      119
22.  Justin Ashburn         Chevrolet  118
23.  Regan Smith            Chevrolet  116
24.  David Reutimann        Toyota     110
25.  Marcos Ambrose         Ford       109
26.  Steve Wallace          Dodge      109
27.  Reed Sorenson          Dodge      109
28.  Stephen Leicht         Ford       109
29.  Dale Earnhardt Jr.     Chevrolet  94
30.  Greg Biffle            Ford       89
31.  Jon Wood               Ford       89
32.  Dave Blaney            Toyota     87
33.  Mike Wallace           Chevrolet  74
34.  Scott Wimmer           Chevrolet  71
35.  Jason Leffler          Toyota     71
36.  Jamie McMurray         Ford       59
37.  David Gilliland        Ford       55
38.  Donnie Neuenberger     Ford       34
39.  Kyle Busch             Chevrolet  26
40.  Justin Diercks         Chevrolet  17
41.  Martin Truex Jr.       Chevrolet  9
42.  Morgan Shepherd        Chevrolet  2