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Labonte win moves him one step closer to title

The chase for the NASCAR Winston Cup championship took another turn at Charlotte as a series of mishaps - some possibly due to questionable Goodyear tyres - made for a very hotly-contested race

How hot? The field set the 2000 record for lead changes with 141 laps of racing left. In all there were 46 changes (one short of the 1974 all-time record) involving 13 drivers - virtually a third of the field.

But it's the last pass for the lead that counts, and that was performed by points-leader Bobby Labonte with seven of 334 laps remaining. He beat Jeremy Mayfield, Ricky Rudd, Tony Stewart and Mark Martin into the minor places after gambling on a late four-tyre change.

Mayfield was the highest top-five finisher who elected to take just two tyres in a caution with 24 laps to go. Martin, Matt Kenseth (ninth) and Joe Nemechek (14th) tried two and led the field into its final restart.

Labonte's quest for his first Winston Cup seems assured, as he extended his lead over Jeff Burton to 252 points, Dale Earnhardt 258 and a hard luck-hit Dale Jarrett to 388.

"I think it was over at Dover," said Burton, who credited Labonte for
putting together a near-perfect season, tying his team-mate Stewart with four wins.

At one time the 500-miler promised to be a contest of the points leaders, as the top four paced the field. But Jarrett's Ford got pushed into the wall by Rusty Wallace on lap 159 as Wallace attempted to recover from a cut tyre that put him a lap down for a time. Polesitter Jeff Gordon saw his race end in the pile-up that followed. Jarrett has diced for the runner-up spot in the points with Earnhardt and Burton for most of the season.

Earnhardt and Burton didn't make the race any easier for themselves, taking provisional starting spots at the rear of the field after lousy qualifying. On a mission, the 'Intimidator" had a scrapbook moment on lap 67 when he passed two cars in treacherous turn four to break into the top five.

But pit road is the great equalizer. Earnhardt's "Flying Aces" performed a four-tyre and fuel stop in an unofficial and astonishing 12.9 seconds, and the seven-time champ took the lead to a lusty roar of cheers on lap 77. Burton got by to pace the field two laps later, but Earnhardt's bunch got him out first a handful of times, and always in the top five.

Labonte, Rudd, Stewart and Mayfield were the other race hotshoes. Rudd has yet to win for Robert Yates Racing, but took command in the late laps with no serious competition but Stewart. He ultimately led most laps, with Earnhardt second in that class.

Goodyear discovered much of its race tyres stockpile didn't pass muster earlier in the week and ordered the Busch series cars to turn over their right side rubber to the senior circuit. The Busch cars ran a tyre designed for Dover and all hoped the problem was solved. It wasn't, and Goodyear cautioned crews in the driver's meeting, according to Kenny Wallace, who found the wall thanks to a blown right front early in the race. Others forced to pit early and lose track position included Bill Elliott, Earnhardt Jr and Wallace. Every team reported inconsistent performance.

The issue surfaces in the same week NASCAR outlawed the notion of a
tyre-testing device in the race garages. Citing the so-called "rebound"
machine as too costly for fair competition among underfunded teams, NASCAR helped ignite an issue brewing since the Dover race. Earnhardt ran a dominant pace there, but fell deep into the field after his last pit stop, complaining of "a bad set of tyres." Goodyear's midweek embarrassment in announcing an unspecified issue was a telling fumble.

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