Same driver, same track, same car, same result.
Dale Earnhardt overcame a strong challenge from Terry Labonte with a lightning-fast pit stop on the way to a record-setting victory Sunday in the Purolator 500.He beat Labonte by nearly a half-straightaway in the battle of Chevrolets, driving the same Monte Carlo in which he beat Terry's younger brother, Bobby, last fall.
"We fined-tuned on the car a little, so it's not exactly like it was chassis-wise last year," Earnhardt said. "You always try to better yourself."
Earnhardt, who set a track record of 163.633 mph last November, averaged a race record 161.298 Sunday. That broke the mark of 156.849 he set in 1990.
The seven-time Winston Cup champion trailed race leader Labonte by about 1 second prior to the final green flag stop in the 328-lap event on the 1.522-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway oval.
Earnhardt drove his Richard Childress Chevy onto pit road at the end of lap 291 and took on four tires and two cans of gas in 19.72 seconds. Labonte, also driving a Chevy, came in the next time around and took 21.81 seconds for his stop.
By the time both were back on the track and up to racing speed, Earnhardt was well ahead.
"I knew when I was coming down the straightaway and Terry Labonte was just rolling off pit road that I was in pretty good shape," Earnhardt said. "I've got to hand it to the guys. They rose to the occasion all day long."
But it was his hard driving at the end enabled Earnhardt to pull away to an eventual 4.17-second victory.
"I'd been driving it fairly comfortable the segments before, trying to save the tires and such," Earnhardt said. "I ran it harder there (at the end) than I did all day long. This old car was strong. He had to push it pretty hard and probably gave up his front (tire) a little bit."