'The Iceman' is hot at Southern 500

DARLINGTON, S.C. There were no tears in Terry Labontes eyes whenhe took the checkered flag on the Southern 500. The Iceman has alwaysbeen able to control his emotions, even after a wildly popular, longoverdue victory. Labonte, a two-time Winston Cup champion in thetwilight of his career, snapped his 156-race winless streak Sunday bywinning the last true Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. He couldhave celebrated with a victory burnout like none ever seen before.Instead, he collected the checkered flag and drove a simple laparound the historic track before heading straight to Victory Lane. Ithad been so long since I won that I was just sitting there trying tothink who I had to thank, Labonte said. For those who know Labonte,thats about as exciting as it gets. His younger brother, Bobby, the2000 Winston Cup champion, knew the party would be tame by the timehe got to Victory Lane to join in the celebration. Hes the Iceman,real cool and calm and doesnt really get too excited about anything,Bobby said. Hes pretty hard to read. Just yesterday I asked him howhis car was and he said Ehhh, its OK. Then he goes out and wins therace with it. The win could not have come at a better time forLabonte, who made his first career Winston Cup start at Darlington in1978, then won his first race here two years later. Now hes gotanother victory the 22nd of his career in the final Southern 500run on Labor Day weekend. The event is moving to November nextseason. He held off youngsters Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson androokie Jamie McMurray for the win and couldnt help but be a littlebit pleased none of NASCARs newbies got to celebrate the victory. Iwas running with Bill Elliott (late in the race) and thinking tomyself, I hope one of us wins it because we appreciate this placemore than some of the young guys do, Labonte said. Elliott ended upfifth and like most of the drivers, saluted Labonte for his milestonevictory. Even McMurray, who led late in the race until Labonte beathim out of the pits on the final stop, was pleased to see Labontetake the checkered flag. It would have been nice to win the lastSouthern 500, but I cant imagine a better guy than Terry Labonte todo that, McMurray said. That guy had some ups and downs and if itwasnt me, Im glad that it was him. Labonte, whose last victory was inhis native Texas in March 1999, ran among the leaders all day andfinally went ahead for the first time on lap 335 when his crewchanged four tires and filled his Chevy with gas in 13.11 secondsduring a caution-period stop. That really started earlier in therace, crew chief Jim Long said. We were picking up about three spotson every stop. The final stop moved Labonte from third to first andit was no contest the rest of the way. He got a great restart whenthe green flag waved and steadily pulled away from Harvick to beathim to the finish line by almost 15 car-lengths. I think everybody ishappy to see him win, Harvick said. If theres anybody that should winthe last Southern 500 on Labor Day, its somebody like Terry Labonte,who is a legend in our sport. Despite its historic significance,Sundays race was hardly a classic. There were 10 cautions, includingtwo multicar crashes on the treacherous, misshapen oval. But it wasdefinitely a popular victory by the 47-year-old Labonte, whosechampionships came in 1985 and 1996 and whose career has been on thedownside the last four years. We felt like we were just a lot betterteam than we were a year ago, Labonte said. We felt like we wereclose enough we could think about winning a race.