MOTOR RACING ROUNDUP : Bobby Labonte Cruises to Stock Car Victory

Bobby Labonte served notice that the youth movement in stock car racing’s top series doesn’t begin and end with Jeff Gordon.

Labonte capitalized on late-race engine problems by Ken Schrader and cruised to a 6.27-second victory over his older brother, 1984 Winston Cup champion Terry Labonte, in the Coca-Cola 600 Sunday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.

It was the first Winston Cup victory for the 31-year-old Labonte, who like the 23-year-old Gordon is in his third full season on the circuit.

Gordon has taken the series by storm, winning five poles and three races this year to overshadow what’s been a solid start by Labonte in his first year driving for former Washington Redskin coach Joe Gibbs. Labonte came to Charlotte with one pole and three top-five finishes this year.

Labonte, who started on the outside of the front row, right alongside Gordon in the 600-mile race, led six times for 85 laps, including the final 43.

Gordon was eliminated from contention less than one-quarter of the way through when his right front wheel snapped off, necessitating a lengthy stay behind the wall for repairs.

Labonte’s victory came in what was easily the year’s most competitive race, featuring 32 lead changes among 12 drivers. The previous high for lead changes in 1995 was 24 last month at Talladega, Ala., but by the halfway point of the 600, there had already been 21.

Gordon had dominated at Charlotte eight days earlier, winning all three stages and $300,000 in the Winston Select, the circuit’s annual all-star race. He also won the pole for the 600 with a speed that was more than 1.1 m.p.h. faster than anyone else, leading many of his competitors to grumble in the days leading up to the event that they would be racing for second place.

Schrader, Gordon’s teammate, appeared to have the strongest car in the second half of the race. Schrader led nine times for 169 laps, and he was about three seconds up on the field when his Chevrolet Monte Carlo slowed while going down the backstretch on the 358th of 400 laps.

By the time Schrader reached the third turn on the 1.5-mile tri-oval, he already had taken down his window net, conceding that his night was over. Schrader coasted slowly back to pit road and made a hard left into the garage area, his race ended by a blown engine.

“It blew up real bad,” said Schrader, whose winless streak has grown to 119 races dating to Dover, Del., in June 1991.

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World champion Michael Schumacher’s pit-lane strategy paved the way for his second consecutive easy victory in the Monaco Grand Prix Sunday at Monte Carlo.

Schumacher’s Benetton-Renault was 34 seconds ahead of Damon Hill, in a Williams-Renault, at the finish. The difference was mainly because Schumacher had one pit stop compared to Hill’s two.

“It was planned like that,” Schumacher said. “We calculated everything and it was the best way. Obviously, it worked out.”

Hill said, “We were going to do one stop, but after our performance in the warm-up, we reconsidered the situation. We got it horribly wrong, I’m afraid.”

Gerhard Berger, in a reserve Ferrari, was third, more than a minute behind Schumacher.

In winning at the Spanish Grand Prix two weeks ago, Schumacher also had one pit stop less than most of the other contenders.

It was Schumacher’s 13th career victory.

After five Grand Prix races this season, he is the leading driver with 34 points. Hill is second with 29.

Schumacher was timed at 1 hour 53 minutes 11.258 seconds for the 78 laps on the 2.068-mile street circuit and averaged 85.52 m.p.h.