Labonte Victory in Texas Makes Sweet Homecoming

The fact that it was his 21st victory didn’t make Terry Labonte’s Primestar 500 victory Sunday more meaningful.

The fact that it was in his home state did.

The public address system blasted “Deep in the Heart of Texas” as Labonte climbed from his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Minutes earlier, the Corpus Christi native had passed Dale Jarrett and pulled away to win at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.

Labonte was saluted by a crowd of more than 200,000 as he drove to the finish line under the eighth caution flag of the day in the 334-lap event.

“I tell you what, this is awesome,” said the low-key Labonte. “I really wanted to come down here and run good.”

Andy Graves, getting his first win with Labonte since becoming his crew chief midway through last year, said, “I told Terry I knew he wanted to win Daytona, but I think we got him the second-most-meaningful race. This one means a lot to him.”

Labonte led five times for 124 laps, including the final 12. But it took the two-time Winston Cup champion 39 laps to catch and pass Jarrett after the latter went into the lead for the first time on lap 285. Labonte got by Jarrett on lap 323 and held on to earn $376,840.

Jeff Gordon and Mike Skinner crashed early in separate incidents and wound up at the bottom of the 43-car field.

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Scott Goodyear, viewed as one of the best drivers never to win an Indy Racing League event, did it in his 21st race when he bolted away in the last two restarts of the MCI WorldCom 200 at Phoenix.

He led 134 laps, including the last 51, and won with an average speed of 102.856 mph.

Jeff Ward was second, about 350 yards behind, trailing by 4.738 seconds.

Miscellany

Casey Jacobsen of Glendora High set a Hoop Summit record with 31 points, including six of eight from three-point range, as the U.S. Junior Select team beat an international youth all-star squad, 107-95, at Tampa, Fla. . . . Tim Austin survived the first knockdown of his professional career for a ninth-round knockout over Mexico’s Sergio Aguila, retaining his International Boxing Federation bantamweight title at Miami late Saturday. . . . Herbie Hide’s defense of the World Boxing Organization heavyweight title against Orlin Norris next weekend at London has been postponed because Hide injured his Achilles’ tendon while training. . . . Spain’s Alberto Martin won the first ATP tour title of his career, defeating countryman Fernando Vicente, 6-3, 6-4, at the Grand Prix Hassan II tournament at Casablanca, Morocco.

FIFA officials were bombarded with lavish gifts from Japanese and South Koreans to influence their votes during bidding for the 2002 World Cup, a Sunday Times (London) report said. The two countries wound up co-hosting the event. . . . The UEFA has called off two more European Championship soccer games because of the air strikes on Yugoslavia, bringing the total to five. It also said that, at present, it is not feasible to play in the former Yugoslav republics.

Kenya’s Paul Tergat posted a record-setting fifth consecutive victory in the World Cross Country Championships at Belfast, Northern Ireland. Tergat was timed in 38 minutes, 28 seconds, for the 7.5-mile race. His feat broke the record of four consecutive victories he shared with countryman John Ngugi. Jackline Maranga of Kenya won the women’s 2.6-mile race in 15:09. . . . South African superbike champion Brett Macleod was killed after losing control of his 600cc Elf Suzuki at Kyalami race track at Johannesburg. Macleod wobbled as he came out of a corner, flew over the handlebars and was hit by a motorcycle driven by Italian Massimo Meregalli. Macleod, 22, was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Meregalli broke his right wrist and arm.

The International Skating Union suspended judges Alfred Kortyek of Ukraine and Sviatoslav Babenko of Russia for possible collusion while scoring the pairs event at the World Figure Skating Championships. . . . The Santa Clara Aquamaids won the gold medals in duet and trio at the 1999 U.S. Junior Synchronized Swimming Championships at Cerritos to win the club’s sixth consecutive overall team title.

Cal dominated the Copley Cup race for men to end a four-year winning streak by Washington, while the Washington women claimed the Jessop-Whittier Cup for the eighth year in a row in the 26th San Diego Crew Classic. Cal, which won its only other Copley Cup in 1982, finished in 5 minutes 51.1 seconds over the 2,000-meter course under windy conditions on Mission Bay to place 10 seconds ahead of second-place Washington. . . . The USTA’s $25,000 Challenger tournament at The Claremont Club starts today and continues through April 4. Among the players scheduled to compete are Lilia Osterloh, Meilen Tu and Alicia Molik of Australia.