Bobby Labonte was a lap down 60 laps into Sunday's race -- and rallied to finish second. Credit: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

Labonte not soothed by second-place showing

CONCORD, N.C. -- With the kind of season Bobby Labonte has had, you'd think that second place in the Coca-Cola 600 would at least be worth a grin from the 2000 NASCAR champion.

Not so.

Moments after finishing second to Jimmie Johnson -- by 0.027 seconds -- in one of the most bizarre races in recent memory, Labonte exited his FedEx Chevrolet, kicked the door and threw his heat shields into the cockpit. The expression on his face was frightening, to say the least.

After teammate Jason Leffler failed to qualify, Bobby Labonte carried the FedEx colors on his No. 18 Chevy at Charlotte. Credit: Autostock

"It really wasn't a great car," Labonte said. "It was a car in which we contended for the win at the end, but we just dodged wrecks and outlasted a lot of people. That's just the way it was."

Labonte had the opportunity to win the race, taking the top spot with eight laps remaining when Joe Nemechek popped a right rear tire while leading and hit the wall in Turn 4. When the race restarted with five laps to go, Labonte held off first Carl Edwards and then Johnson.

Labonte took the white flag with about five car lengths on Johnson, but Johnson ran the high line coming off Turn 4, and nipped Labonte by about half a car at the line.

Labonte could have moved up and blocked Johnson at any time in the final lap, but he didn't.

"I didn't move up the track because I wanted to run my line and win that way instead of trying to block somebody," Labonte said. "I just did it my way and I lost."

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Labonte, who has been mired south of 30th in the points since the green flag dropped at Daytona in February, had finally finished in the top five, yet he wasn't that happy about it.

"It feels good, but it's still frustrating," Labonte said. "We gained a lot [Sunday night], but I cried like a baby all night because the car was just terrible and track position meant so much. To finish second really isn't all that bad, but to finish kind of sucks, too."

Later, once he had had time to digest the finish, he was more positive.

"I guess I could have run the outside line," he said. "Off Turn 2, when Jimmie was down low, he slid up and got behind me and we pulled away a little bit. I just had to drive my line. I drove my line and got on the gas as hard as I could. He just made the outside line work better than I did.

"I've done that before to other guys many times, but in my position, I needed to do what I did," he continued. "I didn't want to give up the inside right then, and I thought I could do it. But it didn't turn out."

Labonte was a lap down 60 laps into Sunday's race, so to finish second was quite an accomplishment. Aided by a record 22 caution flags and a solid pit strategy, Labonte had the chance at the finish.

"I was wishing the white flag was the checkered, but it wasn't," he said, finally cracking a smile. "Jimmie had a really fast car, and we fought all night long. It was a night where I saw guys have really fast cars -- Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon -- and at times, they weren't fast. It was really back and forth.

"We had the same thing, as far as not having a fast car, and then we had a better car, and we had better track position and we were fortunate that we had some good breaks there.

"One less lap, we'd have been all right, but it didn't turn out."