It was a season-and-a-half in the making, but Bobby Labonte finally scored his first-ever Superstar Racing Experience victory in 2022’s event at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.
As referenced on the CBS broadcast, Labonte won at Nashville in then-Busch Grand National Series competition almost 10,000 days prior to Saturday (July 9) night. With the 2022 triumph, he also became the oldest driver to win in SRX to date and has finished in the top five in all of 2022’s events.
“I didn’t run that good in practice,” Labonte said after the race. “I told Tony [Stewart], I was like, ‘I think maybe I’m just running the wrong line.’ So, usually, I try to fire off and go fast, feel like I’ve got plenty of confidence. I didn’t, but I will say that I just followed Josef [Newgarden] there early and a couple of those other guys.
“[…] These guys on this SRX group, all these men and women, you won’t believe how hard they work to get these cars to the racetrack week in and week out. […] We had a great night, a lot of fun and can’t believe I won one.”
HOWBOUTCHA BOBBY!
BOBBY LABONTE WINS NASHVILLE!#CampingWorldSRX | @RaceFairgrounds pic.twitter.com/RueJUNZ66k
— Superstar Racing Experience (@SRXracing) July 10, 2022
Few rivaled the No. 18’s excellence all evening, but Marco Andretti and Matt Kenseth rounded out the podium — the latter in his first-ever appearance in the series. Much like the heat races, the top starters held: Labonte and Andretti started on the front row and finished as such.
“It’s like, ‘I just don’t think I’m ever going to win, I’m gonna finish third or fifth,’” Labonte added. “My nephew, Justin Labonte, his kid won a quarter midget race at our quarter midget track, so I had a little pressure on me today. He won $385, so I might’ve beat him now, but I’m pretty excited.
“[…] I just thought I wasn’t gonna win. I thought, ‘I’m not gonna win.’ This is so intimidating with these drivers, I’m telling you. I get nervous, I’m gonna puke with 10 to go, like ‘Oh, god, no more cautions,’ Marco and Paul [Tracy] and all these guys. Josef coming in here and running so good and never done this before, they’re just so good. So I’m just thinking, ‘man,’ I see Matt Kenseth coming and I’ve seen this story before, and I’m like ‘oh my God, here he comes.’ It’s just so hard, it’s not easy — maybe I made it look a little easy tonight, but it wasn’t easy.”
Things got…
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