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Motor Sports
Roundup: Labonte captures pole; Kahne, Biffle fill 2nd row

By Seattle Times news services

	Bobby Labonte
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FORT WORTH, Texas — Bobby Labonte is back on the front row at Texas Motor Speedway. Now he would like to win at the track in his home state.

Labonte earned his second straight Samsung/RadioShack 500 pole yesterday, becoming the first multiple-pole winner at the Texas track. It will be his fourth start from the front row, a spot that has not produced a winner on the high-banked, 1-1/2-mile track.

Labonte's qualifying lap was 193.903 mph. Semiretired driver Bill Elliott will start second in his second race of the season after going 193.729.

Drivers from Washington will fill the second row for tomorrow's NASCAR Nextel Cup Series event.

Enumclaw's Kasey Kahne, a rookie who has taken over full time this season in Elliott's old No. 9 Dodge owned by Ray Evernham, qualified third at 193.673.

"I'm just trying to keep up with Kasey," Elliott said. "I still feel good physically, and am enjoying the role I'm in."

Greg Biffle of Vancouver qualified fourth in 193.195. Derrike Cope of Spanaway qualified 31st.

Labonte and his brother, Terry, both past season champions, are from Corpus Christi. Although it is about a 7-1/2-hour drive from their hometown, Texas Motor Speedway is the lone Nextel Cup Series track in their home state.

"I was here a few years ago when Terry won. It ranks on Terry's list as one of the top wins he ever had," Bobby Labonte said. "I'm sure it'd be the same way with me. It'd be awesome. We'd love to build some momentum, and Texas would be a good place to do that."
 
Labonte, in the No. 18 Chevrolet owned by Joe Gibbs, is 13th in the standings after finishing 33rd a week ago in Bristol, Tenn.

Elliott, a former series champion, is running a limited schedule for Evernham Motorsports. He hopes to run 10 to 12 races, but a lack of sponsorship could keep that from happening. Two years ago, Elliott set the TMS pole record with a speed of 194.224. He finished ninth in that race, his only top-10 finish in Texas.

Kahne will make his fifth top-five start this season, and he has three top-three finishes. He dropped from fifth to 11th in points Sunday after he collided with Jamie McMurray in Bristol, and was knocked out of the race, finishing 40th.

"We put it behind us and qualified third today, so we're looking good this week," Kahne said. "I was upset when it happened to be out of the race that early, especially with as good of a car as we had."

Kahne started from the pole but finished 13th in the March 21 Carolina Dodge Dealers 400 in Darlington, S.C.

"The last two weeks, I've gotten moved around by veterans," the 23-year-old Kahne said. "I think we maybe need to start getting a little more aggressive."

Notes

• Danny Lasoski, "The Dude" from the World of Outlaws, led all 67 laps to win the second round in the International Race of Champions at Texas Motor Speedway.

Lasoski held off Nextel Cup driver Kevin Harvick, who won a Busch Series race in Texas three years ago, by three-tenths of a second.

• Desert sand and dust caused problems for some teams during practice for tomorrow's inaugural Bahrain Grand Prix, but not the Ferraris of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello.

Schumacher, a six-time champion, was fastest in the first practice. Barrichello was best in the second practice for the first Formula One race in an Arab country since 1958 in Morocco.

Results, D 11

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