Labonte Finishes 32nd at Martinsville - Petty Family Honored Before Race
MARTINSVILLE, Va. (April 2, 2006) - A day that began with honors for Richard and Kyle Petty ended with both Petty Enterprises cars racing to the finish of Sunday's DIRECTV 500 at Martinsville Speedway.
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Petty was involved in the first incident of the afternoon, a four-car melee on the second lap that damaged the hood of his No. 45 Dodge. Despite the rough start, Petty soon found his rhythm and avoided additional contact as the race approached the halfway mark.
Suddenly, he radioed in that he felt a strong vibration. A short time later, Petty was parked in the garage as his crew replaced the rear end gear. Ironically, teammate Labonte had been sidelined with the same problem a few stalls down in the garage area. They both returned to complete the race some 50 laps later.
"Something had to have been wrong in the setup of the rear end gear," said Robbie Loomis, executive vice president of racing operations at Petty Enterprises. "We'll check it and find out what it was. Both cars were solid in their (lap) times compared to the competition."
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