Fatback: I'm more proud today than in Atlanta.

Even though Bobby Labonte finished 35th in Sunday's Carolina Dodge Dealers 400, the innocent victim of a multi-car crash on lap 24 of 293, the fact he was able to finish at all spoke volumes for his pit crew as crew chief Michael 'Fatback' McSwain later recognised.

Labonte's hopes of a second consecutive race victory following his win last Sunday in Atlanta may have been short lived but, as McSwain stated later, the work rate of his #18 Joe Gibbs Racing pit crew, showed a steely determination that could pay big dividends at the end of the year.

"We weren't going to accept a DNF out there today," said McSwain, who oversaw his first win as a JGR employee last week. "We knew we could have been pretty decent out there today, but this is just part of racing. I'm really proud of the guys and how hard they worked to get the car put back together.

"It was torn up pretty bad, but no one gave up. I learned a lot about these guys today and I can honestly say I think I am more proud of their effort today than I was after the win last week."

Labonte's day came unstuck when Jimmie Johnson and Sterling Marlin made contact some ten cars ahead of the #18 Interstate Batteries Chevrolet coming off turn four on lap 23. As is often the case at Darlington, accidents filter back through the pack and when Marlin's damaged right front tyre blew entering turn one just seconds after his contact with Johnson, all hell broke loose behind the #40 Coors Light Dodge.

"I was trying to avoid the '40' car as it was having problems and as I was getting slowed down, I was hit from behind by the '0' (Jack Sprague) car and there was nothing I could do about it," said a deflated Labonte. "It spun around and I think I made contact with the '29' (Kevin Harvick) as well. Just a real shame that we never really had a chance to race out there today."

In total no less than seven cars were caught up in the wreck with Labonte's looking cosmetically the worst. However the #18 crew went to work and less than 50 laps later Labonte was back out and running at a speed that didn't concern NASCAR officials to the extent tat they told him to pick up the pace, as is often the case with 'walking wounded.'

Labonte finally completed 239 of the 293 laps, finishing 37th and picking up five positions as other cars dropped out. Even though the difference between 42nd (where he sat on the lap after the accident) and 37th finishing positions is only 15 points, Winston Cup Championships have been won and lost by smaller margins.

Though only five races into the 2003 season, Labonte knows the huge hit he took in the point standings is going to hurt, but he also knows he is not out of the championship chase by any means.

"We just have to get back up on the horse next week in Bristol," admitted Labonte. "We're not happy with today, and we took a huge hit in terms of the points, but we know we can come back from this. We're going to have to work even harder to get back up there since we know the competition is not going to role over for us. So far we have no DNF's so maybe we can keep the car on the track and things will end up going our way again soon."