DARLINGTON, S.C.: Quite often Darlington (S.C.) Raceway can be a menace. After all, it is dubbed the track “Too Tough To Tame.”
But for DGM Racing’s Alex Labbe, the 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval has proven to be one of his best race tracks and Saturday afternoon’s Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200 proved that once again.
Despite dealing with brake issues on his No. 36 Globocam | WORKPRO Tools Chevrolet Camaro, the St. Albert, Quebec Canada native was able to rebound and utilize a rash of late-race cautions to propel him to his second top-10 finish of the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series season.
“What a relief,” Labbe said immediately after the race. “We need this bad. The last five races we couldn’t catch a break. It feels great.”
Outside of a 13th place finish on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course in August, Labbe has 31st or worse in four of the last five races – so rebounding at Darlington and matching his season-high 10th place finish in May’s Steakhouse Elite 200 at Darlington was a welcomed relief for the 28-year-old driver.
Labbe credited the “no quit” attitude of his DGM Racing team owned by veteran owner and former driver Mario Gosselin for allowing him to recover from their early race troubles.
“It was tough today,” added Labbe. “We fought brake problems and it really hurt us early. “Finally, we found a way to make the car drive good in the second half of the race. This track is just something else, the margin of error is so small and that fall-off in tires is huge.
“But I enjoy running there, it’s so much fun. We really needed (this).”
With his ninth career top-10 finish in the books, Labbe heads to Richmond (Va.) Raceway next weekend feeling confident about the opportunity to secure his third top-10 finish of the season.
“I feel pretty good about Richmond,” Labbe offered. “We finished 12th last year in the last race and we had top-10 speed in the last half of the race. I hope we can have similar speedway next weekend.”
In four starts at Richmond, Labbe carries an average finish of 18th and has completed all but six laps.
Nine races remain in the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series season and Labbe sits 21st in the championship standings, four points behind Landon Cassill.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
