Stewart leads Pontiac effort at Dover.

Dover International Speedway is known as "The Monster Mile," and in today's MBNA Platinum NASCAR Winston Cup race the monster had plenty of fight in it for the Pontiac Racing teams.

Tony Stewart fought the handling on his #20 Home Depot Pontiac Grand Prix for most of the race but battled to an eleventh-place finish. His six previous starts at Dover included back-to-back wins in 2000.

Stewart's teammate Bobby Labonte fought back from a lap down early to finish on the lead lap in his #18 Interstate Batteries Pontiac Grand Prix in 16th place. Stacy Compton ran on the lead lap for much of the race in the #14 Conseco Pontiac Grand Prix, but when a yellow flag flew a few laps after one of his green-flag pit stops, he went a lap down and eventually finished 24th.

"We had a great race car today, (crew chief) Mike (Hillman) made great calls in the pits and we had great pit stops," said Compton. "We just got to get that monkey off our back. We just can't buy a break right now, but that was the best race car we've had all year. I'm just a little frustrated right now to run that good and not come home where we should."

Jerry Nadeau substituted for Johnny Benson in the #10 Valvoline Pontiac Grand Prix for the second consecutive race and qualified third quickest in the 43-car field. Unfortunately a crash in the final practice resulted in enough damage that the team was forced to go to a back-up car and per NASCAR rules had to start from the rear of the field.

He went on to finish 27th. Benson returns to his seat in the Valvoline Pontiac at next week's race at Pocono. Crew chief James Ince looks forward to the return of his primary driver, but he had nothing but good things to say about his "pinch-hitter."

"The toughest thing with one of these deals is developing communication," said Ince. "It takes a long time for everyone to understand what's being said. Not only for me to understand him, but for him to understand me, too. And that's not something you can create overnight, but Jerry did a really good job in a short amount of time. I'm kind of surprised he doesn't have a ride right now, but I'm sure he will before long."

Ken Schrader lost the rear end in his M&M's Pontiac Grand Prix just 20 laps from the end of the 400-lap race and he finished 36th.

The Winston Cup Series continues its season next weekend at Pocona (Pa.) Raceway for the Pocono 500 on June 9. Pocono will give the Pontiac "WideTrack Attack" its next opportunity to bring the excitement and unsurpassed handling and control familiar to consumers to the NASCAR circuit.