Terry Labonte

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Terry Labonte, right, shows the frame of a race car in 2005, courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard.

Terrance Lee Labonte (born November 16, 1956, in Corpus Christi, Texas) is a former NASCAR driver. Labonte was introduced to the sport through his father, who had worked on racecars as a hobby for his friends. He is the older brother of 2000 NASCAR/Winston Cup champion Bobby Labonte, and the father of Busch Series driver Justin Labonte. He appeared in the 1983 Burt Reynolds movie Stroker Ace

[edit] Beginnings

Terry Labonte started racing quarter-midgets when he was 7 and won a national championship at nine before moving onto the local short tracks in a stock car as a teenager. Driving on both dirt and asphalt, he won track championships in his hometown, in Houston, and in San Antonio from 1975 to 1977. During this time he also met Louisiana businessman Billy Hagan. Hagan offered Labonte a job on his Winston Cup team along with the promise to drive five races that year.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 1978-1985

Labonte’s first NASCAR start came in 1978 at Darlington Raceway. He qualified ninteenth in the #92 Duck Industries Chevrolet and finished fourth that weekend. He ran four more races that season and had an additional two top-ten finish. In 1979, he competed for NASCAR Winston Cup Rookie of the Year along with Dale Earnhardt, Harry Gant, and Joe Millikan while driving the #44 Stratagraph Chevrolet for Hagan. Although Labonte failed to win the top rookie award, he was one of three rookies to finish in the top 10 in points. He ended the season with thirteen top-ten finishes. The following year, he won his first career Winston Cup race on Labor Day weekend at Darlington. He won $222,501 in prize money for the year and finished sixth in the final points.

Labonte failed to return to victory lane over the next two years but did not finish outside the top-five in the final standings. He won his second career race in 1983 in the Budweiser Chevrolet. His team received sponsorship from Piedmont Airlines the following season, and he won races at Riverside International Raceway and Bristol Motor Speedway, clinching his first Winston Cup championship. He dropped to seventh in the final points in 1985. During that same season, he made his Busch Series debut at Charlotte in the #17 Pontiac owned by Darrell Waltrip.

[edit] 1986-1993

Labonte fell back to twelfth in the standings in 1986. Before season's end, he announced he was leaving Hagan's team to drive the #11 Budweiser Chevrolet for Junior Johnson & Associates the next year. In his first season with his new team, he earned four pole-position starts and won the Holly Farms 400, leaping up to third in the final standings. He followed that up with a fourth-place points finish in 1988. In 1989, the team switched to Ford Thunderbirds. Despite two wins during the season, he fell back to tenth in the championship.

He made plans to field his own team in 1990, but promised investments fell through at the last minute.^{[citation needed]} He instead signed with the #1 Skoal Classic Oldsmobile team for Precision Products Racing. He had four top-fives but lost five spots in the points standings. He returned to Billy Hagan's team to drive his #94 Sunoco Oldsmobile in 1991. While he failed to return to victory lane, he won his first pole since 1988 at Watkins Glen International. He began 1992 with finishes inside the top 8 in each of the first eight races. He had a total of four top-five finishes and ended the season eighth in points. The following season, the team switched to the #14 Kellogg's Chevrolet. For the first time in his career, Labonte failed to finish a race in the top-five and he dropped to eighteenth in points.

[edit] 1994-2002

In 1994, Labonte joined Hendrick Motorsports, racing the #5 Kellogg's Chevrolet and responded by notching 3 wins in each of his first two years there. In 1996, he broke Richard Petty’s streak for consecutive races after winning at North Wilkesboro. Despite only two victories, Labonte went on to win the championship that year as well, a record-setting twelve years after his first. Driving with a broken hand during the last two races of the season, Labonte and his younger brother Bobby were able to perform a dual victory lap at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the last race of the year; Bobby won the race and Terry the championship on the final day of the season, the only time a driver and his sibling won the race and the championship at the same time.

Labonte posted twenty top-ten finishes in 1997 and notched his only win of the year at the fall race at Talladega Superspeedway. In 1998, Labonte was able to win the Pontiac Excitement 400 and finished ninth in points. Despite a win at his home track at Texas Motor Speedway and The Winston all-star race in 1999, Labonte finished 12th in the championship points, the first time he had finished outside the top-ten since 1993. The year 2000 saw Labonte's consecutive start streak broken at 655 after he suffered inner ear injuries at the Pepsi 400 and was forced to miss the Brickyard 400 and the Global Crossing @ The Glen. He began 2001 with two top-six finishes in the first seven races but finished 23rd in the final point standings. He dropped back to 24th in 2002.

[edit] Final years

In 2003, Labonte won his first pole since 2000 at Richmond and clinched his second career major, appropriately, in the Mountain Dew Southern 500(where 23 years earlier he won his first win, and first major) at Darlington Raceway after leading the last 33 laps. That helped lead him to a tenth place spot in the final standings. Late in the 2004 season, he announced that 2004 would be his final full-time year on the circuit and would run part-time schedules for the next two years. He borrowed the number 44, his fomer number, from Petty Enterprises and ran Hendrick's #44 research & development car with sponsorship from Kellogg's, Pizza Hut, and GMAC. His best finish in 2005 for Hendrick Motorsports came at Pocono Raceway, where he finished 12th. He also drove a few races in the #11 Fedex Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing following the release of Jason Leffler, with a top finish of 9th at Richmond.

Labonte began the 2006 season driving the #96 Texas Instruments/DLP HDTV Chevrolet Monte Carlo car for Hall of Fame Racing, a new team started by former Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman. Labonte's past-champion's provisional guaranteed the team a starting spot in the first five races. Labonte's finishes in those races left the team in 30th place in points, sealing a spot for the team in each race as long as they remained in the top 35. Tony Raines took over the driving duties for the #96 car and is expected to run the rest of the races, with the exception of the road-course races at Infineon Raceway (or Sears Point), in Sonoma, California, and Watkins Glen International, in Watkins Glen, New York. Labonte's best finish this year has come at Infineon Raceway, where he finished 3rd due to a fuel mileage gamble by the crew chief of the #96 DLP/Texas Instruments Chevrolet, Philippe Lopez. Should the #96 team finish in the top-25 in owner points, Labonte will receive a cut of the #96 team's top-25 owner points standings, per NASCAR rule. The last race of Labonte's long career was the Dickies 500, November 5, 2006, at Texas Motor Speedway, where he placed 36th in a specially painted tribute car. Before the race began car owner and long time friend Rick Hendrick told his driver, "I pity the guy that wrecks you today, because this is yours," who gave Labonte the car as a retirement present (David Newton, NASCAR.COM, 2006).

[edit] Honors

In 1998, the senior Labonte was named as one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers. A park was renamed for the Labonte brothers in their hometown of Corpus Christi in 2001, and they were chosen for entry into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 2002. Labonte supports a variety of charities and due to his efforts, the Ronald McDonald House in Corpus Christi, the Victory Junction Gang Camp near Randleman, North Carolina, and the Hendrick Marrow Program all have benefitted. Labonte finished 3rd at Infineon raceway after a late race spar with Jeff Gordon while driving for Tony Raines because Labonte was saposed to dive the 96 car in the first 5 races and the two road coures.

[edit] Personal life

Labonte has lived in the Thomasville, North Carolina, area for most of his career. Terry and Kim Labonte married in May 1978 during his first year with Billy Hagan's team after meeting at the car dealership where both worked while in high school in Texas. They have two children who have grown up around racing just as Labonte did years ago. Justin Labonte, born in 1981, was a late model track champion at Caraway Speedway in North Carolina in 2003 and raced a limited Busch Series schedule in 2004 (including a win at Chicagoland Speedway in July) with sponsorship from the Coast Guard. That sponsorship expanded to allow a full schedule in 2005. Kristy, born in 1983, graduated with a business marketing major from High Point University.

[edit] Other Series

In addition to his 22 wins in Nextel Cup, Labonte has won 11 races in the Busch series, and 1 in the Craftsman Truck Series. He has been the champion of the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring as well as three all-star races: the Busch Clash (now known as the Budweiser Shootout) in 1985 and The Winston (now the Nextel All-Star Challenge) in 1988 and 1999. He also won the IROC championship in 1989. Including his two championship seasons, he has finished in the top 10 in the year-end standings 17 times, and his top-five and top-ten totals approach 25 percent and 50 percent, respectively, of his total races.

[edit] External links

• NASCAR: Terry Labonte
• Official Web Site
• Terry Labonte Career Statistics