Terry Labonte

Terry Labonte

Terry Labonte (right)
status	not active
NASCAR Cup Series statistics
Best placement	1st - (1996)
Starts Victories Poles Top 10 890 22nd 27 361
NASCAR Xfinity Series Statistics
Best placement	13th - (1996)
Starts Victories Poles Top 10 124 11 4th 68
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series statistics
Best placement	37th - (1995)
Starts Victories Poles Top 10 3 1 1 3
Data status: October 19, 2014

Terrance Lee "Terry" Labonte (born November 16, 1956 in Corpus Christi , Texas ) is a former American NASCAR racing driver and two-time Winston Cup (now Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series ) champion. He is a member of the NASCAR Hall of Fame . Terry is the older brother of Bobby Labonte and the father of Justin Labonte .

Beginnings

Terry Labonte started racing at the age of seven with the so-called quarter-midgets and won a national championship at the age of nine. As a teenager, he switched to short track racing in touring cars. He won the track championship in his hometown of Houston , Texas , and in San Antonio , Texas between 1975 and 1977 on both unpaved roads, the so-called dirt tracks, and asphalt tracks. During this time he also met businessman Billy Hagan from Louisiana .

1978 to 1985

Labonte's first start in a NASCAR Winston Cup race was in 1978 at Darlington Raceway . He qualified 19th in the number 92 Chevrolet and finished the race weekend in fourth. Labonte drove four more races in the season and scored two additional top 10 results. In the 1979 season, he fought along with Dale Earnhardt , Harry Gant and Joe Millikan for the title of rookie of the year. A Chevrolet with starting number 44 for Billy Hagan served as his car. Labonte could not win the title, but was one of three rookies who finished the championship within the top 10. In total, he achieved 13 top 10 results in the 1979 season. He scored his first win on Labor Day the following season in Darlington. With a prize money of 222,501  US dollars he finished the season in sixth.

Labonte could not achieve a victory in the two following seasons, but was still within the top 5 at the end of the season. His second win came in the 1983 season with a Chevrolet in Rockingham. In the following season, Labonte secured his first championship in the Winston Cup with victories at the Riverside International Raceway and the Bristol Motor Speedway . The 1985 season didn't go so well for him and he only finished seventh in the championship. Also in the 1985 season Labonte made his debut in the Nationwide Series (then it was still called Busch Grand National Series) at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the Pontiac with the start number 17 by Darrell Waltrip . With a distance of 400 miles, he won the longest race in the history of the Nationwide Series. Labonte was asked by Waltrip because he wanted to focus on the Winston Cup. (With success, Waltrip won the Winston Cup that year by 307 points over Bill Elliott .)

1986 to 1993

In the 1986 season Labonte fell back to twelfth place in the championship. Before the end of the season he announced that he would leave Hagan's team and drive the number 11 Chevrolet for Junior Johnson & Associates from the following season . In his first year with the new team, he achieved four pole positions and won the Holly Farms 400 , making Labonte third in the championship. This was followed by fourth place in the 1988 season. In the 1989 season, the team moved to the Ford Thunderbird . Despite two wins, Labonte fell back to tenth place in the championship.

Labonte then signed with Precision Products Racing and drove a # 1 Oldsmobile . He achieved four top 5 results, but at the end of the season it was only enough for 15th place. Labonte moved back to Hagan and went to the Oldsmobile in the 1991 season with the starting number 94. He achieved no victory, but his first pole position since the last at Watkins Glen in the 1988 season. In the 1992 season Labonte started with results in the top eight in the first eight races. With four top 5 results, he finished the season in eighth place. In the 1993 season, the team switched to the number 14 Chevrolet. For the first time in his career, Labonte did not achieve a top 5 result and was only 18th in the championship.

1994 to 2002

After the poor result in the previous year, Labonte switched to Hendrick Motorsports in the 1994 season and was behind the wheel of the # 5 Chevrolet. In the first two years he scored three victories. In the 1996 season, he broke Richard Petty's record in consecutive wins at North Wilkesboro. Despite only two victories that year, Labonte won his second championship twelve years after his first title. He rode the last two races with a broken hand and together with his younger brother Bobby Terry completed a double lap of honor in the last race of the season at Atlanta Motor Speedway : Bobby won the race, Terry the championship. To date, this marked the only time in NASCAR history that a driver and relative won both the race and the championship at the same time.

In the 1997 season, Labonte scored 20 top 10 results and took his only win of the season in the autumn race at the Talladega Superspeedway . The following year he won the Pontiac Excitement 400 and finished ninth in the championship. With a win at Texas Motor Speedway and the Winston in 1999, Labonte finished the season in twelfth place, being outside the top 10 for the first time since 1993. In 2000, Labonte's streak of back-to-back starts broke 655 races when he missed the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard and Global Crossing @ The Glen after injuring his inner ear on the Pepsi 400 . With one top 5 and three top 10 results it was enough in the championship in 2001 for 23rd place. Just a year later, Labonte slipped back to 24th place.

Last years

In the 2003 season, Labonte won his first pole position since Richmond in 2000. After 23 years, he won the Southern 500 for the second time in Darlington . With this, Labonte secured tenth place in the championship. Towards the end of the 2004 season, he announced that the 2004 season would be his last full season and that he would only compete in selected races for the next two years. He borrowed his old starting number 44 from Petty Enterprises and competed in the Hendrick Motorsports development car. The best result in this car was a twelfth place on the Pocono Raceway . At the same time he drove a few races in the number 11 Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing . The best result in this car was a ninth place in Richmond.

The 2006 season began Labonte with the Chevrolet Monte Carlo and the number 96 for Hall of Fame Racing , a new team of the former quarterbacks Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman of the Dallas Cowboys . As a former champion, this secured the team a starting position in the first five races. With the results achieved by Labonte, the team was in 30th place in the championship, so they were safe in starting position as long as they stayed in the top 35. Tony Raines then took over the car and drove the rest of the season with the exception of the two road races at Infineon Raceway and Watkins Glen International . Labontes best result he achieved at the Infineon Raceway, where he was third. His last race before his announced retirement was on November 5, 2006 at the Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway , which he finished in 36th place in a car decorated with a special tribute paint job. Before the start of the race, the car owner and Labonte's longtime friend Rick Hendrick gave him the car and said, “I pity the guy that wrecks you today, because this is yours.” “I pity the guy who is going to demolish you today because he belongs to you.")

Return and resignation

Terry Labonte in Pocono , 2008

On June 12, 2007, Michael Waltrip Racing announced that Labonte would drive both road races of the 2007 season in the number 55 Toyota Camry . Due to the NASCAR regulations, Labonte would have qualified directly for the race as a former champion. Due to tire problems, he finished the race at Infineon Raceway on June 24th in 35th place.

On July 19, it was also announced that Labonte would also compete at the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway . In the qualification he placed the Toyota Camry with starting number 55 in 39th position.

On October 17, 2014 Labonte announced that he would end his career on October 19 after winning the GEICO 500 . Go Fas Racing brought a special paint job to the start. The car was split into three different designs. On the passenger side, it was the 1984 Piedmont Airlines design with which he won his first title. The driver's side was painted in 1996 Kellogg's livery, with which he won his second title. Third, the Duck Industries design from his early racing days was used in the middle . NASCAR did not allow the painting, however, because according to the regulations both sides of the car had to be painted the same. So Go Fas Racing switched back to the normal design, but kept the center game. Labonte qualified in 9th place, but had to start from last place because of the violation by the paintwork. He finished the race in 33rd place.

Other series

In addition to his 22 Sprint Cup wins , Labonte has won 11 races in the Nationwide Series and one in the Craftsman Truck Series . He also won the Daytona 24-hour race and the Sebring 12-hour race . Labonte was also able to win three All-Star races: the Busch Clash (now Budweiser Shootout ) in 1985 and the Winston in 1988 and 1999. Labonte won another title in 1989 and 1992 with the championship in the International Race of Champions .

Honors

In 1998 NASCAR named Labonte as one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers . In addition, a park in his hometown of Corpus Christi was renamed in his honor in 2001, where it was announced that it would be inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 2002. In 2016 Labonte was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame . On January 26, 2017, he also became a member of the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America .

statistics

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1981	Stratagraph Inc.	Chevrolet Camaro	Billy Hagan		failure	malfunction
1984	Stratagraph Inc.	Chevrolet Camaro	Billy Hagan	Gene Felton	Rank 8 and class win
1985	Lee Racing	Chevrolet Corvette GTP	Billy Hagan	Carson Baird	failure	Engine failure
1986	Texas Enterprises US Tobacco	Oldsmobile Calais	Phil Parsons	Benny Parsons	failure	accident

Web links

Commons : Terry Labonte  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• NASCAR: Terry Labonte
• Driver statistics on racing-reference.info

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Terry Labonte to Drive # 55 NAPA Camry for Waltrip at Road Course ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )