Terry Labonte competing in final NASCAR race Sunday
SCENEDAILY - 12:31PM ET
TUESDAY OCTOBER 31, 2006
- BY KENNY BRUCE -
ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR
Two-time NASCAR Cup champion Terry Labonte is scheduled to make his final series start in Sunday's Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.
His retirement will signal the end of one of the sport's most successful careers and the departure of one of the sport's best-known drivers.
Labonte, who won championships in 1984 and again in 1996, enters the Texas race with 22 wins in 847 starts and earnings of more than $40 million. He is one of a select few drivers to have victories in Cup, Busch and Craftsman Truck Series competition, and is part of an even smaller class that has also won in the International Race of Champions series.
His 2005-06 schedule, the aptly named "Shifting Gears" farewell tour was planned for 10 races in each of the final two seasons. But looking back on the decision, Labonte now says he wouldn't recommend a similar move for today's drivers, including his younger brother, Bobby Labonte.
"I wouldn't advise a limited schedule to anybody after I did it," Labonte said. "It's a little bit tougher than I thought it was going to be.
"It wouldn't be so bad if your team ran every week and you just drove the car occasionally; that wouldn't be so bad."
But the problems of running a partial schedule, from a driver and team standpoint, he said, are numerous.
"Running a limited schedule with a team that doesn't have any [owner] points, you're one of the last cars on the track, one of the last cars that gets to go through inspection; sometimes you don't have a full practice session," he said. "You don't learn things from week to week. You're always playing catchup ... it just seems like you're always behind a little bit."
I'm definitely going to miss him.
Here's a good article I found linked at the PE board:
ArticleTwo-time champ Labonte capping career in Texas
Terry Labonte was all alone, sitting in his tiny apartment in North Carolina when he called home to Corpus Christi, Texas. It was 1978.
At age 21, Labonte was ready to give up on his NASCAR career almost before it began. He called to talk to his dad. Bob Labonte remembers exactly what his son had to say:
"Dad, I'm coming home. This isn't going to work out. All I have here is a couch and a freezer with a pizza in it. And that's costing me more than they're paying me."
Bob could have sympathized with his son and tried to console him, but he didn't.
"I told him he wasn't coming home," Bob said. "I said, 'This is the only chance you're ever going to get. You're staying there.'"
That brief moment of tough love changed Terry's life.
He won two championships -- 12 years apart -- and earned more than $40 million. He started a record 655 consecutive races over a 21-year span. He became one of NASCAR's most respected drivers.
Labonte's successful and historic career, which spans more than a quarter of a century, will come to an end Sunday in his home state. The Dickies 500 at Texas Motor Speedway is his last ride.
It will be an emotional ending for an unemotional man. But his final drive in a NASCAR event is bound to touch the hearts of his legion of fans, along with family and friends who love him.
"It's going to be a little bit different going out there knowing it's the last race," Labonte told reporters last week. "I feel so fortunate to compete in the sport as long as I have. And I still feel very fortunate to have been able to make a living at something I love doing. I never dreamed it would last this long."
Labonte will make his 848th start Sunday. But his career isn't defined by numbers. It's about the man.
Labonte never fit the stereotypical image for a guy known as "Texas Terry." He is not an A.J. Foyt, in-your-face, braggadocios kind of Texan. Labonte is a man of quiet class and dignity. Showmanship and colorful quotes just aren't in him.
He never sought the limelight. Maybe that's a good thing, because someone racing against him always shined a little brighter.
Labonte had an outstanding rookie season in 1979, finishing 10th in the Winston Cup standings. But the Rookie of the Year was a guy named Dale Earnhardt.
Labonte won one Cup championship in the 1980s, but Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip won three each. Labonte won another Cup title in the 1990s, but Earnhardt won four and Jeff Gordon won three.
"Terry could've accomplished even more in his career had he been a little more selfish," said Rick Hendrick, Labonte's team owner for 13 years. "But there's not a selfish bone in his body. He's never been one of those guys with his hand up for anything. He's a great talent, but more than that, he's just a great human being."
Bobby Labonte, eight years younger than his brother, feels the same way. He followed Terry to NASCAR and became a success. Bobby won the Cup championship in 2000, four years after Terry won it for the second time. He worked on Terry's crew when Terry won his first Cup title, in 1984.
"He's meant everything to me," Bobby said. "Would I be doing what I'm doing without him? Probably not. He did everything he could to help me growing up and steered me in the right direction. He's always been there for me."
Bobby isn't sure how he will feel on Sunday: "I just know he's never going to be out there on the track with me again."
TMS president Eddie Gossage has special plans for the occasion. There's a dinner for Labonte and wife, Kim, on Thursday night. Many of the top drivers in NASCAR history will pay tribute to Terry.
Regardless of where he qualifies, Labonte will lead the parade laps before the race. Justin Labonte, Terry's son, will join his dad on the front row, driving the No. 44 Chevy that Terry guided to his first victory in the 1980 Southern 500 at Darlington.
It comes almost 10 years to the day after what Terry and Bobby consider their most memorable family moment in NASCAR. Bobby won the race at Atlanta on the day Terry clinched his second championship.
That was a long way from how it all began.
Labonte was the best young driver at Meyer Speedway in 1977. Terry and his dad would make the 180-mile trip up from Corpus Christi every weekend to race on the Houston short track. But the day came when the Labontes had depleted their limited funds.
"It cost us $600 a week to race there, and that was a lot of money back then," Bob Labonte said. "One weekend we just couldn't afford to buy the tires for the car."
Noticing Terry wasn't there, track owner Ed Hamlin called the Labontes at home. Terry answered the phone.
"I told him we didn't have the money to race," Terry said. "He told me there was someone I needed to meet. It was [Winston Cup team owner] Billy Hagan. If not for Billy, I don't know what I would be doing. I wouldn't have been in NASCAR, that's for sure. I'd probably still be in Corpus Christi."
It was Hagan who asked Labonte to move to North Carolina so they could run some NASCAR events. Labonte raced for Hagan the first nine years of his career, then three more years in the early 1990s before joining Hendrick Motorsports.
"When Billy first asked me, I didn't even tell my dad for about a week," Labonte said. "I didn't know a whole lot about NASCAR. It wasn't on TV on Sundays, so you couldn't follow it that much, especially living in Texas."
So Labonte didn't think Hagan's offer was any big deal, until he told his dad. Bob told Terry to pack his bags.
Bob Labonte is an old-school guy known for his gruff nature. He's a man's man who rarely gets sentimental. But Bob's tough exterior might wash away Sunday when he sees his son lead the parade laps at Texas in his last race.
"It's going to be hard," Bob said, pausing for a moment. "A lot of things will run through my mind."
Like the day Terry called to come home. Thank goodness Bob said no.
another Terry article some new stuff and so old stuff and kind of long. Has his stats at the very end.
By Seth Livingstone, USA TODAY
Growing up in Corpus Christi and kicking around the short tracks of Houston and San Antonio, Texan Terry Labonte seldom considered earning a living in NASCAR.
"It was a lot different back then," he recalls. "You didn't go home on Sunday afternoon and watch racing on TV. The races weren't on TV. You didn't ride down the road listening to it on the radio because they weren't on the radio. You'd look in the newspaper on Monday and see who won the race.
"The Daytona 500 was on closed circuit TV, and I remember going to a theater downtown with my dad and watching it. As far as knowing a whole lot about the sport, I never really did because you really couldn't follow it that much, especially living in Texas."
Funny how Labonte's illustrious career not only took off but has come full circle. The last roundup takes place Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway.
It's been a long goodbye for Labonte, 49, who announced in 2004, after two Cup championships and 22 victories, that he'd be running a limited schedule in his final two seasons. The Dickies 500 will be the final race of his Changing Gears Tour.
Labonte, nicknamed "Iceman" for his cool demeanor, also was NASCAR's ironman over a span of four decades. Battling Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Harry Gant for rookie of the year honors in 1979, he began a record string of 655 consecutive starts that didn't end until August 2000.
"I never thought about it that much," says soft-spoken Labonte, who made his 1,000th start in a NASCAR touring series this year at Kansas. "I just feel so fortunate. I never dreamed that I would be able to have a career as long as I've had."
Or to see the sport grow and change the way it has. Fans will have no problem finding Labonte's final race on TV or radio.
"I don't see how the sport can grow much more, at least as much in the next 20 years as it grew in the past 20," Labonte says. "We've been able to go to a lot of new tracks, attract a lot of new sponsors and, with television, really grow the audience.
"The best change I've seen is the emphasis on safety since Mike Helton came in as (NASCAR) president. He's worked hard at bringing safety to a whole new level, and I think NASCAR has done a great job to make the sport safer. It didn't happen overnight. Mike Helton was the driving force behind the safety issues."
The downside, Labonte says, is the constant pressure a driver faces today from sponsors, owners, media and fans.
"Maybe some of the fun factor had gone out of it. Maybe that's just me because I've been doing it for so long."
Labonte began his career racing quarter-midgets from the time he was 7. He earned a national title by the time he was 9. His father, Bob, was the chief mechanic through Labonte's glory years in the Busch Series.
"He was always the guy who built the cars, did all the work on them. He was the brains behind it, and I never would have accomplished what I did on the short tracks without him," Labonte says. "He didn't consider himself much of a race driver, so he figured he'd just build them."
Racing in southern Texas, Labonte got to know Billy Hagan, a Louisiana businessman and driver who sponsored his cars and eventually offered him his first NASCAR ride. In his first race at Darlington in 1978, Labonte finished fourth.
Darlington also would be the track where he'd post his first Cup victory in 1980 as well as his most recent win, in the 2003 Southern 500.
That first victory remains forever etched in his memory.
"The coolest thing I remember about that day is all the people riding on my car after the race. People used to jump on your car, and you'd ride to victory lane. When we got back the pictures the next week, there were people riding on the car, and we didn't even know them."
The race had come down to the wire.
"I think I was running third on the last lap. We all went down to Turn 1, and there was oil on the track. David Pearson and Benny Parsons and somebody else hit the wall. I didn't, and so I beat Pearson back to the line before the white and checkered (flags). I passed him coming off (Turn) 4 to the caution. I don't even think he saw me coming."
That first win was a metaphor for Labonte's theory on NASCAR success.
"It's kind of all about being in the right place at the right time and meeting the right people. I think I was just lucky enough to do that."
Labonte, named one of NASCAR'S 50 greatest drivers in 1998 and already inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame, considers his two Cup titles his crowning achievements.
His first came in 1984, at the time making him NASCAR's youngest champion. Although he didn't miss a race, it took 12 long years to complete the Texas two-step. His next title didn't come until 1996. No other NASCAR champion has gone longer between titles.
In each of his championship seasons, Labonte won just two races but was a model of consistency. In 1984, he finished in the top 10 in 24 of 30 races. In 1996, he cracked the top 10 in 24 of 31 events with 21 top-fives.
Labonte drove the final two races of '96 with a broken hand, extending his ironman streak. He didn't secure the title until the final day of the season at Atlanta. Younger brother Bobby won the race, but Terry finished fifth to hold off Jeff Gordon and win the title by 37 points.
"That was the perfect Sunday," says Terry, recalling the joy of sharing the victory lap with his brother. Bobby, now 42, recalls the effect his older sibling had on his career.
"I worked on my brother's team at Hagan Enterprises when I first started," says Bobby, winner of 21 Cup races. "Terry was racing, and I was learning. If it wasn't for Terry being there and always racing, I don't know what I would have done. It's all I was around growing up."
The Labonte brothers remain close. "Very seldom do we go a day or two without talking to each other," Terry says. "We're probably the only two brothers in racing who ask each other things. We get along good."
"I talk with Terry all the time," Bobby says. "We park next to each other at the track. It's going to be hard when he's not there. It's different now not to see him every weekend."
Terry's time at the track nearly was cut short in 1982 after he cut a tire and rammed the wall in Turn 9 at Riverside.
"I spent about a week in the hospital, broke my leg, my foot. I was pretty cut up," he recalls. "The whole time I was sitting in the hospital, they found something wrong every day. I was awful lucky."
Labonte was additionally fortunate his wreck occurred in the final race of the season. By the time the '83 season rolled around, he was ready to go, his streak intact.
In 2000, a pair of crashes leading to an inner ear problem ended Labonte's ironman record; it eventually was broken by Ricky Rudd.
His legacy, however, will be about versatility as well as durability. He became the first driver to win in each of NASCAR's major touring series, claiming 11 Busch Series victories plus a win while helping to launch Hendrick Motorsports' foray into the Craftsman Truck ranks. Labonte was highly capable on tracks of all lengths and surfaces and against all comers. He proved it by winning the 1989 IROC title.
This season, when Hall of Fame Racing was looking to get off the ground, it drew on Labonte's experience, versatility, Texas roots and availability. Labonte drove the season's first five races and both road-course events in the Roger Staubach/Troy Aikman-owned No. 96 car before fulfilling his obligations with Hendrick.
Some of Labonte's most memorable duels came with Dale Earnhardt Sr. On one occasion at Bristol, the two tangled, and Labonte came across the finish line backwards to take the checkered flag. Next time at Bristol, Labonte and Earnhardt again tangled, this time with Earnhardt getting the win.
But the feuding on the track didn't carry over to life off the track.
"Him and my dad had a friendship that was really unique," recalls Dale Earnhardt Jr. "They hunted together, and anybody who hunted with my dad was cool as hell to me. I never got invited. I was like, 'Wow. He likes Terry. Terry must be really cool.' "
Labonte can be a man of few words, but Earnhardt Jr. recalls the day at Watkins Glen when the veteran driver got his point across.
"I knew him for 10 years, and I never said one word to him and he never said one word to me. He never talked to anybody," Earnhardt Jr. says. "We were sitting in my motor (coach) with Dale Jarrett and Kenny Schrader. The old men were talking, and I was just sitting there, asking (myself) 'Why am I here? What did (they) want me to come over for?'
"Terry Labonte was sitting next to me, and he said, 'Hey, I see that you still aren't wearing a HANS device. You ought to wear one because I'd like to see you stick around for a while.' Those were the first words he said to me my whole life. I started wearing one the next week without question. When Terry Labonte tells you to do something, you do it."
Owner Rick Hendrick, who signed Labonte in 1994, helping to resuscitate his career, calls Labonte "one of life's great individuals. You won't find anybody in the garage area who'll say anything bad about him. When you go through life in this sport and you can walk away and people have nothing but admiration for you, I think that says a lot."
Not that Labonte couldn't be tough when he had to be.
"I remember the time he got wrecked in Bristol," Hendrick says. "They fixed his car, and he went back out there to get him. Terry is a real mild-mannered guy, but when he gets hot, he'll go back after someone, in this case Lake Speed. After the race, NASCAR took him in the trailer. They asked him, 'Did you wreck that guy on purpose?' He said, 'Yup.' He wouldn't tell them a lie."
"Terry has a temper," Bobby Labonte says, "but he doesn't show it. Even if he gets mad, it's not for long. It's really short. He has always been that way. He's just levelheaded. He's like our mother in that way."
Although he finished in the top 10 in points 17 times, it wasn't all roses for Terry, who went 1990-94 and 2000-2002 without winning a race. His latest victory at Darlington ended a 156-race winless streak.
Many say Labonte was too much of a gentleman on the track, unwilling to wreck opponents for his gain. "I wasn't going to wreck someone just to win," he says.
Others maintain his loyalty to owners in the prime of his career sometimes got in the way of his ability to race in the best equipment.
"When we were about to sign him," Hendrick recalls, "we looked at Terry's statistics and I don't know how he was overlooked — how good he ran, the top-10s he had. We put him in top equipment and, well, bang. I don't think he'd always had that equipment."
"Sure," Labonte says, "there were a few years we could have been a contender except for too many engine failures, but I don't ever look back."
Looking forward, Labonte doesn't anticipate things will change a whole lot after Sunday. He'll spend time on his 1,500-acre ranch about 100 miles outside of Corpus Christi. "Kind of a good place to get away," he says. "There are always chores to do. Something's always broke and you have to fix it, but it's a fun kind of work."
And he'll certainly monitor the career of his son Justin, who returned to the Busch Series ranks last weekend at Memphis. The elder Labonte considers Justin's 2004 Busch Series victory at Chicagoland his "greatest day at the track."
"I grew up watching my dad race a No. 5 Chevy for Rick Hendrick and Hendrick Motorsports," says Justin, 25. "Now I get to do the same thing. It's pretty incredible, really."
Texas Motor Speedway has a full weekend planned to celebrate Labonte's career, beginning with a dinner in his honor Thursday night. On race day, he'll be the final driver introduced and take a parade lap in a specially prepared Corvette with wife Kim.
His No. 44 Kellogg's Monte Carlo will sport a tribute paint scheme commemorating each of his 12 victories with Hendrick. "It was a complete surprise, and it's pretty cool the way they did it," says Labonte, who viewed the unveiling of the car in September. "It brought back a lot of memories."
On his hood will be the image of Labonte celebrating his 1999 victory at Texas. Particularly special to him are the images on the left rear quarter of Randy Dorton and John Hendrick, two members of the Hendrick family lost in a 2004 plane crash near Martinsville. "I've lost friends before but never that many at one time," he says. "It kind of reminded me of what people went through during 9/11. That was one of the toughest times ever."
Sunday his rear bumper will bear the message, "Thanks for the memories."
Race day will be a time for those recollections. There will be a video tribute, and fans will have the chance to sign a giant greeting card.
"It's going to be an emotional day for Terry, who's been a part of the sport and Hendrick Motorsports for quite a while," teammate Jimmie Johnson says. "I know the shop is working hard to give him the car he deserves."
"I know it's going to be an emotional day in Texas for everyone," Bobby Labonte says. "I'm going to miss having him around, but I know he'll enjoy doing some other things he likes. I'm sure he'll enjoy spending time on his ranch with his family. We'll always talk. He'll always be around, but he just won't be racing every weekend."
For all the mixed emotions enveloping the day, Terry Labonte doesn't seem at all melancholy about his decision to walk away.
"I still feel good about my decision, and I'm looking forward to moving on to life after racing," he says. "There comes a point in whatever sport you're involved with that you have to walk away. It's time to retire."
But after 29 years in the driver's seat, isn't there a chance Terry Labonte will get the itch come next February?
"Nope," he says. "You can write that down. I will not be at the Daytona 500. I can't say I won't ever run some short-track or dirt-track races. ... And I've learned to never say 'never,' but somebody would have to stack enough reasons, and I don't think they can stack them that high."
Terry Labonte's Cup series totals
Terry Labonte has raced 29 Nextel Cup seasons. Although he won his first championship in 1984 for owner Billy Hagan, his most profitable years came in the mid-1990s after he joined Hendrick Motorsports. Labonte won three races in 1994 and 1995, then earned more than $4 million in 1996 when he notched 24 top-10 finishes on his way to his second Cup championship.
Year Races Rank Wins Top-5s Top-10s Poles Winnings
1978 5 39 0 1 3 0 $20,545
1979 31 10 0 2 13 0 $130,057
1980 31 8 1 6 16 0 $215,889
1981 31 4 0 8 17 2 $334,987
1982 30 3 0 17 21 2 $363,970
1983 30 5 1 11 20 3 $362,790
1984 30 1 2 17 24 2 $713,010
1985 28 7 1 8 17 4 $694,510
1986 29 12 1 5 10 1 $522,235
1987 29 3 1 13 22 4 $825,369
1988 29 4 1 11 18 1 $950,781
1989 29 10 2 9 11 0 $704,806
1990 29 15 0 4 9 0 $450,230
1991 29 18 0 1 7 1 $348,898
1992 29 8 0 4 16 0 $600,381
1993 30 18 0 0 10 0 $531,717
1994 31 7 3 6 14 0 $1,125,921
1995 31 6 3 14 17 1 $1,558,659
1996 31 1 2 21 24 4 $4,030,648
1997 32 6 1 8 20 0 $2,270,144
1998 33 9 1 5 15 0 $2,054,163
1999 34 12 1 1 7 0 $2,475,365
2000 32 17 0 3 6 1 $2,239,716
2001 36 23 0 1 3 0 $3,011,901
2002 36 24 0 1 4 0 $3,244,240
2003 36 10 1 4 9 1 $4,283,625
2004 36 26 0 0 6 0 $3,627,342
2005 14 40 0 0 1 0 $1,124,145
2006 16 41 0 1 1 0 $1,454,709
Total 847 22 182 361 27 $40,467,028