Texas Terry
About the only non-Chase story line this weekend (other than an actual qualifying run by AJ Allmendinger) is this: Texas will be Terry Labonte's last Cup race. USA Today has an epic on him here.
T-Lab has been part-time for two years. (He has won $2.6 million in 30 races over the past two seasons -- that's a part-time gig I could get to like.) Before that, he has 22 Cup wins and two Cup titles (1984 and 1996). Here are his career stats - impressively consistent.
Truth be told, I don't remember all that much about Labonte. By the time I really started paying attention to racin' (that would be the late 90s or so), Labonte and that ugly yellow No. 5 were just barely hanging on to the back of the pack. His best days were behind him, and it was just a matter of when Hendrick was going to find some hot shot for his ride.
I've got two Labonte memories.
The first is the rattle-the-cage race, the 1999 fall night race at Bristol where he got in Dale Earnhardt's way. (Don't try to convince me that Senior was in the wrong. You can take that smack somewhere else.) Labonte's response: "Have you ever heard him say he means to spin anybody out?" Perfect.
The other was in 2003, when he won the Labor Day race at Darlington. Every other driver after a win stands on his window sill, drink bottle in hand, and soaks in the cheers, confetti and beer foam. Labonte just climbed out of his car while everyone else was milling around and had this expression on his face something along the lines of, "Hey, give me my trophy already -- I've gotta get him."
I'll give him that -- the guy is cool.
You have any other Labonte memories? Share 'em in the comments.
Friday update: The Charlotte paper opened its photo archives. (When they say "Lots of Terry Labonte images," they're not kidding around.) If you dig through there, you'll find pics of him and Jeff Gordon back in Gordon's Rainbow Warrior days. There's also a pic of Labonte and his smashed-up car in Bristol's victory lane after an earlier dust-up with Dale Sr. (the one Labonte won).
Comments (2)
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I forgot the exact quote but Terry had gotten wrecked by a Bodine and said something like, "We all know if you get near a Bodine, he's gonna wreck ya. Well I did and he did."
I have always loved that about both Labonte brothers. They are just so matter of fact about everything and such smooth talkers they can almost make you think they're complimenting someone when they're actually insulting them.
Posted on November 1, 2006 7:07 PM
Big E and Labonte were long time hunting buddies. I believe after the infamous Bristol race that Big E also made the comment that he would need to smooth things over with Labonte before hunting season began.
Posted on November 1, 2006 8:44 PM