He will run two more races this year, Lowe's Motor Speedway and his career finale at Texas Motor Speedway. In Texas, his home state, they have big plans for his sendoff at Texas Motor Speedway. Among other notable tributes, including a special pre-race show, Labonte will be the final NEXTEL Cup driver introduced, regardless of where he qualifies, and will the lead the field on the initial parade lap. That’s an honor seldom seen and it’s truly worthy of Labonte, who has always been a class act. And he’ll be leading the pack with a specially painted Monte Carlo SS to celebrate his career and the event.
So what did Terry say about start number 1000? "That just reconfirms that I made the right decision (on retiring). No wonder I'm tired [LAUGHS]. That's a pretty cool number. I really had no idea it was that many. When you put them all together like that, it's an awful lot of races. I guess it just goes to show that time really does fly when you're having fun."
What many fans may not know is that he ran the Busch Series with his own shop that eventually helped his brother, Bobby, get his start in racing. When asked about it, he
explained how it was much more than just racing, “We had a facility and my brother (Bobby Labonte) had run Busch Series cars out of it. There was an opportunity for me to run some Busch races. It was pretty neat because my dad (Bob Labonte) and I got to work together. He was actually the crew chief on my car the whole time I ran the Busch deal. It was just really neat for us to be able to work together. That was the main reason I did it. We owned our own team, it was fun and we had some success at it. We had our Busch team, my brother had his and David Green ran out of our shop and won the championship (in 1994). It was back in the days when there weren't any Cup owners involved. It was more of a laid-back atmosphere in the Busch Series. It was a lot of fun. I just enjoyed doing it. Heck, I think one year we even made money [LAUGHS]."
ADVERTISEMENT
Terry has always been one of the cool guys of NASCAR and can find the fun in racing in just about anything. Take the high pressure of a driver’s first race. Terry remembers his first Busch race. “The only one of those races (in the Busch Series) I drove for somebody else was actually my very first one (in 1985). I drove for Darrell Waltrip at Charlotte and won the race. I guess I should've quit then [LAUGHS]."
What about the trucks? How did he get into them for his short lived career? "Rick (Hendrick) asked me to run the truck because it was the first year of the Truck Series (1995) and it was new for everybody. They were struggling just a little bit, so I went and ran three races. We finished second, third and first, just trying to get the Hendrick Motorsports truck deal going." And how did Rick react? "When I got out (in Victory Lane), Rick put his arm around me and said, 'You don't have to run any more truck races.' We had fun and laughed about it, but I would've run some more. I was just a guy they pointed to for some help at the time and I had a lot of fun doing it."
And did we mention that both of those NASCAR Cup Championships were in Chevy Monte Carlos? Thanks for the memories, Iceman…