Bobby Labonte

Bobby Labonte (born May 8, 1964) is an American driver and drives the #43 Cheerios Dodge Charger for the Petty Enterprises NASCAR Racing Team in the Nextel Cup Series. During the mid-1990's, he was diagnosed with Graves Disease.

As of 2006, Labonte is the only driver to win both the NASCAR Winston Cup championship (2000) and the NASCAR Busch Series championship (1991). He also won the IROC title in 2001.

Beginnings

Labonte was born in Corpus Christi, Texas. He currently resides in Trinity, North Carolina. His older brother, Terry, is also a prominent NASCAR driver; the two are the only brothers to have both won the championship in NASCAR's top series (the other family pairs to have titles, Lee and Richard Petty and Ned and Dale Jarrett, are father-son combinations). He is also the uncle of former Busch Series winner Justin Labonte.

He began racing in 1969 in quarter midgets in his homestate of Texas, winning his first feature race one year later. From then until 1977, he drove in quarter-midgets throughout the United States, winning many races. In 1978, he advanced to the go-kart ranks, but moved to North Carolina with his family following Terry's advancement to the Cup series. After competing in several different divisions, Labonte made his Busch Series debut in 1982 at Martinsville Speedway, finishing 30th. Following his graduation from Trinity High School, he worked as a fabricator on Terry's cars at Hagan Racing. After years of racing in various divisions, Labonte returned to the Busch Series in 1985, running two races in a car he owned himself at Martinsville, his best finish was a seventeenth. The next season, he won his first Busch pole position and finished second at Road Atlanta.

In 1987, Labonte won twelve races at Caraway Speedway, clinching the track championship, in addition to working for Jay Hedgecock. The following season, he competed at Concord Motorsports Park, winning six times, and ran six more Busch races, finishing 16th at Darlington Raceway. The next season, he ran seven races and had his first top-five finish at North Carolina Speedway. He had two more top-tens that year.

1990-1994

In 1990, Labonte competed in the Busch Series full-time in the #44 Slim Jim Oldsmobile he owned. He won two poles, both at Bristol Motor Speedway, and finished fourth in points. He also won the Most Popular Driver award. The next season, he won his first race at Bristol, then won again at Indianapolis Raceway Park. He won the championship that year as well. In addition, he made two Cup starts at Dover International Speedway and Michigan International Speedway, finishing 34th and 38th, respectively. The following season, he won three races (Lanier, Hickory, and Martinsville), but lost the Busch championship to Joe Nemechek by three points.

In 1993, Labonte moved up to the Cup Series, driving the #22 Maxwell House Ford Thunderbird for Bill Davis Racing. In his rookie season, he won the pole at Richmond International Raceway, had two top-tens, and finished 19th in points, second behind Jeff Gordon for Rookie of the Year honors. The next season, Labonte did not improve on his points finish, but won the championship in the Busch Series as a car owner when David Green finished first in the standings.

1995-2000

Bobby Labonte's former JGR car on display at the Joe Gibbs Racing headquarters.

At the end of the season, Labonte departed to drive the #18 Interstate Batteries Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing. Labonte picked up his first three career wins and finished tenth in points. He also won two poles at Michigan and Martinsville. In 1996, Labonte did not win until the season-ending NAPA 500, the same race where his brother Terry won the championship. After winning the NAPA 500 again the following season, Labonte won the pole at the Daytona 500 as well as races at Talladega Superspeedway and Atlanta, finishing eighth in points.

In 1999, Labonte won five Winston Cup races, the most he has ever won in a single season. He finished second in the points to Dale Jarrett, losing the championship by over 200 points. During the season, he suffered a broken shoulder in an accident while qualifying for a Busch Series race at Darlington Raceway, but raced in the Cup event two days later. The next year, he won four more times and clinched the championship over Dale Earnhardt and Jeff Burton.

2001-Present

Labonte #43 races to the end of pit lane

In 2001, Labonte dropped to sixth in points despite wins at Atlanta and Pocono Raceway. At Atlanta, he set a modern-day record for the furthest back a race winner has started, when he won after qualifying in 39th place. He also won the IROC title that season. The following season, he only won once at Martinsville and finished sixteenth in points, the first time he'd finished outside the top-ten since 1996. He recovered briefly in 2003, winning two races and four poles en route to an eighth place points finish.

He would go winless for the first time since 1994 in 2004 but finished twelfth in points. He also ran a pair of Craftsman Truck Series races for Morgan-Dollar Motorsports, finishing third at Martinsville. He would win a truck race there the following year, becoming the first and so far only driver to win a race in all three major NASCAR series at the same track. He also ran the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona road race, sharing a car with Terry, Jan Magnussen and Bryan Herta. After another winless season in 2005, Labonte departed for Petty, and has three top-ten finishes.

Teams and Sponsers

Year	Car#	Sponsor	Make	Team
1993-1994	22	Maxwell House	Ford	Wood Brothers
1995-2005	18	Interstate	Chevy	Joe Gibbs Racing
2005-2006	44	Cheerios	Dodge	Petty Enterprises

External links

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