CONCORD, N.C. - It's said that Darlington Raceway is “Too Tough to Tame.” But for the Hendrick Motorsports legend, Terry Labonte, it was easily one of his most cherished racetracks.
“Darlington has always been a special place for me,” Labonte said for a 2023 Hendrick Motorsports interview. “I ran my first race there, got my first win there and my last win there. It’s just one of the coolest tracks on the circuit (and) definitely one of the toughest. I hope they don’t ever change it and make it into something other than what it is.
“You can go to Darlington, run 500 miles by yourself and if you don’t hit the wall, you’ve accomplished something,” Labonte added.
Its difficulty has never diminished Labonte’s fondness for the historic South Carolina facility. In his very first NASCAR Cup Series start, Labonte took to the 1.366-mile, egg-shaped oval like a fish to water, qualifying for the 1978 Southern 500 a respectable 19th and finishing fourth behind only Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough and Darrell Waltrip.
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Unbeknownst to many, NASCAR had just been introduced to one of its newest driving stars; a mild-mannered 23-year-old quarter midget racer from Corpus Christi, Texas with a ton of talent. Enough, in fact, to one day be enshrined into the NASCAR Hall of Fame (2016).
As for Labonte, he was being introduced to something new as well.
“I wasn’t smart enough to look at the scoreboard to see my car number up there,” said Labonte in a post-race interview. “But I kept looking up there to see how many laps were left because I thought, ‘This is the longest race I’ve ever run in my life.”
Up to that point, Labonte’s furthest race distance had only been 100 miles.
“It was a big adjustment to run a 500-mile event,” Labonte recalled prior to the May Darlington race in 2006. “It was a long race and, definitely a typical Darlington deal, tearing up a bunch of cars.
“The coolest thing was after the race, I’d finished fourth, and Bobby and Donnie Allison came over and congratulated me,” Labonte continued. “To have both guys, both stars in the sport, do that, I thought was pretty neat. It was definitely different back then. Of course, the crowds weren’t as big and people weren’t in such a hurry after the race. The competition was still tough, but everything was a little more laid back.”
“You can go to Darlington, run 500 miles by yourself and if you don’t hit the wall, you’ve accomplished something.”
Terry Labonte
Being laid back suited “Texas” Terry quite well, as someone who would later be known as “The Iceman” for his cool and calm disposition on and off the track. In a sport that’s pressure-packed, highly competitive and full of intensity, Labonte’s smooth driving style and even-keeled nature often kept him out of trouble and at the front of the field.
Ironically, navigating chaos and remaining calm was also his pathway to taking home his first NASCAR Cup Series victory at, where else? Darlington Raceway.
With two laps to go in the 1980 Southern 500, Labonte was following another group of NASCAR Hall of Famers in Pearson, Dale Earnhardt and Benny Parsons into turn one. And once again, he found himself in fourth place late in the race.
From one of the many ailing vehicles running at the end, a patch of fluid had found its way onto the surface, causing the three leaders to slide into the outside wall coming out of turn one. In total, five cars were damaged, with only the leader able to recover. With the green still waving, Pearson was heading towards turns three and four to take the white flag.
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“Neil Bonnett and I made it through there. Neil was a lap down,” Labonte said to The Scene Vault Podcast. “I thought I must have been running the wrong line because I didn’t hit any oil. I saw that David had bounced off the wall, then (he) went down the straightaway and I went through three and four up to speed.”
Labonte was cooking in his Hagan Racing entry and quickly chased down Pearson’s slightly damaged race car.
“I had my momentum up. He came off four and I don’t think he ever saw me coming," Labonte added. "I dove down to the inside and beat him to the white flag, so it was white and caution. The race was basically over.”
The grassroots racer from Texas just secured a life-changing victory. Winning the Southern 500 was a crown jewel trophy no matter when you captured it. For Labonte, it also became a springboard to one of the sport’s most decorated careers. Spanning five different decades, Labonte claimed 22 NASCAR Cup Series victories while also winning two Cup Series championships (1984 and 1996), the latter with Hendrick Motorsports – the second in its current total of 14 titles.
Despite all of Labonte’s success, the road to victory lane can be a bumpy one. And the time between his 21st at his home track of Texas Motor Speedway in 1999, and the final triumph of his career, wound up being more than four years. Naturally, it was Darlington Raceway and the traditional Southern 500, on Memorial Day weekend of 2003, that finally did the trick.
Qualifying third, the iconic Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 Kellog’s Chevrolet was in a strong position at the outset. Staying out front most of the race, Labonte felt good about being able to break the streak at the historic facility.
“I remember running that race and Bill Elliott was running well also,” Labonte said. “I thought, ‘You know, it would be nice if one of us would win this race being the last race on Labor Day weekend.’ We knew more about the history of the race than the other guys in the event.”
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With 36 laps to go, Robby Gordon hit the wall to bring out the race’s final caution. A quick stop for four tires and fuel placed Labonte at the point for the first time during the race. Labonte distanced the field for the remainder of the race, allowing for one last Cup Series victory lane celebration.
“I was just relieved that we won. It had been a while since we had been in victory lane, so it was just nice to win,” Labonte told Hendrick Motorsports. “I didn’t do any donuts because I (didn’t) know how.”
What Labonte did know how to do was win at Darlington Raceway. A place that often rewards those who are “cool as ice.”