Terry Labonte

Terrance Lee Labonte (born November 16, 1956), nicknamed "Texas Terry" or "the Iceman", is an American former stock car driver.

Terry Labonte was born in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1956.

He was introduced to racing at an early age through his father, who had worked on race cars as a hobby for his friends.

He started racing quarter midgets when he was seven and won a national championship at nine before moving onto the local short tracks in a stock car as a teenager.

Driving on both dirt and asphalt, he won track championships in his hometown, in Houston, and in San Antonio between 1975 and 1977.

During this time he also met Louisiana businessman Billy Hagan.

He raced from 1978 to 2014 in the former NASCAR Winston Cup and Sprint Cup Series (now called the NASCAR Cup Series).

Labonte’s first NASCAR race came in 1978 at Darlington Raceway.

In 1979, he competed for NASCAR Winston Cup Rookie of the Year honors along with Dale Earnhardt, Harry Gant, and Joe Millikan while driving the No. 44 Stratagraph-sponsored Chevrolet for Hagan.

Although Labonte failed to win the top rookie award, he was one of three rookies to finish in the Top 10 in points.

He ended the season with 13 Top 10 finishes.

The following year, he won his first career Winston Cup race on Labor Day weekend at Darlington.

He won $222,501 in prize money for the year and finished eighth in the final points standings.

Labonte failed to return to victory lane over the next two years but didn't finish outside the Top 5 in the final standings.

He won his second career race in 1983 in the Budweiser-sponsored Chevrolet.

A two-time Cup Series champion in 1984 and 1996 and the 1989 IROC champion, he is the older brother of 2000 Cup Series champion Bobby Labonte, and the father of former Nationwide Series driver Justin Labonte.

He also co-owns a Chevrolet dealership in Greensboro, North Carolina with Rick Hendrick.

He appeared on the CBS series The Dukes of Hazzard in 1984, where he played an unnamed pit crew member.

In 1984, his team received a sponsorship from Piedmont Airlines and he won races at Riverside International Raceway and Bristol Motor Speedway as well as clinching his first Winston Cup championship.

He dropped to seventh in the final points in 1985.

During that season, he made his Busch Series debut at Charlotte in the No. 17 Pontiac owned by Darrell Waltrip and won the 400 mi race.

Waltrip asked Labonte to drive after deciding to focus his driving priorities solely on Winston Cup racing during what would be Waltrip's 307-point gain over Bill Elliott in the final eight races of the 1985 season.

Labonte fell back to twelfth in the standings in 1986.

Before season's end, he announced he was leaving Hagan's team to drive the No. 11 Budweiser-sponsored Chevrolet for Junior Johnson's team beginning the following year.

In his first season with this team, he earned four pole-positions and won the Holly Farms 400, leaping up to third in the final standings.

He followed that up with a fourth-place points finish in 1988, as well as The Winston.

In 1989, the team switched to Ford Thunderbirds.

Despite two wins during the season, he fell back to tenth in the championship.

In 1990, he signed with Leo Jackson's Precision Products Racing team to drive the No. 1 Skoal Classic-sponsored Oldsmobile.

Terry Labonte scrapped plans for 1990 to run a self-owned independent team, because he couldn't land a full sponsorship, the News-Record of Greensboro, N.C. reported in 1990, and he signed to the Precision Products Racing team.

Labonte came back to Hagan Racing to drive the No. 94 Sunoco-sponsored Oldsmobile in 1991, winning his first pole since 1988.

He began 1992 with finishes inside the Top 8 in each of the first eight races.

He had a total of four Top 5 finishes and 16 Top 10 finishes, ending the season eighth in points.

In 1993, the team switched to the No. 14 Kellogg's-sponsored Chevrolet.

On July 1, 1993, it was announced that Terry Labonte would be leaving Hagan Racing following 1993 to drive for Hendrick Motorsports in 1994.

After leaving Hagan Racing in 1993, Terry Labonte was signed to Hendrick Motorsports in 1994, where he began driving the No. 5 Kellogg's-sponsored Chevrolet Lumina.

He had four Top 5s and nine Top 10s and finished 15th in the points standings.

While he had ten Top 10s, for the first time in his career, Labonte failed to finish a race in the Top 5 and he dropped to 18th in points.

He qualified 19th in the No. 92 Duck Industries-sponsored Chevrolet and finished fourth that weekend.

He ran four more races that season and had an additional two Top 10 finishes.