IMS Press Release: Terry Labonte Hopes For Change of Luck at the Brickyard
07/26/96
For Immediate Release LABONTE HOPES FOR CHANGE OF FORTUNE AT BRICKYARD INDIANAPOLIS, July 25, 1996 -- Terry Labonte has yet to crack the top 10 in the first two Brickyard 400s, but the 39-year-old driver of the No. 5 Kellogg's Corn Flakes Chevrolet has made a habit of scoring top 10 NASCAR Winston Cup finishes this season. In fact, Labonte and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon share the series lead with 13 top 10s each in 17 races heading into Sunday's DieHard 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. That consistency has vaulted Labonte to the top of the series standings for the first time since 1985, and the 1984 champion hopes to become the 16th driver in NASCAR history to win more than one title. Labonte, a Corpus Christi, Texas, native, became the sport's Ironman earlier this season when he broke Richard Petty's streak of 513 consecutive starts. Now Labonte, who'll make his 524th consecutive start this weekend, would like to help Petty retain another record. Dale Earnhardt and Petty each have won seven NASCAR Winston Cup championships, and Labonte is standing in the way of Earnhardt's eighth. With a tenuous 12-point advantage over Earnhardt entering Sunday's race at Talladega, Labonte says he's not feeling any pressure. "There's probably a lot more pressure on Dale to win this championship than (on) me," Labonte said. "They expect Dale to win it, and besides, I've already got my record this year." "Seriously, I'm not worried about the pressure. If we've got fuel pressure and oil pressure, that's all I'm worried about." The Winston Cup title paid $150,000 when Labonte won it in 1984, but he'll earn 10 times that if he can hold on and capture the 1996 crown. "There's a big difference between now and '84," Labonte said. "I already had that money spent before I won it in '84. I don't have a penny of this spent." Labonte moved from 30th to first in a span of 14 races this season after he opened the year with finishes of 24th and 34th at Daytona and Rockingham, respectively. He took the points lead with a sixth-place finish at Loudon, N.H., on July 14, and retained it despite a 16th-place performance last week at Pocono. With a fourth-place finish earlier this season at Talladega, Labonte hopes to enter the third annual Brickyard 400 on Aug. 3 as the series points leader. Then he and the No. 5 Kellogg's team, led by crew chief Gary DeHart, will go to work at Indy and try to improve on 12th and 13th-place finishes in 1994 and 1995, respectively. "Indy changes more than any track we go to, and you can only judge off people who tested there when you were there," Labonte said. "I thought we were decent, but we didn't have any speed. We were about a second off from the fastest times, and we couldn't find that extra second." "We'll need to find it before the race because we can't afford to be that far off. We've finished second five times this year, and two of those easily could have been wins. It'd sure be nice to run that well at the Brickyard and have a shot to win. With a little luck, I think we can be competitive."
