Racing Is in the Blood
Terry Labonte talks about his family's need for speed and success that could fuel a Texas racing dynasty.
Terry Labonte at his Sports Hall of Fame exhibit.
AFTER A QUICK QUALIFYING run at Atlanta Motor Speedway for the Atlanta 500, NASCAR racer Terry Labonte dashed to a phone to talk to texasmonthly.com. There were no engines vrooming in the background, just the simple voice of one of the greatest NASCAR drivers. Labonte has won stock car racing's greatest prize, the Winston Cup Championship, twice, in 1984 and 1996—the fifth driver since 1971 to win multiple titles, ranking him with racing greats Richard Petty and the late Dale Earnhardt. But the Corpus Christi native doesn't mention his achievements unless it's in the family—he loves the fact that he and his brother Bobby are the only brothers to have won the Winston Cup.
texasmonthly.com: I heard that you come down to Texas a lot. How often are you in Texas?
Terry Labonte: I have a ranch down in South Texas, and so whenever I travel to the West Coast, I either stop on the way or stop on the way back and spend a few days there. Or sometimes we'll just leave between races and spend the week there. I get down once a month at least, at the longest probably six weeks. We still get down there quite a bit.
texasmonthly.com: What do you do on your ranch?
TL: We hang out and just kind of get away from everything. We don't even have a real telephone out there, so it's kind of out in the middle of nowhere out in the middle of the South Texas brush country, and it's just, for me, a good getaway. We spend a few days riding around and looking at the deer and cows and things like that.
texasmonthly.com: Do you miss Texas when you are not here?
TL: My wife and I both love it down there. We are from Corpus Christi. I think I am just a true Texan, and I still call that home. There have been times when we come home to our house in North Carolina, and the next morning we say that we wish we were back at the ranch.
texasmonthly.com: Speaking of Corpus, you recently had a park named after you?
TL: That's right. In Corpus Christi they named a park after Bobby and me, and it's kind of right on the interstate coming into town. It was quite an honor for the people in Corpus to do that for us. You know, racing isn't as popular in Texas as some of the other sports, and for us to be recognized like that caught me off guard. When I heard about it, I was really a little surprised that they did that.
texasmonthly.com: You had a pretty big turnout too.
TL: They did it right in the middle of the day, and I think they had like three times as many people turn out for it as they had planned. Of course, we couldn't do it on the weekend because we are always racing on the weekends, but if we had had a better time, it probably would have been an out-of-control crowd.
texasmonthly.com: How did you find out about it? Did they just call you up?
TL: There were articles in the paper, and people were writing in wanting them to do something for Bobby and me to recognize us for our accomplishments in Winston Cup racing. Bobby and I are the only two brothers that have ever won the Winston Cup Championship. I had had friends who would send me articles that people would write in, letters to the editor, and things, and I am like, "Oh, God, I wish they would quit writing this stuff in there." And so then the city called us, and they said, "Hey, we got some things in the works here and we want to just let you know what we are doing." And it was great. It's something that I never expected. And then when they came back with what they did do, that was even more than I expected. The park [formally known as Nueces River Park] is the one as you come in from San Antone, so we were out there and it's got a tourist center there, and I was asking them how many people come through there in a day. It was like ten thousand more than I dreamed. I don't remember the number, so it was a pretty busy little place there. It was really neat.
texasmonthly.com: Well, you have had a really busy year because you and Bobby were both inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame [in February] with Troy Aikman.
TL: Yeah, and we had a great turnout there. We had just a huge number of race fans that showed up for that.
texasmonthly.com: I know A. J. Foyt is there. Are you guys the second NASCAR people to be inducted in it?
TL: No, A. J. Foyt, Johnny Rutherford, Carole Shelby, and Jim Hall. That's right and then Bobby and me. That was the coolest thing that I have been able to do. That was quite an honor. You walk around in there, and you look at all of the people that have been inducted into that thing, and it is kind of hard to realize. I'm like, "Gosh, I can't really believe we're in here like this." It kind of sank in after I got there, and after I walked around, I saw all of the people that were inducted into it. And there's not that many really, the total number of folks that are in it, so it's really kind of a select few.
texasmonthly.com: You guys got your picture taken with Troy and Bruce Matthews.
TL: We got our picture made with Bruce Matthews, Mike Munchak, Troy Aikman, and Bobby and me. There were five of us.
texasmonthly.com: Had you met Troy Aikman before?
TL: I had met him before. I met him at Texas Motor Speedway. He is usually out there for the races.
texasmonthly.com: Is he a big fan?
TL: Well, I don't think he is a big fan, but he is enough of a fan that I mean he follows it a little bit and knows the different players and stuff like that. The other two guys, of course, play in Nashville now. Mike's a coach there.
texasmonthly.com: They were with the Houston Oilers.
TL: You won't believe it. They follow it really close up there. They were both pretty big race fans.
texasmonthly.com: I was told that you had a fondness for the Cowboys. You got to go on the sidelines, right?
TL: Yeah, I have been on the sidelines once or twice, I guess. I got to meet a few of the players, so I have kind of always been a Cowboys fan.
texasmonthly.com: So what was that like?
TL: Oh, God, it was cool. They are pretty big boys. [laughs] It's pretty obvious why I don't play football. We have had some of them hang out in our pits at the race in Texas from time to time.
texasmonthly.com: You talked a little about NASCAR and the following in Texas. How much do you think you and Bobby have increased the following because you are from Texas?
TL: I told somebody the other day that I could have told them at the Hall of Fame thing the fans from Texas, because they are the ones that yell out, "Hey, we're from Texas!" People from Texas are proud of their state and everything, and I think that because of that, when we go to Texas, Bobby and I have got more fans than anybody there has. And it is because we are from Texas. They pull for us. Over the years—I have raced longer than Bobby has—the true race fans probably followed us, and now that they have an event down there, it's just bigger.
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