Labonte managed to miss the oil. His car was still intact and running strong. He could see Pearson up ahead as he exited turn four. Some quick thinking by Labonte proved vital when it counted most. He dropped to the low lane, pushed the throttle and beat Pearson to the caution flag by two feet. He circled the track one more time under yellow to earn his first Cup Series triumph.
After taking the checkered flag, Labonte drove to pit road and picked up his jubilant crew members, who piled on the car and rode to victory lane.
It’s been 43 years since Labonte emerged from his red-and-white Chevrolet Monte Carlo, shocked that he had won one of NASCAR’s most prestigious races. That day has played in his mind 1,000 times as vividly as if it were yesterday.
“I still remember it very well,” Labonte said recently. “I somehow missed the oil that all the other leaders had gotten into. I was running fourth and suddenly everyone ahead of me was sliding into the wall.
“I stood on the gas down the backstretch and got through turns three and four. It was just me and Pearson at that point and everyone else was behind us,” added Labonte, who went on to win 22 Cup Series races and a pair of championships. “I was wide open when I got the frontstretch. That’s when I saw the smoke from his car and the damage. I don’t think he ever saw me coming up behind him. The white and yellow flags were out, so I knew I had to pass him before we got to the line. I dropped low and got there before he did. I could tell I had beaten him. I couldn’t believe that we had just won the Southern 500.”
With his father Bob as his crew chief and car owner, Labonte was a consistent late model winner on Texas short tracks during the 1970s, and he met Hagan through a promoter. Hagan sponsored Labonte’s car and helped move the family to North Carolina in 1978. Terry Labonte became a crewman on Hagan’s Cup Series team with Skip Manning as the driver before Hagan promoted Labonte.
“We got off to a pretty good start,” Labonte recalled. “Billy called me and said we were going to start with the Southern 500 (in 1978.) I said, ‘Billy, I think I’d be better off to start at maybe Martinsville or North Wilkesboro, or a half-mile track somewhere that I’m used to running. He said, ‘We’re going to go there, too, but we’re going to Darlington first.’ I said, ‘Well, OK.’ We started at Darlington.”
Miraculously, Labonte finished fourth at Darlington, seventh at Richmond, ninth at Martinsville, 24th at Charlotte and 13th at Atlanta to close out the 1978 season. By running only five races, he retained his rookie status for the following year.
“Darlington has always had a very special place in my heart,” Labonte noted. “I ran my very first Cup Series race there in 1978, won my first Cup Series race in 1980 and won my last race there in 2003. If I had known it was going to be my last win I would have just gone on and quit the next day; I wasn’t aware of that at the time.
“I couldn’t have been any happier to have won my first one and last one at Darlington. I think it’s perfect bookends to a great career. It’s always been one of my favorite race tracks. It’s one of the toughest places on the circuit.
“Anybody that’s come down and won races, the Southern 500 has meant as much as any race they have ever won.”
Labonte won six times with Hagan, four times with Junior Johnson and 12 times while driving for Rick Hendrick. His last full season was 2004 with Hendrick Motorsports, but he didn’t retire until 2014 after running 10 partial seasons with 12 different car owners.
And it all began with a surprise victory in the 1980 Southern 500.
This story appeared in the August 23, 2023 edition of the SPEED SPORT Insider.
