How fitting that the last Southern 500 on Labor Day weekend at Darlington Raceway was won by Terry Labonte, one of the oldest drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series.
The 46-year-old from Corpus Christi, Texas, won his second Southern 500 Sunday, taking the lead when he was first off pit road with 32 laps to go after a 13.1-second pit stop.
“Bill Elliott and I were running like fourth or fifth and I thought to myself, ‘I hope one of us wins it. It would mean a lot more to us if one of us won it rather than some of the new guys that hadn’t run here as long and didn’t know the history and the tradition of the Darlington Raceway,’” Labonte said. “It’s a thrill for me to win the last Southern 500 run on Labor Day It’s also where I ran my first race and also won my first one. This place has always been pretty special.”
When the green flag waved with 30 laps remaining the in the 367-lap race, Labonte drove away from the field, building a 2.369-second lead over Kevin Harvick with 23 laps to go.
“I didn’t think I had it won,” Labonte said of the final pit stop. “I thought it was ours to lose.”
Instead, it was Labonte’s to win. He took the checkered flag to break a 156-race winless streak. His last victory came at Texas Motor Speedway on March 28, 1999 and he did it in the race where he scored his first Winston Cup win in 1980.
Labonte called it “a losing-streak from hell.”
The two-time NASCAR Winston Cup champion started third and stayed within striking distance of the leaders in a race where many of the top drivers fell victim to the famed Darlington bad luck.
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