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Born November 16, 1956, Terrance Lee Labonte's was quickly introduced to racing by his father who enjoyed working on them as a hobby.

At only 7 years of age, Labonte began racing in quarter-midgets. By the time he was nine, he already had a national championship under his belt. As he grew into his teen years, he moved up to stock cars. He continued on dirt tracks as well as racing on asphalt, but added championships in Houston, and San Antonio from 1975-1977.

In 1978 Labonte made the jump to NASCAR, entering a car at Darlington Raceway. He qualified well on his first attempt, starting 19th on the grid. But his finish of fourth was quite impressive for a rookie on his first attempt.

He started and ran four other races that year, and followed his fourth place finish with two top ten finishes.

1979 was his first full year in the NASCAR, then Winston Cup, and he vied for Rookie of the Year Honors with other NASCAR greats such as Dale Earnhardt, Harry Gant, and Joe Milikan. Labonte drove his #44 Stratagraph Chevrolet to finish in the top 10 in championship points at the end of the season. Although he garnered 13 top ten finishes during the season, Labonte failed to win Rookie of the Year Honors.

In 1980, Labonte won his first Cup race at the Darlington track during the Labor Day race. That year, he finished sixth in the points all the while earning $222,501 worth of prize money.

The next two years were troublesome for Labonte, as he failed to win a single race. However, he didn't complain as he did stay within the top five in final point standings in both seasons.

He won again in 1983, and won two races in 1984 and clinched his first Winston Cup Championship during the same year.

Darrel Waltrip approached him in 1985 to drive his car in the then Busch series, the minor leagues of NASCAR, where he preformed well.

During the next few season, Labonte raced well, and finished consistently, all the while switching teams twice. However, at the start of the 1990's, Labonte's team was not as strong as he would like, so at the beginning of the 1994 season, he signed with strong house Hendricks Motorsports.

Success followed him to the Hendricks team, where in his first two seasons driving the #5 Kellogg's Chevrolet he won three times in each season. In 1996, Labonte not only broke Richard Petty's consecutive race streak, he won his second Winston Cup Championship. What was the most interesting about his final race that year, was the fact that his younger brother Bobby Labonte won

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