Heading into his final year as an active driver, Terry Labonte wears two caps. The first will be that of Hall of Fame Racing, with whom Labonte will start the year as he attempts to help get the new team established. The second will be that of Hendrick Motorsports, with whom Labonte will close his career in November at the Texas Motor Speedway.
Q:
AFTER DALE EARNHARDT'S CRASH HERE, DO YOU THINK EVERYONE TOOK A MUCH QUICKER LOOK AT SAFETY?
TERRY LABONTE
"I think everybody probably did, I think everybody probably looked at it and said 'Oh Man'. A lot of the technology that we have now wasn't there. They were working with the safer barriers; there were so many crazy ideas out there. People were coming up with and trying all kinds of different things, just trying something just to try it. They had to test all of these ideas out, trying to get the right feel and something that would work. That is what they did and now every track has safer barriers. They implemented it fast and got it working."
Q:
DOES THE MEMORY OF DALE EARNHARDT STILL POP UP EVERY ONCE AND A WHILE?
TERRY LABONTE
"Sure, it is pretty obvious when you drive through any race track and there are #3 flags around everywhere and still fans with hats, shirts and jackets. We are constantly reminded of him."
Q:
YOU HAVE NOTHING LEFT TO PROVE IN THIS SPORT, IS IT JUST A CASE OF STILL HAVING THAT ITCH YOU NEED TO SCRATCH?
TERRY LABONTE
"We are running a limited schedule and we would love to go out and run good in every race we enter. That is definitely what our goal is. Last year we had a few good races, but never really have one good one from start to finish. We have worked on trying to get our team a little bit stronger on pit road. It is really cool driving for Rick (Hendrick). I get to pick the races that I want to run. I am probably the only part time guy going to Pocono twice. I am probably one of the only guys that likes Pocono. I like Pocono. It is a neat deal to pick the tracks you want to go ran at.
Q:
WHAT HAVE YOU GOT GOING FOR JUSTIN (LABONTE) THIS YEAR?
TERRY LABONTE
"We don't have really anything going for him this year. We basically dropped the ball on that deal. It is probably my own fault because I was told we had the sponsor for like three months so we let a couple of other opportunities go that came along I didn't pursue because I took somebody's word on it and it wasn't at all the case. I told Justin that I messed him up a little bit, it was no one's fault but mine and I feel bad."
Q:
IF YOU WERE TO WIN THIS DAYTONA RACE, DO YOU HAVE A PLACE IN YOUR HOUSE SOMEWHERE FOR THE HEISMAN TROPHY?
TERRY LABONTE
"Roger (Staubach, team owner) told me he was going to give me his Heisman trophy if I won the
Daytona 500. I said 'Cool, I'm going to take it', for at least a couple of weeks. What has really been funny is all my friends have called and offered me their bowling trophies and things like that, so if we win, we are going to have quite a collection of awards around the house.
