Terry Labonte made his 890th and final Sprint Cup start at Talladega on Sunday driving the #32 Ford of Go FAS Racing. Labonte had said earlier this year that he was considering a full retirement after 2014, so the announcement this weekend confirming it was not much of a surprise. Fans were delighted to see Labonte pull off a top-ten qualifying position; he started ninth in the 43-car field on Sunday. Labonte got a piece of a multi-car wreck on lap 104 that also led to Chase driver Kyle Busch (who coincidentally replaced Labonte in the #5 car at Hendrick Motorsports in 2005) getting eliminated when the race was over. Labonte still managed to finish the race just one lap down.
Labonte made his Cup debut in 1978 at the Southern 500 in Darlington, South Carolina, and the following year he was in the same rookie class as Dale Earnhardt, the eventual Rookie of the Year that year. His first and last Cup wins both came in the Southern 500, in 1980 and 2003 respectively. He won a total of 22 races in those 23 years. Labonte is a two-time Sprint Cup champion, winning the championship in 1984 with Billy Hagan and in 1996 with Rick Hendrick. After going into semi-retirement following the 2004 season, Labonte ran for a variety of other teams, including a part-time Hendrick car, Michael Waltrip Racing and Petty Enterprises. His younger brother Bobby Labonte also won a Cup title in 2000, and last ran the full schedule in 2012.
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