Join the Discussion "NASCAR fans have a short memory. He needs to either turn it around ASAP or hang it up for good." What do you think?

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Dateline: July 23, 2001

Although never known for winning lots of races, Terry Labonte has been slumping dramatically since his 1996 Winston Cup Championship winning season. Is it time for "The Ironman" to hang up his driving suit?

Some History

Terry Labonte made his first Winston Cup start in 1978 and then joined the tour full-time in 1979. There was no doubt that Terry was going to be a star right from the very beginning. He finished fourth in his very first Winston Cup start which came at the demanding Darlington Raceway. Then he went on to finish tenth in Winston Cup points the following season. Terry was beat out for rookie-of-the-year in 1979 by Dale Earnhardt who managed a seventh place points finish.

Over his first seven full seasons Terry never finished outside of the top-ten in points and in 1984 he won his first Winston Cup title with two wins and twenty-four top-ten finishes on the year.

Terry was then fairly unimpressive for the next twelve years and managed only two more top-five points efforts. Then in 1996, again with two wins and twenty-four top-ten finishes, Terry won his second Winston Cup.

Slip-sliding Away

Since '96 Terry has been steadily sliding backwards. His points finishes have been sixth, ninth, twelfth, seventeenth and he currently finds himself mired way back in twenty-seventh.

His consistency has been sliding just as quickly. In '96 Terry tied his career high number of top-ten finishes. Since then however, the number has been falling rapidly from twenty-four to twenty, fifteen, seven, six and so far in 2001 he has only managed two top-tens.

Time To Hang It Up?

Terry has much to be proud of off the track as well as on as he is one of the genuinely nice people in the sport. However, much like Darrell Waltrip who hung on too long after the sport had passed him by, Terry Labonte is in danger of becoming the sport's pathetic old guard.

Consistently starting in the back and staying there, Terry only gets TV time when the leaders lap him. It would be a shame for Terry to continue to limp along and leave his fans with memories of struggle instead of his great victories. NASCAR fans tend to have very short memories.

It's time for Terry to retire while NASCAR fans still remember him as a champion.

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