Ironman Terry Labonte: Pressure Eased By Victory

Terry Labonte knows all about pressure. It weighs on drivers at every race and builds as the season progresses.

But the two-time Winston Cup champion says he’s noticed a change over the years.

“There’s always been a lot of pressure to win, but lately there’s been even more to do it early in the year,” he said.

On that point, he already has them covered.

“Winning in March in Texas took a little of the load off us, but then you’re not satisfied with just one win,” he said. “And it’s a lot harder when you go into the last months of the season needing a win.”

Labonte has managed to win six years running while establishing the NASCAR standard for perseverance. Today, when he takes the green flag in the Kmart 400 at Michigan Speedway, Labonte will be making his 616th straight start.

The 42-year-old driver would rather forget the pressure of 1990-94, when he went winless after a seven-year stretch of success. But he showed up every week, just as he has since starting his career 20 years ago.

HEARTY GUYS: So, you want to drive a race car. Well, do a little road work--on your feet. Before they say, “Gentlemen, start your engines,” a CART trainer says you better have the one in your chest ready to go.

“Driving a race car requires up to 150-200 heartbeats [per minute],” says Jim Leo, team trainer for PacWest Mercedes drivers Mauricio Gugelmin and Mark Blundell.

Leo says physical conditioning goes hand in hand with the ability to concentrate. A tired driver is a bad one.

“If a basketball player gets tired and makes a mistake, he can sit down,” Leo said. “If a race car driver gets tired and makes a mistake, he could hit the wall and be out of the race.”

PIT BULLS: There wasn’t any fight about pit selection for the Busch Grand National race this weekend in South Boston, Va. But those who handle defending series champion Dale Earnhardt Jr. figure there might be a few battles in the pits.

“We have the No. 1 pit stall no matter what,” said Tony Eury Jr., car chief for Earnhardt.

But, to a certain extent, so does everybody else. In South Boston, a tiny, country track, there are no pit stalls. The teams back their haulers up just off the racing surface and pit the cars right there.

“It’s fun to watch teams run by you to get into a fight with other teams,” Eury said. “This closeness of racing and the pit area tends to make tempers flare a lot quicker than normal.”

His father, Tony Sr., the crew chief, said his main concern in the race Saturday night would be crew safety, an issue because of the tightness of the track.

“South Boston Speedway is way too small of a track to have the Busch race,” he said.

VILLENEUVE’S HOPE: The fledgling British American Racing team has struggled with engine problems this year, and that has driver Jacques Villeneuve concerned.

He had hoped to be in position for a good finish Sunday in the Canadian Grand Prix on the track named for his late father, Gilles--the greatest Canadian Formula One racer of them all.

Now, Villeneuve is simply hoping to finish.

“There have been moments of great frustration, but they come and go quickly,” he said.

But 1998, when he drove for the Williams team, was even more difficult for the 1995 CART series champion.

“The difference is, last year I was on a team that had been winning for a long time and didn’t win anymore,” he said. “Now, this is a new team and the thing is to build.

Villeneuve finished second in his Montreal debut in 1996, spun off the track on the second lap in 1997, and finished 10th in 1998 after sliding off the track while driving for the lead.

SPICY STUFF: Pace salsa and picante lovers who also are NASCAR fans should be flipping their lids over the company’s latest promotion.

The Pace NASCAR Instant Win Game, which begins Tuesday, will end Nov. 30 with the fan who flipped the lucky lid bearing the winning inscription getting an all-expense-paid vacation next February to Daytona Beach, Fla. Naturally, there will be two tickets to the Daytona 500, and the winner gets a ride in the pace car around Daytona International Speedway.

Then the fan gets to keep the car.

Another 1,500 people will find a message inside bottle caps showing they won model race cars.

The odds against winning anything are 1 in 15,999. So, gentlemen line your stomachs.