Subway 500 - Terry Labonte Notes

LABONTE TO START 200TH SHORT-TRACK RACE: Terry Labonte will hit another career milestone at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway this weekend by starting his 200th short-track race. Sunday's Subway 500 will be his 51st start on the cozy half-mile oval -- the shortest track on the circuit at .526 miles. Although winless, Labonte does have three second-place finishes there, most recently in 1996. He also has run 51 races at Richmond, Va.; 50 at Bristol, Tenn.; 36 at North Wilkesboro, N.C.; and 12 at the old Nashville (Tenn.) Fairgrounds.

MAKING A POINT: After earning 911 championship points during the first quarter of this season, Labonte improved in each of the next two quarters, earning 1,117 and 1,163 points. If he is to continue improving through the fourth quarter of the schedule, Labonte will have to average seventh place or higher over the final five events.

STRANGE FACT: What is it with Labonte and the number "21" when it comes to Lowe's Motor Speedway? He started 21st in this year's fall race (finished 18th), placed 21st in May's 600-mile event and also finished 21st in last fall's 500-miler.

LOOKING FOR LUCKY SEVEN: With five races left in the 2003 season, Hendrick Motorsports trails Penske Racing 8-6 in the chase for most Winston Cup wins. Ryan Newman has each of Penske's victories this year, while all four of Hendrick's full-time drivers -- Labonte, Nemechek, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson -- have won at least once.

STREAK UPDATE: Labonte has now run to the finish of all 31 races this year, surpassing his previous single-season best of 30 races completed, a mark set just last year. He is one of only two drivers who have completed every race this season, the other being Kevin Harvick. Labonte has extended his overall string of consecutive races without a DNF to 37, currently the longest streak in the series. The last time he failed to finish was last fall at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. The modern-era record is 56 straight finishes, set by Jeff Gordon in 2001-02.

HENDRICK AT MARTINSVILLE: Rick Hendrick is third all-time with nine Winston Cup car-owner victories at Martinsville, two ahead of fourth-place Holman-Moody. Petty Engineering is first with 17, while Junior Johnson is second with a dozen.

PROVISIONALLY SPEAKING: Labonte has extended his streak of non-provisional starts to 10 races after qualifying 21st for last weekend's UAW-GM Quality 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway. This is Labonte's longest non-provisional streak since he put 24 straight races together in 1998.

TERRY LABONTE, DRIVER OF THE NO. 5 KELLOGG'S / got milk? CHEVROLET: (ON HIS RECORD AT MARTINSVILLE.) "This track used to be pretty tough on me, but the last couple years we've run much better, qualified pretty well, led some laps and been competitive. I enjoy short-track racing and this is the last short-track event of the year, so we'll make the most of it."

LABONTE: (ON THE TEAM'S 2003 SHORT-TRACK PERFORMANCE.) "We had a car capable of winning at Bristol the first time around but got wrecked. After that, we had a good run going in the spring race at Martinsville before getting tagged late by a couple lapped cars. Then we won the pole at Richmond in May. The team came back and ran strong at Bristol this summer, then led a number of laps at Richmond last month -- with the same car we're taking to Martinsville this weekend."

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