MBNA America 400 - Terry Labonte Notes

'TEXAS TERRY' PASSES WALTRIP: Sunday's NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series event will mark Terry Labonte's 809th career start on the circuit, tying him with Darrell Waltrip for fourth on NASCAR's all-time list. The only drivers with more starts are Richard Petty (1,177), Dave Marcis (882) and Ricky Rudd (830).

LABONTE AT DOVER: Labonte's seventh-place finish in this year's first stop at Dover (June 6) was his best showing at "The Monster Mile" since he placed second in the track's spring race in 1996. He rallied from one lap down to post his second top-10 finish of the 2004 season and was the highest-finishing Hendrick Motorsports driver in the five-hour marathon. In 51 starts at Dover, Labonte has 16 top-10 results, including second-place finishes in his championship seasons of 1984 and 1996. He is within $8,000 of surpassing the $1.5 million mark in Dover winnings.

PROVISIONALLY SPEAKING: Labonte, driver of the No. 5 Kellogg's Chevrolet, has now gone 42 consecutive races without the use of a car owner's provisional to access the starting field. The last time he failed to qualify for a race based on speed was the 2003 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis. Labonte is one of only six drivers who have made the field based on their qualifying speed in every race since last year's Brickyard 400 -- the others being Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart.

'5' CHASSIS INFO: The chassis entered by Kellogg's Racing for this weekend's MBNA America 400 has been run three times previously at Dover, with a best finish of 10th in June 2003.

TERRY LABONTE, DRIVER OF THE NO. 5 KELLOGG'S CHEVROLETS: (ON TYING DARRELL WALTRIP FOR FOURTH PLACE IN CAREER STARTS.) "When I started in this business, I wasn't sure I'd make it to eight races, let alone 800 and now 809."

LABONTE: (ON RETURNING TO DOVER.) "That's a tough track and we've had some long days up there, particularly when the races were run at 500 laps. They shortened them to 400 miles a few years ago and changed the surface to concrete, and we've had some good runs the last couple years."

(NOTE: Labonte has top-10 finishes in two of his last three starts on Dover's one-mile oval.)