PREVIEW: TERRY LABONTE (NO. 44 KELLOGG'S CHEVROLET)
VENUE: CHICAGOLAND SPEEDWAY (1.5-MILE OVAL)
CIRCUIT: NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES (RACE 18 OF 36)
EVENT: SUNDAY, JULY 9 (267 LAPS, 400.5 MILES)

LABONTE MAKING FINAL CHICAGOLAND START: Two-time champion Terry Labonte will drive a No. 44 Kellogg's Chevrolet at Chicagoland Speedway on Sunday, marking his 842nd NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series start. It will be the fifth of 10 races he is running with Hendrick Motorsports in his final season and his last at Chicagoland.

BY THE NUMBERS: Labonte's third-place finish at Infineon Raceway in the June 25 NEXTEL Cup event was his 182nd career top-five performance and his 361st career top-10. In NASCAR's modern era, the Corpus Christi, Texas, native ranks 10th in total top-fives and fifth in total top-10s.

'ICEMAN' AT CHICAGOLAND: Labonte has posted three top-15 finishes and one top-10 result in five career starts at Chicagoland Speedway. He finished sixth there in 2004.

POCONO UP NEXT: Next on Labonte's schedule is the July 23 NEXTEL Cup event at Pocono Raceway. It will mark his 52nd start at the unique 2.5-mile track, where he has posted two victories, one pole position, 21 top-10 finishes and seven top-fives.

HENDRICK AT CHICAGOLAND: Although Hendrick Motorsports has yet to post a NEXTEL Cup victory at Chicagoland Speedway, the organization has earned the past two pole positions and placed at least two cars within the top-five finishers for four consecutive seasons (2002-05).

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TERRY LABONTE, DRIVER OF THE NO. 44 KELLOGG'S CHEVROLET: (AFTER FINISHING THIRD AT SONOMA, WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS GOING INTO SUNDAY'S RACE AT CHICAGOLAND?) "I'm looking forward to some more good runs this season, there's no doubt about that. Two years ago we finished sixth at Chicago, but fell out of the race last year. It's been a track that I've enjoyed running. Hopefully we can get our car working good and not have a problem like we did last month at Pocono, where we had some issues that knocked us out of the race."

LABONTE: (ON THE DISADVANTAGES TO RUNNING A LIMITED SCHEDULE.) "It's definitely a disadvantage running a limited schedule because your team doesn't have any points, so you don't get the practice time that a lot of teams get. A few times we've missed half of practice by no fault of our own. Your car can be right, but NASCAR has such a long procedure, checking so many things, that it just takes a long time and works against the guys who don't have many points. It's pretty frustrating when your car is still in line to go through inspection and the other guys are out there practicing. It makes it tough from the start and you're playing catch-up all weekend. As fair as they try to make things, it's pretty unfair to have teams that don't get practice time. It's definitely a disadvantage to those guys. It doesn't happen every single week, but it does seem to happen most of the time."

LABONTE: (ON POSSIBLE CHANGES TO THE CHASE FORMAT.) "I was not a big fan of the Chase when they came out with it, because I didn't think there was anything wrong with the system NASCAR had, but I will admit that it's gone very well. After watching for a couple years, I kind of like it. I don't know what they could do to make changes. I hope they don't throw a wild card in or have some kind of vote. I just hope they don't do something that lets someone in who doesn't deserve to be there."