TERRY LABONTE NOTES & QUOTES
NASCAR NEXTEL CUP SERIES

LABONTE RUNNING POCONO: Driving a No. 44 Kellogg's Chevrolet this weekend, two-time NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series champion Terry Labonte will run his first of two Pocono Raceway events in 2006. Labonte, who is running a limited schedule this season, will make his 51st career start Sunday at the unique 2.5-mile track.

HENDRICK GOING FOR 11TH POCONO WIN: Car owner Rick Hendrick has posted 10 career NEXTEL Cup victories at Pocono Raceway, putting him first on the track's all-time win list. Roger Penske is second with seven first-place finishes there.

LABONTE AT POCONO: Labonte has posted one pole position, two victories and 21 top-10 finishes in 50 career starts at Pocono Raceway. He's won more than $1.6 million at the track and completed 9,167 of a possible 9,905 laps there (92.5 percent). Labonte entered his first Pocono race in July 1979, qualifying 12th and finishing 23rd in a No. 44 Chevy.

TERRY LABONTE, DRIVER OF THE NO. 44 KELLOGG'S CHEVROLETS: (YOU'VE CHOSEN TO RACE TWICE AT POCONO IN YOUR FINAL SEASON. WHY?) "Well, we liked the idea of going there twice, so hopefully we can learn something the first weekend and apply it the second. I tell you what, it's a very unique track -- different from anywhere else we run. If you have a car that's running well, it's a really fun track. Hendrick Motorsports as a whole usually runs well there, so that was a factor as well."

LABONTE: (IS THERE A TRICK TO RUNNING WELL AT POCONO?) "It's really a compromise. You have to run good though Turn 1 and you have to get across the Tunnel Turn well. Then you've got to get through Turn 3 good to carry that momentum down the frontstretch. It's very much a combination of things. You have to really get through all three corners well. I've had cars there that were really good though a couple of the turns and not very good in the other, but you really have to be good in all of them. It's tricky to get a car to handle well in all of them because the corners are so different."

LABONTE: (LOOKING BACK, WHO STICKS OUT IN YOUR MIND AS THE TOUGHEST DRIVERS AT POCONO?) "Of course, Tim Richmond was good there. Pocono was a track where David Pearson and the Wood Brothers were really good, but they were pretty good just about everywhere they went. Some people just have the place figured out, for whatever reason. It's different, that's for sure. I've heard people compare it to a road course, and I don't necessarily agree with that, but it's definitely different than any other type of oval track that we run."