Motorsports

LABONTE MAKES IT 514 IN A ROW

by Tony Sakkis

Last weekend Terry Labonte broke the record for consecutive starts when he took the green flag for the beginning of the Winston Cup race at Martinsville, Virginia. It marked the 514th time he has done that - started a NASCAR Winston Cup race, that is. The 514th time in a row, which puts him one ahead of Richard Petty, The King.

That accomplishment is better than Cal Ripken breaking Lou Gehrig's record of consecutive games played. Ripken's streak began in 1982. Heck, by then Labonte had already been racing four seasons.

Labonte began his streak at Riverside in 1979. He raced for four seasons without missing a race. In 1982, ironically back at Riverside, he crashed badly and broke up his body pretty badly.

Not that anybody was paying attention at the time, but the streak would have ended there. Except it happened to be the last race of the season, and so he had three months to recuperate, which he did, coming back strong in 1983.

Then in 1987, he crashed Junior Johnson's car at Darlington, again breaking some bones. To keep the points for the 1987 championship, he started the car, but allowed Brett Bodine to take over the duties for him in a couple of races. The rest, as they say, is history.

Since then it has all been a piece of cake, right?

Ponder this. Cal Ripken said he didn't see all the hoopla; all he was doing what he was paid to do: show up for work, which is what Labonte says he's doing too.

Racing, however, is not like baseball. It is not even like basketball or football, where injuries are common and good injury-free talent is worth paying through the nose to get.

No. Racing is a far different form of sport. Any pro driver who accepts the responsibility of the job as a paid hot-shoe understands the possibility -- actually, the probability -- of a major wreck some time in their career. Labonte no doubt does. It will happen sometime. But he's persevered.

But there's something else. Without any disrespect for Ripken, who is a genuine hero, Ripken doesn't have to worry about what happens if he has an equipment failure. Were he playing with a defective mitt, it might mean the ball slips through his hands when he tries to catch it; or perhaps he trips because his cleats are loose. Maybe he falls down in all that nice green grass. Tough luck.

He doesn't have to worry about a rumble with a wall at Talladega at 200 mph, or a run-in with Dale Earnhardt at Bristol, or a pit lane abutment at North Wilksboro, or that damned stripe at Darlington.

If Cal Ripken makes a mistake, maybe the team loses. No big deal, there are another 167 games, or however many they play these days. If Terry Labonte makes a mistake it doesn't mean a dropped ball or a runner advances. The consequences of Labonte's actions are much more severe. It could mean the death of someone around him or perhaps even himself.

When Labonte suits up for his 515th, 600th or maybe even his 1000th start, we should realize that what he does is not just show up and do his thing. He can't go out to left field and daydream. He's got to be in the game every second, or he can die.

Terry Labonte, Cal Ripken and 49er superstar Jerry Rice, who has never missed a football game through high school, college, and more than a decade in the pros, all have two things in common: first, they have been professional enough throughout their careers to have done what they have been paid to do -- show up; second, what they do is more than a game, more than a pastime and more than a trial, it is an avocation.

You have to admire men who compete for such reasons, especially if their health is at times in jeopardy.