Terry Labonte started his 513th straight Winston Cup race to tie Richard Petty's record—and for good measure, he won it by Bruce Newman Terry Labonte needed 17 years to tie the Winston Cup record for consecutive starts and all 400 laps of short-track racing to barely edge out Jeff Gordon. (Margin of victory: .239 of a second) Terry Labonte, Chevrolet, 400 laps at 96.370 mph Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, 400 laps Dale Earnhardt, Chevrolet, 400 laps Robert Pressley, Chevrolet, 400 laps Sterling Marlin, Chevrolet, 400 laps 2 hours, 35 minutes, 39 seconds; 3 flags, 25 laps run under caution Terry Labonte 116.659 mph with point totals (and points earned this weekend) 1 Dale Jarrett 1,063 (130) 2 Dale Earnhardt 1,061 (165) 3 Terry Labonte 1,004 (185) 4 Ricky Craven 987 (151) 5 Jeff Gordon 970 (170) The streak began so long ago that by the time it reached historic proportions—by the time Terry Labonte had tied Richard Petty's record of 513 consecutive race starts—the racetrack at which it started didn't exist anymore, and the Winston Cup tour was on the verge of abandoning the one at which the mark was equaled. At the rate he was going, Labonte would soon have more miles on him than all the gleaming new superduperspeedways that are the greener pastures in which NASCAR's empire builders see the sport's future. Labonte had not missed a race since Jan. 14, 1979, at the now-defunct Riverside Raceway in California, and if that was not quite the dramatic equal of Cal Ripken's iron-man streak, consider that in all of Ripken's 2,315 consecutive starts, he never had to overcome smoke and fire. Labonte had often had to drive through both to get to the green flag at this year's First Union 400; to get to the checkered flag first on this Sunday—in a Chevrolet custom-painted iron-gray for the occasion by Hendrick Motorsports—he had to joust with Jeff Gordon, who was seven years old when Labonte's streak started. Labonte had already enjoyed his share of memorable days at North Wilkesboro Speedway. It was at this track that he extended his streak in 1987 after having broken his shoulder in an accident at Darlington the week before. Labonte started the North Wilkesboro race and drove until the first scheduled pit stop, where he was relieved by Brett Bodine. Streak intact. At Riverside in 1982 Labonte blew a tire and went headlong into a retaining wall. "The car flew up in the air back to the infield, never even hit the racetrack," he recalled. "I was hurt pretty bad, and lying there in the hospital, I was thinking, Boy, that was pretty bad. But then after a couple of days you start thinking, Oh, well, it was just one of those deals." The streak was alive, however: Riverside was the last race of the '82 season. Labonte's custom-painted iron-gray Chevy was the fastest ride of the day. photograph by George Tiedemann Labonte won the pole at this year's first North Wilkesboro race, but during the days leading up to the First Union 400, what had the racing paddock abuzz was the deal between the track's reluctant co-owners, Bob Bahre and Bruton Smith. Each had bought 50% of the track last year with the intention of moving one of its two annual Winston Cup race dates to a track he already owned elsewhere—Bahre in New Hampshire, Smith in Texas. But an undecided NASCAR controlled the dates, so the future of big-time racing at the track remained in doubt. There was no doubt, however, about the quality of the racing. Late in the race, Labonte just managed to beat Gordon out of the pits after a stop and kept him pinned to his back bumper all the way to the checkered flag. Then Labonte packed his car back onto the transporter, headed out past the Junior Johnson Grandstand and rumbled off through the winding roads of the Brushy Mountains. To the next race.