Editing Bobby Labonte (section)

==Early life==
Labonte was born on May 8, 1964, in [[Corpus Christi, Texas]]. He began racing in 1969 in [[quarter-midget racing|quarter midgets]] in his home state of Texas, winning his first feature race one year later. From then until 1977, he drove in quarter-midgets throughout the United States, winning many races. In 1978, he advanced to the [[go-kart]] ranks but moved to [[North Carolina]] with his family following older brother Terry's advancement to the Winston Cup Series. In 1980, Bobby made his NASCAR International Sedan Series debut in Atlanta, finishing third. Two years later, he made his debut in the [[Budweiser Late Model Sportsman Series|NASCAR Xfinity Series]] (subsequently rebranded as the Busch Series) at [[Martinsville Speedway]], where he finished 30th. Following his graduation from [[Trinity High School (Trinity, North Carolina)|Trinity High School]] in 1982,<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=OFccAAAAIBAJ&pg=5330,4528494&dq=bobby-labonte+trinity-high&hl=en |title=Younger Labonte is ready to emerge |work=[[The Dispatch (Lexington)|The Dispatch]] |date=December 15, 1992 |accessdate=February 18, 2025}}</ref> he worked as a fabricator on Terry's cars at [[Hagan Racing]]. Labonte returned to the Busch Series in 1985, running two races in a car he owned himself at Martinsville. In his first race, he finished 30th, bringing home only $220, but he improved to 17th place in his next race.

The next season, he helped prepare a car that his older brother would drive, which resulted in Terry's first ever NASCAR Busch Grand National Series pole position start and a subsequent second-place finish at [[Road Atlanta]]. Labonte's main success came driving late-model stock cars. In 1987, Labonte won twelve races at [[Caraway Speedway]], clinching the track championship, in addition to working for Jay Hedgecock. The following season, he competed at [[Concord Speedway|Concord Motorsports Park]], winning six times, and ran six more Busch races, finishing 16th at [[Darlington Raceway]]. The next season, he ran seven more races in the Busch Series and had his first top-five finish at [[North Carolina Speedway]] to go with two more finishes in the top ten.