 |
Today is Thursday, Jul 29, 2010 |
 |
|||||||||||
|
| Home | BPNews | Subscribe to BP | Tell A Friend | Contact Us |
|
God’s grace prevails through Labonte’s racing trials Tuesday, Nov 24, 2009 By Lee Warren |
||
After getting off to a good start in the first half of the season, the team began to struggle in late May. Their highest finish was 20th between May 31 and August 22. As Yates Racing looked at the final 12 races of the season, they didn’t have sponsorship for seven of them, which prompted them to remove Labonte from the car for those races in favor of a younger driver. Labonte signed with TRG Motorsports to fill in the gap, but the team is grossly underfunded -- so much so that they don’t know whether they’ll be able to run each race once they get there each week. During the final third of the season Labonte has jumped back and forth between the two teams and he’s left wondering about 2010. The alliance between Hall of Fame Racing and Yates will end this season and HOF Racing has expressed an interest in bringing Labonte back fulltime next season. But you never know in this sport. Things haven’t always been so tough for Labonte. He drove for Joe Gibbs Racing from 1995 to 2005. He won the Sprint Cup championship once and finished in the top 10 in points six other times while he was there. Even at the age of 45, he could probably be competitive if he were with a well-funded team. Maybe that’s why he’s finding his current situation to be so difficult. In the midst of his current trials though, he is learning to lean on God and other believers for support. “It’s definitely a struggle from one day to the next,” Labonte said. “I’ve been reading the Bible more and more and getting a lot of support from family and friends, especially my wife.” He said that a recent conversation with his wife Donna led him to reach out to Bob Dyer, the chaplain at Joe Gibbs Racing, for perspective. Even though he hasn’t raced for JGR for four seasons, he still found Dyer to be completely open to advising him. Labonte became a believer around the age of 30 -- which is just about the time he joined JGR. The time he spent there was important to his development as a young Christian. He says he was a semi-sponge while he was there -- soaking up spiritual truths he could apply in his life. Labonte also touched base with another friend, Tim Simpson, who plays golf on the PGA Champions Tour. Simpson underwent nine-hour brain surgery in 2005 and he was able to return to the golf course, so he knows something about perspective. Neither Dyer nor Simpson said anything specific that changed Labonte’s perspective, but their support, along with the support of his wife, confirmed something God has been working on in Labonte’s life for quite some time. Labonte says he is “hard-headed.” He tends to beat himself up when things don’t go the way he thinks they should and he has a tendency to try to control his racing future, but as you speak with Labonte now, you get a real sense that the grace of God is at work in his life regarding Labonte’s outlook on the future. “Whatever He wants me to do, He’ll lead me,” Labonte said. “It’ll be for the right reasons and it’ll be what He wants for me. It’s kind of strange to be calm and not worried because that’s not my personality. I’m not sure I’m doing it right. It’s different for me to not worry, but my wife and I went for a walk in late summer and she told me I had turned 180 degrees from where I usually am. I’m learning to put my thoughts and worries on Him and let it come.” Tim Griffin, the chaplain of the Sprint Cup Series, says he sees the changes in Labonte. “He’s a champion,” Griffin said. “It’s a millstone that creates high expectations by others and himself. The challenge is, how does a guy like that integrate his faith with his career that goes up and down? I think he has wrestled with that. As he gets older and more mature, his faith is maturing. He’s beginning to understand it differently than when he was a young racer. He’s a more mature racer who is seeing life differently. He’s making some turns even as we speak in his walk with God. In a quiet moment, off to the side, he’ll share tidbits of what he’s learning.” The 2009 NASCAR season is drawing to a close, but Labonte may carry the lessons he’s learned this season with him far into the future. --30--
|
|
WWW.BPSPORTS.NET
Copyright (c) 2001 - 2010 Southern Baptist Convention Terms of Use |
901 Commerce Street Nashville, TN 37203 Tel: 615.782.8615 Fax: 615.782.8736 |