ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, November 9, 1996 TAG: 9611110110
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: HAMPTON, GA.
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER STAFF WRITER
For NASCAR Winston Cup points leader Terry Labonte, the pain of his broken hand has been easier to endure than the agony of the pain-killing shots he took two weeks ago at Phoenix. Until Friday.
Labonte hopped into his Chevrolet Monte Carlo on Friday for qualifying at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He quickly discovered that he'll need the shots again, despite the discomfort, if he expects to compete at a reasonable level in Sunday's NAPA 500.
He has a 47-point lead over Jeff Gordon in the Winston Cup championship and needs to finish eighth or higher to clinch his second career title.
But he will be a wounded warrior Sunday after breaking a bone at the base of his left index finger after a crash during practice at Phoenix on Oct. 25. The injury, of course, didn't stop him from a third-place finish at Phoenix, where he increased his championship lead by 15 points.
``We've done some therapy on it to try to get the swelling to go down and that's helped a lot, but it hurt a little bit more on that first [qualifying] lap than I thought,'' Labonte said.
He fought off the pain for two laps and qualified third for Sunday's race.
``The car feels great,'' he said. ``It's better than I am. You just turn the wheel so much here. And it's so tender right there where the bone is broken, it doesn't take much to make it hurt.
``Those shots only hurt for a few minutes, but I couldn't start the race like this. I couldn't do it.''
Labonte was surprised it hurt as much as it did.
``I thought it was pretty good,'' he said. ``I was kinda braggin' about it at the trailer. I told the guys, `I think it's going to be OK.' But it hurt more than I thought it would.''
As Labonte talked, he was holding a small electrical device that he carried with him during qualifying.
``It's supposed to trick your mind,'' he said. ``It's a little electrical thing and you turn it up and it sends an impulse to your mind before the pain gets there. But the pain is outrunning it right now.''
WHAT THE ? One of the more unusual Winston Cup news conferences occurred here when Brett Bodine announced that he's not ready to announce his primary sponsor for 1997.
Bodine unveiled the new colors for his No.11 Ford Thunderbird. The car had blue and pink swirls, a group of question marks and the words, ``There's more to come.''
Bodine said Catalyst Communications, Inc., and Frontier Communications are joining forces and ``putting together a program for a product that will become the major sponsor of our car.''
But that announcement won't come until the Jan.11, 1997 Winston Cup preview in Winston-Salem, N.C., Bodine said.
BODINE'S NEW DRIVER: Geoff Bodine announced that female driver Tammy Jo Kirk will drive one of his trucks during 1997 in the NASCAR truck series. She'll drive the No. 07 Ford F-150 with sponsorship from Lovable Co., a manufacturer of intimate apparel for women.
``We felt we could handle a second truck,'' said Bodine, who also fields a truck for Dave Rezendes.
CRASH CONCERN: Dale Jarrett rushed from Atlanta back to Charlotte, N.C., early Thursday to be at the side of his brother-in-law, Kevin Spears, who was seriously injured in a head-on collision near Huntersville, N.C., on Wednesday night.
Spears, 38, suffered two broken legs and a variety of other injuries and faces a number of operations and at least a year of rehabilitation.
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Terry Labonte. KEYWORDS: AUTO RACING NOTESby CNB