Labonte

Wow … where do I begin?

It's finally sinking in that we won the Southern 500. What a race, what a track, what a week this has been.

Darlington (S.C.) Raceway has the reputation for being one of the toughest tracks we race on, but I've gotten along pretty well with it in my career. I ran my first Winston Cup race there in 1978, got my first win at Darlington two years later and now -- to win the final Labor Day Southern 500 means so much.

The guys on the Kellogg's / got milk? Racing Team have been building great cars all year and the pit crew has done an incredible job at the track. We felt like we were close enough to where we could start thinking about winning a race, but I wouldn't have guessed it would be at Darlington. We had a fast car all day, but I really have to tip my hat to the pit crew. Those guys made the difference.

We were running third when we made our final stop of the day and came out first. Thirteen seconds for four tires and gas, and -- believe it or not -- they've done some even quicker than that this year. They earned this one. It was their win … Mike Bumgarner, Lee Deese, Dave Denning, Jeremy Holcomb, Jason Jones, Brad Pickens, Rick Pigeon and Murray Timm.

During the race, I was running with Bill Elliott and I thought to myself, "Man, I hope one of us wins because we appreciate this place maybe more than some of these young guys do." A lot of them probably don't know the history or value the tradition of Darlington Raceway. We used to start practice on Thursday and race on Monday. Everybody went to Myrtle Beach on Sunday.

	Labonte was delighted to wave the victory flag again.

Darlington isn't the nicest track we race on, it's not the prettiest. But I think tradition should count for something and I hate to see that race leave that spot on the schedule.

I'll never forget the first race I won in 1980. My car owner, Billy Hagan, went up to the press box with me afterward. He was a pretty bold guy, we had just won our first race, and he stood up and said to me, "In five years, you're going to win the championship." In 1984, when we did, I looked at him and thought, "I guess he's a little smarter than I figured he was."

Winning at Darlington again, 23 years later, and remembering that story helps me appreciate all the support I've gotten through the years -- from my family, fans, friends, sponsors and teammates. They never gave up on me and I never gave up on myself. I've never quit at anything I've tried to do. You have to believe in yourself if you're ever going to get anywhere and that's true no matter what your career is. It had been more than four years since we won a race. And even though you think you still can win, and know you're capable of winning, everything has to fall into place.

As sweet as this victory is, I think the spring race at Darlington earlier this year was probably the race where this team really turned the corner. We finished 24th that day, but learned so much about these new cars and it's helped us ever since. We've been a lot more consistent than we were last year and that's put us in a position to win races.

We were getting closer and closer all the time. I told some of the guys on the team that if we could just win a race, it would give us a lot more momentum so we could go into next year and really start off strong. Hopefully, this will do it.

And now, we've got some good tracks coming up, like Richmond (Va.) and Talladega (Ala.). If you had asked me before Darlington where I thought my best place to win a race was, I wouldn't have picked that one. I'd have probably said Richmond, where I've won three times.

The first thing I said to the guys on the radio at the end of the race was, "I don't really know what to say," and I still can't find words to explain what I was feeling when I saw all those fans standing and waving in the grandstands on the last lap.

The NASCAR flagman had always told me that he'd give me the checkered flag the next time I won a race. Jimmy Howell couldn't get down there to hand it to me, but he dropped it when I pulled up and one of our guys brought it over to the car so I could fly it on the victory lap.

That's the way we used to celebrate victories in the past and that's the way I wanted to celebrate this one. And the way our team has rallied this year, I have to believe there'll be opportunities to win more races.

Two of the major goals we set at the beginning of the year were to (1) win a race and (2) finish in the top 10 in the point standings. After the win at Darlington, we were 11th -- but just one point out of 10th.

I've never doubted that the No. 5 team is top-10 material. Maybe by the time I write my next diary, the standings will show it.

Terry Labonte drives the No. 5 Kellogg's/got milk? Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. He is providing a diary to ESPN.com throughout the 2003 NASCAR season. Labonte's personal Web site can be found at www.terrylabonte.net. Go to www.hendrickmotorsports.com or www.kelloggsracing.com for team information.