He won in all but six of those seasons with a green car, probably because he was such a nice guy. Another nice guy, two-time championship Crew Chief Andy Petree, liked the way the whole green thing looked at Leo Jackson s, so much that he bought the team prior to the 1996 season. Probably the color thing. They were zero for the 90s. And in 2000, Labonte produced the ultimate proof that nice guys and great teams can overcome the Hex of the Green, winning his first Winston Cup championship.
Nice guys finish first, even in green cars.
Varying theories abound concerning why the motorsports universal aversion to green actually took root. It s been that way for years, the way people felt about green in racing. Green is what we race for.