page_title: Bobby Labonte
section_title: 1995–2000
hierarchical_section_title: Bobby Labonte / Racing career / Sprint Cup Series / 1995–2000
caption_attribution_description: The #18 NASCAR Nextel Cup stock car, currently driven by Bobby Labonte. Taken at the Joe Gibbs Racing headquarters in Huntersville, North Carolina on July 7, 2005.
context_page_description: Robert Allen Labonte is an American professional stock car racing driver. The 2000 NASCAR Winston Cup Series champion, he last competed full-time in the 2018 NASCAR Whelen Euro Series, driving the No. 18 Toyota for RDV Competition, and is an analyst on NASCAR RaceDay for FOX Sports.
  He and his older brother, Terry Labonte, are one of only two pairs of brothers to have both won the Cup championships. He is also the uncle of former Xfinity Series race winner Justin Labonte.
  Labonte is the first driver to have won both the Winston Cup championship and the Busch Series championship in both series current, touring form. Bobby also won the IROC title in 2001. Labonte is also the first driver to complete the NASCAR Triple Threat at the same track, by winning races at Martinsville in each of NASCAR's top three racing series.
context_section_description: At the end of the 1994 season, Labonte departed to replace Dale Jarrett as the driver of the No.18 Interstate Batteries-sponsored Chevrolet for Joe Gibbs Racing. Labonte would pick up his first career win in the Coca-Cola 600 in 1995, a win he would call in 2018 the favorite of his career. He would also go on to sweep the races at Michigan and finish 10th in the standings.
  In 1996, Labonte won the season-ending race at Atlanta, the same race where his brother Terry won the championship. The two took a victory lap together in what Labonte said was one of the "most emotional and memorable moments of [his] life". That year, he finished 11th in the points standings.
  In 1997, Gibbs switched car makes to a Pontiac Grand Prix. Labonte would go on to win the season-ending race at Atlanta for the second year in a row. He ended up seventh in the standings, his best finish at that point in his career.
  In 1998, Labonte won at both Atlanta and Talladega, as well as pole positions for both Daytona races, finishing second to Dale Earnhardt in the 500. He finished the year in sixth in final points, improving by a position.
  In 1999, Labonte won five Winston Cup races, the most he has ever won in a single season. He won at Dover in the spring, swept both Pocono races (he was the third to accomplish this particular sweep, after Bobby Allison in 1982 and Tim Richmond in 1986; since 1999, Jimmie Johnson in 2004, Denny Hamlin in 2006, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in 2014 have also done this), the second Michigan race, and the season finale at Atlanta. However, during the season, he suffered a broken shoulder in an accident while qualifying for a Busch Series race at Darlington Raceway, but raced in the Cup event two days later. Labonte started the race, but at the 1st caution was relieved by Matt Kenseth. He finished second in the points to Dale Jarrett, losing the championship by 201 points.
  In 2000, Labonte won four races, the early-season race at Rockingham, the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis, the Southern 500 at Darlington, and the fall race at Charlotte. He led the point standings for 25 weeks straight after taking over at California, and never relinquished it on the way to winning the Winston Cup championship, finishing ahead of Earnhardt by 265 points, completing all but nine of the 10,167 laps that season, with 4 wins, 19 top five finishes, 24 top ten finishes, 3 poles, an average finish of 7.4, and had zero DNF's.
caption: Bobby Labonte's former JGR car on display at the Joe Gibbs Racing headquarters.
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