Stavola left racing, but racing has never left him

Through all those years of inactivity, he still held on to the shop. He leased it out to different people from time to time, devoted some of the square footage to private enterprise, but it was still the same facility in Harrisburg, N.C., that once turned out cars for Stavola Brothers Racing. Even the man who managed the property was a familiar face -- Donnie Johnson, brother-in-law to Bobby Allison, the driver who brought the Stavola team its greatest triumph on a February day in Daytona in 1988.

And it was the shop, that still-operational link between past and present, that would lure him back in. Bill Stavola -- half of the former Stavola Brothers team that won four times on NASCAR's premier circuit before shutting down in 1998 -- was on the phone with Johnson about a year ago when the shop manager mentioned that Terry Labonte was there, getting fitted for a seat. Johnson put Labonte on the line. He and Stavola spoke, and before long they were meeting in person, and this weekend they will roll out a No. 10 car at Richmond International Raceway.

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"We sat down and started discussing racing and NASCAR, and all of the sudden our energy started flowing, and I thought, Terry would be a great guy to do this with," Stavola said from his office in New Jersey, where he runs his family's aggregate business. "He's got integrity, he's got experience, he's got knowledge of the sport and is just a great guy all around. I thought, if I were going to do this, I would probably do it with a guy like Terry Labonte. We continued our conversations, and before you know it, we said, 'Let's go do this.' "

"This" is Stavola Labonte Racing, a venture co-owned between the two men that will attempt to make three Sprint Cup events this season: Richmond, Charlotte, and Texas. On Saturday, the car will be backed by Gander Mountain. Labonte, 53, will be behind the wheel, continuing an occasional schedule the two-time series champion has run since stepping down from full-time competition in 2004. For Stavola, it marks a return to the arena he left behind 12 years ago, when he quit racing in the wake of his father's death to concentrate on family and business. But he always hoped to come back.

"I always did," he said. "I loved the competition. I loved NASCAR, because I feel they're the No. 1 motor racing group available to us. I feel they're right at the top of the list. It's the people also in NASCAR that get me excited. It's like family. It's like going back to a family that we left, and now we're going back."

Along with his brother Mickey, Bill Stavola operated teams that competed on NASCAR's top two series beginning in 1984. At the Cup level, the organization won four races, three with Allison -- including the 1988 Daytona 500 -- and one at Talladega with Bobby Hillin Jr. The team produced two rookies of the year, Dick Trickle in 1989 and Jeff Burton in 1994. Stavola Brothers competed in a handful of races with drivers Hut Stricklin, Morgan Shepherd and Buckshot Jones in 1998 before closing down.

For Bill Stavola, personal issues superseded racing. His father died in 1998, and in 2001 his brother Mickey was claimed by a heart attack. It was a very personal loss -- the two brothers shared not only ownership in a race team, but for 35 years also a single office at their New Jersey business. No question, Bill Stavola loved competing in NASCAR. But at the time, family had to come first.

"I had to maintain a presence with my business and my family, since I was the oldest of the group here," he said. "So I felt it was best if I spent most of my time maintaining my family and maintaining my businesses. I have two sons now working in the business full time, and I don't want to say they've taken pressure off me, but a lot of the experiences I had, I gave to them to work with. They're taking care of it."

This allowed Stavola to explore a potential return to racing. "This seems like it's been a long time coming for everyone, but probably more for Bill," Labonte said. "He has been around the sport for a while, and we talked about doing something. He has such a passion for the sport and for doing things the right way. That's why it was easy to partner with him. He's put together some good people, and I think he's gone about this in a way that gives us the best chance to succeed. I'm happy to be with him this weekend."

Coming back after 12 years away, Stavola is leaning on an old friend -- Richard Childress, whom he's known since 1983. Stavola Labonte Racing will use engines and chassis provided by Richard Childress Racing, and field the car out of the RCR shop in Welcome, N.C. When Stavola met with Childress to discuss the arrangement, it felt like nothing had changed.

"When we went down to visit his shops, he took us personally to all his locations, had lunch with us, it was just like old times," Stavola said. "He was very caring, and wanted us to do well. He was going to put his best foot forward for us, and he has. We're ready to go to Richmond. We're pretty excited."

Another old friend may be in Richmond as well -- Allison, whom Stavola said he still speaks with about once a month. Stavola and Labonte hope to run more races together next season, ideally the full schedule if sponsorship allows, otherwise they'll scrape together whatever they can. Stavola may have left racing for more than a decade, but it's very clear that racing never left him.

"I'm awfully excited, absolutely," he said. "It's kind of like in your bloodline. It's something that's in there that you want to go do. It's the same deal, and I'm excited to go back to it."

Related:
• T. Labonte returning to Cup Series with Stavola