Sporting News’ 60 Most Beautiful People: No. 41, Kristy Labonte Garrett
In 60 years of NASCAR racing, the sport has been filled with colorful characters. This year, Sporting News decided to craft a list of the sport's 60 Most Beautiful People.
The selections were made as a result of nominations sent in by readers and NASCAR fans to the Sporting News' publications and Web sites.
The list was finalized and published in a special edition, which is now available on newsstands and at the online store at streetandsmiths.com. SceneDaily is running the list, with one person from the top 60 to be featured each day.
Today's installment features No. 41, Kristy Labonte Garrett.
By the time Kristy Labonte Garrett reached high school, going to a NASCAR race had lost much of its allure.
Living in a private motor coach on the weekends, the waiting and monotony built up as the long season rolled by. Her dad, retired two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Terry Labonte, lived on a steady diet of FOX News and The Weather Channel. On race weekends, he typically turned in by 9 p.m.
“I would try to stay quiet,” she says. “Your parents, you love ‘em, but after a while it’s not what you want to do every weekend.”
Still, there are some perks. Every year, Kristy and other drivers’ kids enjoyed the Florida beaches while their dads tuned up for the Daytona 500. And growing up in High Point, N.C., her friends included Kyle Petty’s children as well as NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Brian Vickers.
Having friends who understood the busy lifestyle of NASCAR made things easier, she says.
This year, Kristy, 25, got married and moved to Fort Worth, Texas. She worked for her uncle, current NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Bobby Labonte, in racing for a couple of years before moving to Texas. Now she works as an event planner, with no motorsports connections.
She isn’t closing the door on NASCAR, but it’s not in her immediate plans, either.
“It’s what I grew up with and it’s all I’ve known my entire life, so I’m enjoying doing something completely different,” she says. “I had great parents. They kept us humble. They weren’t flashy at all.”
