Dale Jarrett

Dale Jarrett
Dale Arnold Jarrettis a former American race car driver and current sports commentator known for winning the Daytona 500 three timesand winning the NASCAR Winston Cup Series championship in 1999. He is the son of 2-time Grand National Champion Ned Jarrett, younger brother of Glenn Jarrett, father of former driver Jason Jarrett, and cousin of Todd Jarrett. In 2007, Jarrett joined the ESPN/ABC broadcasting team as an announcer in select Nationwide Series races. In 2008, after retiring from driving following...
ProfessionRace Car Driver
Date of Birth26 November 1956
CityConover, NC
We have two crew chiefs who are willing to work with that engineering staff. Before, we haven't exactly had that combination working. Now we feel like because everyone who has come here has been talked to about the same ideas, everyone is on the same page. We're going to be a much better organization than we have in quite a few years.
Today is about guys back in the fab shop and the cars they gave us, ... It's a brand new race car. (It's about) the adjustments Todd (Parrott) and these guys did to get me ready to make two laps today. So, my job really starts tomorrow - getting it ready for the race. I'm looking forward to that. I think we've got a good car for Sunday so it should be fun.
We were so used to winning in those days, I didn't see any reason we wouldn't just continue right on doing that at least a couple of times each year, ... But over the past couple of years ... we haven't been in position to do that as much. I think we've got some more victories to go, but in case that doesn't happen we'll make sure we enjoy this one.
You know, driver-crew chief relationships, if you get six good years, that is longer than a lot of marriages, ... We do have a huge amount of respect for each other, and Todd has brought back a leadership that we haven't seen since he left, really.
If we could somehow reduce that speed by 15 miles an hour on the straightway, the fans couldn't tell a difference watching that car go down, and you would see a whole hell of a lot better racing through the corners with what we could do then.
Right now I've pretty much made up my mind that I'm gonna run through 2008. Hopefully it's gonna be where I'm at. That hasn't been totally decided yet, but we're working on that and there have been other conversations, so I have to explore all of the options. But when that's up, my gig is pretty much done. I'm gonna be to where I need to move on and let somebody else get in.
Of course I was excited to have that opportunity, ... It was a great experience and opportunity. Probably the one thing that I remember the most from that race is it was late in the event and I was a few laps down and had Dale Earnhardt come up behind me. We raced side-by-side for a few laps, but for someone who was making their first start it was pretty cool.
When you get to this point of your career, you're not exactly sure when that last victory is going to be there so you learn to cherish each one, ... It is very emotional. When I was coming down that backstretch, it was very emotional.
When we used to drive out of the garage at night and go through the infield, you would make sure the van doors were locked, and your kids weren't looking. Now you see some of the stuff fans are getting to do and the vehicles they are camping in and you want to stop and hang out with them.
We had a good race car, but the lapped traffic was pretty tough. There was prime real estate, and everybody was trying to get to the same spot.
To say you're going to monitor bump-drafting, I don't know how you do that. I guess it would help if someone causes a big wreck and they penalize them.
You can make life a little more difficult for somebody here than other places. If you keep them behind, you can make life miserable for them.
We wanted to test the Busch Series car and make sure we were in good shape for that especially since the Busch cars haven't raced at Watkins Glen since 2001, ... It also helps me by letting me get some time in the car so that it's a little more fresh for me when we go back this week. I was able to go and get some laps. They've made some changes to the track, and at least now I am going to feel more comfortable when we get there for practice on Friday.
For as long as I can remember, we spent the Labor Day weekend at Darlington (S.C.).