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
carolina credit drivers far few majority north quite south spread throughout united
You wouldn't have thought it would have spread out quite this much, as far as just how few drivers are from North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. We still have some, but the majority are spaced out throughout the United States. I think it's just a credit to the sport and how much it's grown.
bad beat bit competition either everybody finish level missing outside reasonable run setup slight teams top win
You still have to beat everybody to win a title, but the level of competition has changed. In '99, if we had an off day, we could still run in the top 10 most of the time. Now, if you have just a little bit of an off day, you're going to finish outside of the top 20. You have so many teams that can make you go from a reasonable day to a really bad day with either just missing the setup or having a slight problem.
car corners difference fans hell hour miles racing reduce somehow speed watching
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.
behind course event excited experience few great laps late race remember start
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.
decided explore gig gonna hopefully mind move run somebody totally
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.
bread butter front lost nose number program race team touch tracks work
Well, the mile-and-a-half tracks were the bread and butter of our team and organization (Robert Yates Racing) for a number of years. We kind of lost touch with that part of our program and really haven't got back to where we once were. I think we can get there again. We just have some work to do on our race cars, specifically in the nose and front end of the cars.
dog loyal
You can't get a friend more loyal than your dog.
children kids years
I am proud to be part of the Toys for Tots program for a second year. In addition to giving kids the chance to design a special The UPS Store/Toys for Tots car, this contest is a great way for children to learn about the importance of charitable giving.
trying doing-you trouble
Once you try to do more than your equipment is capable of doing you get yourself in trouble and you start wrecking.
race want firsts
When I was 20 and ran my first race, I told myself I don't know how I'm going to do this for a living. I don't have the money to do it. But it is what I want to do.
begin estate maintain piece small smaller taking trying
It's a small piece of real estate to begin with and over the years that's become a smaller piece of real estate, and we all want that same piece. Trying to maintain the piece for yourself or keep someone from taking it is difficult.
drafting dry hard help spell time
It's been a dry spell for the Fords. And I don't know if it's been that close. We've had a hard time leading, which makes it hard to get the drafting help we need.
allow dark difficult hard heading sun works
It's pretty difficult because it's hard to find something that works to allow you to see heading into the sun without making it too dark when you're not going in that direction,
anytime chance death gives good horrific provisions safety savior saying surviving taken type
Dale's death accelerated a lot of the safety provisions we have today. Anytime you see your Superman, your hero, taken away I'm not saying that would have been the savior for Dale, but we know that it gives everyone a much better chance of surviving that type of situation. If that hadn't have happened, those things would probably come a lot slower. From such a horrific accident, we can look back and say that some good things did come from that.