Eddie Lawson (Class of 2002) was born on this date in 1958.
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Troy Ruttman (Class of 2005) was born on this date in 1930....
Sometimes, it’s difficult for a son to emerge from a father’s shadow. Then there’s the case of Dale Arnold Jarrett, who grabbed the spotlight with both hands. Dale turned down a full golf scholarship at the University of South Carolina to follow his father, Ned’s chosen profession. The 1999 NASCAR Cup Series champion collected three Daytona 500s (1993, 1996, 2000), 16 poles and 32 Cup victories. Only inductees Richard Petty (7) and Cale Yarborough (4) have won more Daytona 500s, and Dale’s 32 wins put him in the top 25 all-time. Jarrett was at his best in the sport’s marquee events. In addition to his triumphs in “The Great American Race,” Jarrett claimed two Brickyard 400s (1996, 1999), the 1996 Coca-Cola 600, 1998 Winston 500 and three Busch Clashes (1996, 2000, 2004). After retiring from driving in 2008, Jarrett, like his inductee dad, has become a lead analyst on NASCAR broadcasts. He was named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998 and inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2014.
By Godwin Kelly
Dale Jarrett took the long road to finding success in the NASCAR Cup Series, hopping from one team to the next looking for that magical race chemistry that begets victories and championships.
Jarrett made his first Cup start in 1984 at Martinsville Speedway in a Chevrolet owned by Emanuel Zervakis. He started 24th and finished 14th, some eight laps down to Geoff Bodine, who scored a cornerstone victory for Hendrick Motorsports.
Jarrett, then 27, made two more Cup starts without much fanfare. The son of three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Ned Jarrett could not get a Cup ride in 1985, but he returned for one race in 1986. In 1987 he scored a pair of Top 10 finishes in 24 starts.
While Jarrett came from a racing family, his father, a 1997 Motorsports Hall of Fame of America inductee, didn’t have the resources to fund his career. But Dale says his last name did open doors and led to opportunities.
He got his first big break when 1994 inductee Cale Yarborough hired him to drive his stock cars for back-to-back seasons in 1989-90. Jarrett scored three Top 5 and 12 Top 10 finishes in those two years of service.
Then venerable Wood Brothers Racing came calling and in 1991, at the age of 34, Jarrett notched his first win by nosing out Davey Allison by 8 inches in a white-knuckle, side-by-side duel at Michigan.
The following season Jarrett found himself with the upstart team Joe Gibbs Racing making its Cup Series debut. No wins but eight Top 10 finishes.
In 1993, Jarrett and Gibbs shocked the world by coming out of the gate to win the Daytona 500. It wasn’t easy. Jarrett had to wrestle that trophy away from the “Intimidator,” Dale Earnhardt. It was a real family affair because Ned, doing color commentary for CBS, was given sole possession of the microphone in the final laps to coax his son home to victory.
Jarrett made a leap-of-faith move to Robert Yates Racing to wheel the No. 28 Ford in 1995 as a substitute for Ernie Irvan, who suffered a head injury at Michigan 20 races into the ’94 season.
“Making changes in your career is sometimes very risky,” Jarrett said. “I tried to always look at these changes more as opportunities to advance my career, and as it turned out, most of my decisions were correct.”
The one-year contract turned into gold for Jarrett, who scored a win, plus nine Top 5s. When that contract was up, Yates invited Jarrett back to drive the No. 88 Ford with Todd Parrott as his crew chief.
It took more than a decade of racing, but Jarrett finally found that golden chemistry and the team started to pump out wins and Top 5 finishes right out of the gate. Over the next four years, the dynamic duo won 18 races and topped it off with the 1999 Cup title. Jarrett was 42 years old when he lifted the NASCAR Championship Trophy.
Jarrett raced through the 2008 season and finished his career with 32 Cup wins, including three Daytona 500 victories (1993, 1996, 2000) while totaling more than $60 million in prize money.
Godwin Kelly was the Motorsports Editor for 40 years at the Daytona Beach News-Journal. Kelly now freelances for a variety of publications.