The main challenger to Jeff Gordon's dominance in the late '90s, Dale Jarrett, the son of past NASCAR champion Ned
Jarrett, like his father before him, proved to be one of the most successful Winston Cup drivers of his era. He did not begin racing until age 21, and did not arrive at the Busch Series until age 26. He
became a steady, reliable Busch Series driver finishing in the top ten in points the first six years of the series and winning two races (although he finished no better than fourth in points, and was not a
serious championship contender). Eventually, in 1987, he became a Winston Cup regular while simultaneously in the Busch Series full-time. He drove for a series of weak car owners in 1987 and 1988
including Eric Freedlander, Cale Yarborough, Hoss Ellington, and Buddy Arrington. Ellington had had some success earlier in the late '70s and early '80s, but had fallen off by 1988. Jarrett scored two
top ten finishes in 1987 and one in 1988, finishing in the top twenty in points neither year. In 1989, he drove for Yarborough the entire season and earned two top fives, including a fifth at
Martinsville, where he led much of the race, his only real success of the season. He signed for Buddy Baker's team in 1990 but sponsorship failed to materialize. He caught a break when Neil Bonnett was
injured at Darlington badly enough to not return until 1993. Jarrett replaced Bonnett at the Wood Brothers team, and earned his first victory in 1991 at Michigan in a photo finish with Davey Allison. He
also finished 17th in points in 1991, his highest to date, even though the Wood Brothers was no longer in its prime.
Jarrett departed
from the Wood Brothers to become the first driver for Joe Gibbs Racing, a team that would become an eventual powerhouse. 1992 was a solid season, as he finished in the top twenty in points, but 1993 was
fantastic, as Jarrett won the Daytona 500 on a last lap pass over Dale Earnhardt. He was consistent for most of the season and improved to fourth in points, finally showing his potential nearly at age
forty. 1994 was weaker for Jarrett, as he fell back to 16th in points, even missing a race at North Wilkesboro. After that season, he left the team when Robert Yates asked Jarrett to drive for him as a
substitute driver forErnie Irvan.
After the offer from Yates, Jarrett abandoned his plans to drive for himself, and had a fine
season for Yates, winning the pole for the Daytona 500 and a race at Pocono, and finishing thirteenth in points. However, this was the lowest the #28 car had finished in an entire season since Yates
bought the team in 1989. At that point, Jarrett contemplated becoming an owner-driver for 1996 but Yates decided instead to add a second car, the #88 Quality Care Ford, for Jarrett in 1996. He hired crew
chief Todd Parrott from the Roger Penske operation, which had dominated many races in 1993 and 1994 with Rusty Wallace, and Jarrett became a major star. He won his second Daytona 500 in 1996, again over
Earnhardt, and added marquee wins at the Coca-Cola 600 and Brickyard 400 as well. In an attempt to win the Winston Million, he led the Southern 500 but hit the wall, ending his chances. Nonetheless, he
was solid at most tracks and finished third in points, challenging Terry Labonte and Gordon for the title. 1997 was even better, as Jarrett won seven races, and led the points after six straight top five
finishes early in the season. Three sub-top 25 finishes entering the summer dropped Jarrett over 100 points out of the lead. He fell 260 points back after being black-flagged at Watkins Glen while
running around tenth place when NASCAR thought his car was leaking oil when in fact it was a tire rub, enough to ultimately cost him the title. He went on a tear late in the season, winning four races and
scoring nine top fives in the final twelve races. He earned his first short track wins in Winston Cup at Bristol and Richmond, as well as a win at Phoenix where he recovered from nearly a lap down under
green to win, perhaps his most impressive race. Despite Jeff Gordon ending the season very mediocrely, he secured the championship with a seventeenth-place finish while Jarrett's second-place finish at
Atlanta to Bobby Labonte was not enough to wrest the point lead from Gordon; he lost by fourteen points in one of the closest points finishes of the Latford pre-chase points era. 1998 was another fine
season, as Jarrett won at Darlington, Dover, and Talladega, where he won a $1,000,000 bonus for winning at Talladega after finishing in the top five at the Southern 500. He also had the dominant car at
the Brickyard 400, but lost four laps under green when he ran out of fuel after Parrott had miscalculated his fuel mileage and wanted Jarrett to pit after the lap where Jarrett needed to pit. Jarrett was
notably vocal as a result of this incident. A string of cautions allowed Jarrett to make up all four laps and finish sixteenth on the lead lap. Nonetheless, despite being up front most races, Gordon and
Mark Martin had incredible consistency that Jarrett could not match.
In 1999, Jarrett finally achieved the promise of his earliest
career winning the Winston Cup championship at age 42, becoming one of the oldest drivers to do so. He had a streak of nineteen consecutive top ten finishes, including four wins: Richmond, Michigan,
Daytona (in the Pepsi 400), and his second Brickyard 400, tying Jeff Gordon for the most Brickyard wins at the time. He had only two finishes outside of the top twenty, Daytona, where he was in a multi-
car crash and landed on his roof, and Bristol, where he was spun out by Jerry Nadeau in a crash (Bristol was the race that ended his phenomenal top ten streak.) Even after the Bristol race, Jarrett held a
200-point lead over Mark Martin, and neither Martin nor Bobby Labonte would be serious contenders for the 1999 title, with Jarrett winning easily, and winning a long-overdue championship for Robert Yates.
After the 1999 championship, the Yates team stunningly bought the services of the Rainbow Warriors, the dominant pit crew for Jeff Gordon, leading to almost ensured later success. 2000 seemed to provide
more of the same. Although he was less dominant (apart from a Daytona 500 win where he won from the pole and dominated the race), he posted a fifteen-race top-ten streak staying within reach of Bobby
Labonte for the championship, but Jarrett faltered late, falling to fourth in the standings, despite a win at Rockingham. In 2001, Ford withdrew its factory sponsorship from Jarrett's team, but UPS came
on board and Jarrett's results were more of the same. He won three out of four races at Darlington, Texas, and Martinsville to seize an early points lead, but Jeff Gordon took the points lead with a win
at Michigan. After Gordon struggled at the inaugural Chicagoland race, Jarrett tied him in points. They remained tied the following week at Loudon, with each driver scoring 180 points, but Jarrett took
the edge as he now had more wins than Gordon. Jarrett was less consistent in the second half, falling to fifth in the points, while Gordon ended up winning the title easily. 2002 was more of a struggle
as he only won two races at Pocono and Michigan and didn't enter the top ten in points until his fall Michigan win, finishing ninth.
After the 2002 season, Parrott left as crew chief and Jarrett mightily struggled, scoring only one top five in 2003, a win at Rockingham, and
finishing 26th in points. He improved somewhat in 2004 and in 2005, finishing 15th in points both seasons, and winning the fall Talladega race in 2005, but clearly, aging and the loss of Parrott was
beginning to affect him. He went through a string of crew chiefs in this period trying to find a magical combination, but none worked until Parrott was rehired (and won the Talladega race with Jarrett).
Parrott left again to go toPetty Enterprises as Bobby Labonte's crew chief, and Jarrett fell to 23rd in points. Midway through the 2006 season, he surprisingly announced he was leaving Yates to drive for
Michael Waltrip's brand new #44 Toyota team, and his sponsor UPS followed him. The Waltrip team turned out to be one of the notable failures of 2007, and despite Jarrett having six past champion's
provisionals, he missed many races in 2007, never leading and finishing no better than 17th. He retired in 2008 after running five races for Waltrip in a successful attempt to lock the #44 UPS Toyota into
the top 35 in points so that it would make all the races. In his later career, he began to follow his father Ned's career path and began broadcasting races for ESPN. He has proven to be a more popular
broadcaster than his contemporary Rusty Wallace. His son Jason also embarked on a racing career, but although he had some success in ARCA, he had virtually none in the higher levels of stock car racing.
