NEWTON, N.C. — Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Ned Jarrett died June 4 at his home. Jarrett was 93 years old.
A winner of 50 races in the series, Jarrett won the title in 1961 and 1965. Jarrett retired in 1966 and went on to enjoy a long career as a broadcaster on radio and television.
The former farmer and sawmill worker made his first attempt as a race driver at Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway in 1951. His parents, Homer and Eoline Jarrett, weren’t happy their son was hanging out with such a scrupulous crowd on Saturday nights.
John Lentz, Jarrett’s former brother-in-law, owned a race car, and Lentz offered Jarrett the ride when he decided to stop driving. Jarrett stayed with it and claimed the 1955 championship at the Hickory track.
“I used John’s name at first until my dad found out and then I used my own,” Jarrett said. “I knew after that first race it was something I wanted to do. It was a long time coming before I could make any money at it. I just loved doing it.”
Jarrett’s success in sportsman competition led to his first start in the NASCAR Cup Series (Grand National) at Hickory in 1953. Driving a 1950 Ford for team owner Mellie Bernard, he finished 11th. The next week, Jarrett entered the 1953 Southern 500 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway but went to the garage area after only eight laps with a broken oil line.
To make a name for himself in NASCAR’s elite series, Jarrett bought a top-flight car in 1959 for $2,000 by writing a bad check. To cover it, he had to miraculously win back-to-back Cup Series races on two very difficult short tracks.
“I knew I could do it if I could get in the right car,” Jarrett said in a 2019 article published in Autoweek Magazine. “I didn’t have any money. I figured I’d go to Myrtle Beach Saturday night and win that race and do the same thing the next afternoon at Charlotte. I knew winning both would earn about $2,000, and I could make up whatever difference there was by borrowing the money and get into the bank by Monday to cover the check.”
With the help of a relief driver at Charlotte, Jarrett won both races and earned $1,600. He borrowed the rest and covered the check.
In 1960, Chevrolet saw potential in Jarrett’s driving ability and he eventually won seven Cup Series for the GM brand. One came during the 1961 season and the other six came the following year.
The remaining 43 Cup Series victories of his career were in Fords.
A tremendous opportunity came Jarrett’s way for the 1964 season and that proved to be his best year with 15 victories. Bondy Long, an heir to the DuPont fortune, came into NASCAR as a young team owner, first with Larry Frank for five races and Bobby Isaac for 26 races as his drivers in 1963. When Isaac moved to Ray Nichels’ team in 1964, Jarrett became his driver and team manager per the request of a banker, lawyer and accountant representing the DuPont family. All agreed Jarrett was the perfect man for the job.
Jarrett won 13 races and logged 44 top-10 results en route to the 1965 Cup Series championship while driving for Long. It was also the year of his biggest victory, the 1965 Southern 500. Jarrett won despite shutting his engine off in the turns during the closing laps of the 367-lap race in an attempt to cool the power plant.
“I always wanted to win the Southern 500 at Darlington, not the Daytona 500,” Jarrett told SPEED SPORT in 2023. “In 1965, we put it all together. Everybody in the field had trouble with their cars overheating. I finally wound up winning by 14 laps and that still stands as the largest margin of victory.”
Jarrett found a second career after he stepped away from driving. In the early 1960s, he began a radio program on WNNC in Newton, N.C., and also worked with the Universal Racing Network when he hung up his helmet in October 1966. Then in 1978, he became a broadcaster with MRN Radio. In addition to his work on race broadcasts, Jarrett hosted a daily program on MRN Radio called “Ned Jarrett’s World of Racing” until May 15, 2009.
Eventually, Jarrett’s focus turned to television with CBS and ESPN. He called his son Dale Jarrett’s first Cup Series victory in the 1991 Champion Spark Plug 400 at Michigan Int’l Speedway and his 1993 Daytona 500 triumph.
“To have such a rewarding broadcast career really meant a great deal to me,” Jarrett said. “It was a big challenge. I grew up in the country. To one day be working on the broadcast of the Daytona 500 or the Southern 500 was very fulfilling to be able to be asked to do it. Broadcasting was just as fulfilling to me as driving race cars and winning championships.”
“Our father was a devout Christian and a devoted, loving family man,” the Jarrett family said in a statement. “He was a friend to everyone he met and NASCAR’s oldest living champion. By all accounts, he was a true NASCAR legend. While we mourn his passing, we celebrate the remarkable life of an amazing man and truly the best father anyone could have wished for. Rest in Peace, Dad.”
Jarrett was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2011.
“Despite his calm demeanor, ‘Gentleman’ Ned Jarrett was as fierce a competitor as NASCAR has ever seen,” NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell said in a statement. “His on-track accomplishments speak for themselves with wins and championships across several NASCAR divisions. But it was his off-the-track persona that separated Ned from his peers. He was as kind as his nickname indicated. And his endearing personality helped him excel in his second career as a broadcaster. Ned was an outstanding ambassador for the sport for more than six decades, and he will be dearly missed. On behalf of the France family and all of NASCAR, I offer my deepest condolences to all of Ned’s family and friends on the loss of a NASCAR legend.”
