Editor’s Note: This is the first of a four-part series on NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett. Part two will run tomorrow.
The Jarrett name has long been associated in NASCAR.
What started in the late 1950s with patriarch Ned Jarrett trailblazing a NASCAR Hall of Fame career, continued with his sons Glenn and Dale.
While Dale Jarrett’s roots were heavily in racing, his competitive nature nearly led him in a different direction.
“I’d have to consider myself just a competitor at heart,” Jarrett told SPEED SPORT. “It started at an early age, my brother Glenn started me playing baseball when I was five years old, literally on a team that had mostly seven and eight year olds. I learned to compete.
“It was just something that as I went on with my life, that I found that that’s what pretty much was driving me day in and day out. That baseball experience went on to become on the football field, the basketball court, and the golf course. I just loved to do that.”
While Jarret’s golf skills helped his high school win three conference championships, racing still lingered in his mind.
“As I got through my high school days, and looking ahead at opportunities, and what I was going to do, it became apparent that I wanted to be able to compete in some way,” Jarrett said. “Racing was always something that was in the back of my mind, I can’t say that I grew up as a teenager thinking, ‘Oh, I’m going to drive cars like my dad did.’
“As I got to the point of making the decision, it kind of got to me saying that it was either going to be trying something at golf, in making that work. Then the opportunity with a couple of my friends back in North Carolina, that were building a race car.”
It wasn’t until Jarrett felt the pure adrenaline of competing inside the cockpit of a race car that the racing switch was flipped forever.
“Once I did that, there was no turning back,” Jarrett said. “There was never any other thought of trying to make a career in anything else other than driving a car. I didn’t know how I was going to go about it.
“But, it was one of the most exhilarating things I’d ever done when I ran that first race. Then from that point, my focus was being the best driver and competitor that I could possibly be.”
Jarrett worked his way up to the NASCAR Budweiser Late Model Sportsman Series, before contesting the full NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule with team owner Horace Isenhower in 1984.
Two years later, Jarrett won his first Xfinity Series race at North Carolina’s Orange County Speedway. Jarrett led 150 laps aboard the No. 32 Nationwise Auto Parts Pontiac.
While a Cup Series ride didn’t come in the blink of an eye, the waiting period helped Jarrett find his footing and learn important lessons.
“I think the biggest thing that I learned was just the patience that it does take in moving up the ranks in whatever you’re doing,” Jarrett said. “I think that it also gave me the opportunity to go about things in a little bit different way, even though it was more the norm, during those times in the 1980s.
“I was working on my own cars. I didn’t know a lot about cars and how to work on them, but people like Andy Petree, who I got involved with in that first car, taught me a lot about cars. Then I had a gentleman named John Urban, who was actually my dad’s crew chief, when we were living in South Carolina, and my dad drove for Bondy Long.”
Learning the ins and outs of tuning a race car was a skill Jarrett feels helped him as he pursued a Cup Series career.
“I knew that this was something that I had to do,” Jarrett said. “I found in myself that I was willing and able to go to something that I knew nothing about, and learn it.
“I think that’s what helped me become a better driver through the years. It was hard at times when I saw others move up the ranks and get opportunities, but I also realized that there’s nothing guaranteed in our lives, and especially in our professional lives.”
The perseverance paid off for Jarrett in 1988, when NASCAR legend Cale Yarborough asked Jarrett to share the driving duties in his No. 29 Hardee’s machine in the Cup Series.
“I was able to race against him a couple of times, when I was driving for Eric Freedlander, in 1987,” Jarrett said. “Cale saw that something in me that he liked there. So I think that people understood and came to understand that I was a competitor at heart. Even though I might not have been the most talented driver, I worked hard at being as good as I could possibly be.”
Jarrett took over full time driving duties of the No. 29 machine one year later, earning five top-10 finishes in 1989. The wisdom from the three-time Cup Series champion, however, is something Jarrett feels was invaluable during the beginning of his career.
“That’s something you can’t go buy,” Jarrett said. “You can’t read a book and get out of what a personal experience with somebody that you knew was a Hall of Famer, even though there wasn’t a Hall of Fame at that time. But it did everything.
“He came up through that too, and I knew his story through my dad, how hard it was for Cale to get in and make his mark. But once he got there, he was so very talented. Just to sit and talk to him about his mindset, how he went about things was just invaluable to me.
“It was the best thing that happened to that point in my career to have the opportunity to work side-by-side with someone like Cale Yarborough,” Jarrett added. “I had my dad that was always there, but Cale could say things to me that maybe sometimes my dad would hold back a little bit. But Cale was very open and honest.
“If you know him, you know that he’s not going to sugarcoat anything. I think that was good for me at that point in time in my career.”
Jarrett’s time competing for Yarborough would end after the 1989 season, leaving him pondering his next move.
Little did Jarrett know, his career was about to skyrocket.
Find out how in part two — tomorrow.
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