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No Looking Back

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Driver Dale Jarrett smiles in the garage prior to practice for Saturday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series All-Star Race at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., Friday, May 16, 2008.

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By TONY FABRIZIO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 17, 2008

Updated: 05/17/2008 12:13 am

CONCORD, N.C. - He has played in two golf events in Florida, attended his daughter's soccer games in North Carolina and hung out around the house.

What Dale Jarrett hasn't done since running his final NASCAR points race March 16 at Bristol is second-guess his decision to retire from driving.

The 1999 Winston Cup champion, three-time Daytona 500 winner and favorite of fans and peers will say farewell for good tonight with an encore performance in the Sprint All-Star race.

He'll displace Zephyrhills' David Reutimann in the UPS-sponsored No. 44 Toyota for one last time and start 18th in a non-points race that pays $1 million to win.

"I'm still very comfortable with the decision," said Jarrett, 51. "I think it was the perfect time, and these last few weeks have given me time to reaffirm that. It has given me a chance to look at the sport in a different way and get myself prepared for what happens with ESPN as we get closer to July."

Jarrett already has been doing broadcast work for ESPN, and when ESPN/ABC takes over the Sprint Cup telecasts in late July, he'll be the lead analyst. He follows the course taken by his father, two-time NASCAR champion Ned Jarrett, who was a network analyst for several years.

Family and friends from Jarrett's hometown of Newton, N.C., and current residence of Hickory will arrive tonight by the busload. Other drivers will shake hands with Jarrett and wish him well - no doubt secretly hoping he treats them well from the TV booth.

Jeff Gordon presented his friend with a special basket of goodies when the teams arrived at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

"I've had a real pleasure racing against him," Gordon said. "He's one of my favorites as a driver and as a person. I've had an opportunity to race hard against him, race for championships against him, and in my opinion he stacks up there with the all-time best."

Carl Edwards, a favorite in tonight's race and next week's Cola-Cola 600 here, said Jarrett's most notable quality is how he has handled himself on and off the track.

"Dale Jarrett is a class act," Edwards said. "I've only had him mad at me one time, and it was here, and he was even real nice about how mad he was at me."

A natural athlete who played football, baseball and basketball in high school and turned down a full golf scholarship to South Carolina, Jarrett started his major-league racing career late. He was 31 when he began his first full season driving for Cale Yarborough in 1988.

Yet, he leaves NASCAR fifth in career earnings with $59,737,859 and tied with Tony Stewart for 20th on the all-time victory list with 32.

Although he won the 1993 Daytona 500 for an upstart Joe Gibbs Racing team, Jarrett is best remembered for his prowess driving the No. 88 Ford for Robert Yates Racing. From 1996 to 2001, he finished no worse than fifth in the points standings.

Jarrett won only once in his final three seasons with RYR - at Talladega in October 2005 - and went winless in 29 starts with Michael Waltrip Racing's new Toyota team.

"You hate to see someone like Dale Jarrett, who worked so hard for so long to get his break and then finally take full advantage of it, finish out his career the way he has," NASCAR vice president and historian Jim Hunter said.

"Recent fans never knew Dale Jarrett when he was a factor every week. It's like when Darrell Waltrip was winding up his career; newer fans didn't know Waltrip when he was the Kyle Busch of his day."

Like Richard Petty, stock car racing's all-time leading winner, Jarrett often is called one of his sport's great ambassadors. He was accessible to fans, good with media and cooperative with track owners.

Hunter provides an example from 1993, when he was president of Darlington Raceway:

Jarrett had agreed to participate in an educational program in which he would be taken to six different high schools to talk to students. The first visit started at 8 a.m. on a Monday morning. Unexpectedly, Jarrett won the Daytona 500 the afternoon before.

"I'm thinking, 'Oh my gosh, they're going to take him to New York and all this and he's not going to make it,'" Hunter related. "But Russell Branham, who was our P.R. guy, called D.J. that Sunday night after he won the race, and D.J. said, 'I'll be there, man.' And he was there.

"Dale Jarrett's legacy will be that you should put something back in the sport. And he has always done that. He is truly one of the nicest guys I've ever been around in the sport."

Jimmie Johnson, at only 32 years old, already has won more than $60 million in NASCAR. He has won 34 races and the last two championships.

He recognizes that others have blazed a path for him.

"I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for people like the Jarretts, especially Dale," Johnson said. "Both as a driver and a representative of our sport, he is a very special man and great guy. I respect him for all that he has done. I am excited for him, but also disappointed that I am going to be a part of his last event."

Retirement is a word used loosely in NASCAR. Terry Labonte cut back to a limited schedule in 2005, quit for good after the 2006 season, came back last year to run three races and will be back for five more this year. Bill Elliott quit full-time driving in 2003 and has been running a limited schedule since.

Because drivers who've won championships have automatic qualifying provisionals, Jarrett undoubtedly will get offers to come back. In fact, he says he already has been contacted by some owners.

But he insists he's retiring.

"I hate to use the word never, but I have no plans whatsoever for getting back in a car," Jarrett said. "I've told this to my family and I've told it to the fans. I think whenever you tell them things like this, you need to hold to that."

So tonight, then, it's truly a farewell.

With no second-guessing.

Reporter Tony Fabrizio can be reached at (813) 259-7994 or afabrizio@tampatrib.com.

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