NASCAR: Dale Jarrett’s Five Most Significant Wins

The next installment of our NASCAR Most Significant Wins series features retired driver and Hall of Fame member turned ESPN analyst, Dale Jarrett.

Dale Jarrett is one member of a large family with ties to NASCAR stock car racing.  His father, brother, son and cousin have at one time or another, participated in the sport.  He is a Cup series champion (1999,) a three-time Daytona 500 winner (1993, 1996 and 2000) and was inducted into the NASCAR Hall-of-Fame in 2014.  Dale’s father, Ned Jarrett, is a two-time Grand National series champion himself and was inducted into NASCAR’s Hall of Fame in it’s second class in 2011.  Both Ned and Dale have enjoyed successful broadcasting careers in NASCAR following their retirements as active drivers.

Jarrett has always been an athlete.  He was introduced to golf at the age of twelve, and today is a 2-handicap.  He also competed in football, basketball and baseball while in school in North Carolina.  He was named the Newton-Conover high school athlete of the year his senior year.  Jarrett chose to pursue a NASCAR career to follow his father instead of accepting a full-ride golf scholarship from the University of South Carolina.

Jarrett began racing professionally in 1977 at Hickory Motor Speedway, a track his father managed.  He made his (then) Busch-series and Cup series debuts in 1982.  He would go on to score 11 career wins in what is now the Xfinity Series and 32 wins in the Cup series.  In addition, Dale collected victories in the IROC series (2,) the Daytona 500 qualifying races (1) and in the Busch Clash / Budweiser Shootout (3.)  Dale retired as an active driver in 2008.

Dale had wins in the Cup series first with Wood Brothers Racing, subbing for an injured Neil Bonnett.  He signed with Joe Gibbs Racing in 1992, where he would remain for three years before signing with Robert Yates Racing beginning in 1995.  He would remain with Yates through the 2006 season.  In 2007 and 2008, he ran a part-time schedule for Michael Waltrip Racing.  It was during his time at Yates that he and sponsor UPS did a series of commercials featuring Dale eventually racing the “big brown truck.”  These commercials were widely popular with both legacy and casual fans.

Next: #5 - 1996 Daytona 500