Dale Arnold Jarrett (born November 26, 1956 in
Newton, North Carolina) is an American race car
driver. He currently pilots the #44 Toyota Camry for
Michael Waltrip Racing, and will leave following the
first five races of the 2008 season. He is the son
of two-time NASCAR Grand National champion Ned
Jarrett, and the father of former Busch Series racer
Jason Jarrett. Upon graduation from Newton-Conover
High School in 1975, he was offered a full golf
scholarship from the University of South Carolina,
which he declined. He is a cousin of Todd Jarrett,
the 1996 International Practical Shooting
Confederation World Shoot Champion. Beginning in
2007, Jarrett joined the ESPN/ABC broadcasting team
as an announcer in select Busch Series (now
Nationwide Series) races.Broadcaster Schedule In
2008, he became the lead anaylist for those races,
and will retire full-time from racing following the
2008 Sprint All-Star Race on May 17th at Lowe's
Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina, just
outside Charlotte to devote himself to full-time
broadcasting in the footsteps of his dad.
Jarrett began racing in 1977 at Hickory Motor
Speedway, a track his father owned and operated. In
his first race, he started in last place but
finished in the ninth position. He competed in the
Limited Sportsman Division at Hickory, before moving
up to the NASCAR Busch Series.
Jarrett began racing in 1982 in the #24/32 Ford for
Horace Isenhower. His best finish was a third at
Hickory and he finished sixth in points that season,
finishing in the top-ten fourteen times over the
course of the season. He did not win a race in 1983,
but won four poles and had seventeen top-fives
moving into fifth in the standings. In 1984, the
team received sponsorship from Econo Lodge,
Valvoline, and Budweiser and had six front row
starts and nineteen poles, finishing a career-best
fourth in the final standings.
That same year, Jarrett made his Cup debut. Driving
the #02 Chevrolet for Emanuel Zervakis at
Martinsville Speedway, he qualified 24th and
finished fourteenth. He made two more Cup starts
that season, at the Firecracker 400 for Jimmy Means,
and the Warner W. Hodgdon American 500. In 1986,
Jarrett won six poles and his first career Busch
race at Orange County Speedway in the Nationwise
Auto Parts. He won his second career race at Hickory
the next year, his final full-time season in Busch.
