If his life had taken even a slightly different turn, 1999 NASCAR Cup Series champion Dale Jarrett might have become famous at Augusta National, Pebble Beach, or Muirfield Village. Instead, his greatest career accomplishments came at Daytona Beach, Indianapolis, and Charlotte.
Jarrett was a good enough golfer out of high school in 1977 to attract attention from the University of South Carolina. The scholarship was tempting until he realized he’d rather play golf than—you know—actually go to class and take tests as part of the deal. The decision to turn down the Gamecocks came at the last minute and with serious second thoughts.
Who knows what might have been?
“The thing was, I was a competitor in everything I did,” the 65-year-old Jarrett recently said. “I played everything in high school: football, basketball, baseball, golf. I just loved to compete. My high school grades were good enough to get by, but the truth is that I was in school mainly to play sports. The thought of going to class again after high school didn’t appeal to me.”
South Carolina golf's loss was racing’s gain … and most NASCAR fans figure they got the better end of the deal.
Early on, Jarrett was more drawn to golf than to racing. He was mostly self-taught, with help from his golfing father Ned Jarrett, a 50-time race winner, 1961 and 1965 series champion, and highly respected TV commentator. Dale’s first sub-par round (2-under-70) came at age 15 at Glen Oaks Country Club in Maiden, North Carolina. He eventually reached a 1 handicap and won the 1975 Glen Oaks championship as a teenager. Would that have gotten him to the PGA’s Q-School in pursuit of a Tour Card?
“That’s a possibility, but I don't know if I would ever have gotten to that level,” Jarrett admits. “I’ve played with pros on good courses (among the pros, Phil Mickelson and Arnold Palmer) and I doubt I would have reached their level. I’ve seen how good they are, how they do things that 99 percent of us can't do. Golf is a very, very hard game to master. I doubt I would have succeeded in golf like I did in racing.”
Speaking of which …
Jarrett’s first start was a 25-lap Limited Sportsman feature at Hickory Motor Speedway in the summer of 1977. He started last and finished ninth, and quickly realized he was hooked. “I told Dad, ‘Look, I don’t know how I’m going to do this, but this is exactly what I’ve been looking for,” he told a PGA Tour web site several years ago. “That was after one 25‑lap race. I’d done everything in high school sports, but nothing felt as good as driving that race car. It was the most exhilarating thing I’d ever done.”
Between 20 and 25 Jarrett advanced from Southern short tracks to NASCAR’s second-tier Xfinity Series. By 30, he was in Cup with a handful of well-intended but underfunded owners. Later, he drove with great success for heavyweight owners Cale Yarborough, the Wood Brothers, Joe Gibbs, Robert Yates, and Michael Waltrip.
His resume is impressive: 11 Xfinity victories; 32 Cup victories; the 1999 Cup Series title with Robert Yates Racing; four victories each at Michigan and Daytona Beach (including three Daytona 500s); three victories each at Charlotte, Darlington, and Pocono; two Brickyard 400s; and 13 combined victories at 11 other venues. His induction into the 2014 NASCAR Hall of Fame came three years after his father’s induction in 2011.
The first of those 32 Cup victories came in August 1991 with the Wood brothers at Michigan Speedway. Jarrett had gotten the coveted No. 21 Ford ride in April 1990, after Neil Bonnett was severely injured in a crash at Darlington, South Carolina. Ned Jarrett had often reminded team co-owner Eddie Wood to keep Dale in mind if the team ever needed a driver. When Bonnett was sidelined, the Woods quickly made the call.
“At first, after the Darlington crash, we thought we’d need Dale for just the next weekend at Bristol,” Wood explained. “Then, on Monday after Darlington, we learned that Neil couldn’t run Bristol. In fact, they didn’t know how long he’d be out. That’s how we got Dale, but we didn’t know for how long. We had him most of 1990 and all of 1991 before he went to Gibbs, where his brother-in-law (Jimmy Makar) was helping build Gibbs’ new team.”
In their 42nd race together, in August 1991, Jarrett and the Woods started 11th in the Champion Spark Plug 400 at MIS. Jarrett led one lap near halfway, then led 11 of the last 12 to beat Davey Allison by about eight inches. A gamble on a late-race gas-only pit stop put Jarrett in a position to challenge Allison, who led 61 laps, more than anyone else. In the TV broadcast booth, Ned was understandably overcome with emotion.
“From where I was watching in our pit box, I knew Dale had won,” Wood said recently. “But I wasn’t absolutely certain until NASCAR announced it. Dale got by Davey at the very last split-second, and I could tell he had won. But I didn’t go nuts and jump up and down until the NASCAR radio said ’21-28.’ ”
Today, more than 30 years later, Jarrett still cherishes that moment. “It was everything I’d hoped for and more,” he said. “My first thought wasn’t that I’d won for me, but that I’d won for them. That made the moment even more special because our families have been friends for years. My dad and Glen and Leonard (Wood) went back so far. That family gave me a second chance. They put me in position to stay in Cup. They gave me the ride that kept my career going.”
At the time, Jarrett was the fifth son of a previous Cup race-winner to also reach victory lane. Eight years later, in 1999, he became the second second-generation driver to win the Cup championship. (The Pettys were first). And in 2020, Chase Elliott was the third second-generation drive to win the Cup title his father, Bill, in 1988.
After 16 more years and 31 more victories after the breakthrough at Michigan, Jarrett retired in the spring of 2008 after two disappointing seasons with Michael Waltrip Racing. And why not? After all, Jarrett was 51 and “fun golf” was calling.
But Wait … There’s More
• Richard Petty, Buddy Baker, Kyle Petty, Davey Allison, and Jarrett were the first second-generation drivers to win races after their fathers. Since Jarrett in 1991, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Chase Elliott have followed as race winners.
• Jarrett’s sister, Patti, is married to Jimmy Makar, the 2000 championship-winning crew chief with Bobby Labonte at Joe Gibbs Racing. As that organization’s second-longest-tenured employee (after Gibbs himself), Makar is the company’s Senior Vice President of Racing Operations. He was crew chief when Jarrett gave JGR its first victory in the 1993 Daytona 500.
• Jarrett's son, Zach Jarrett, an outstanding baseball player in high school and college (UNC-Charlotte), is in the Baltimore Orioles’ farm system. He spent much of 2021 in the outfield with Triple-A Norfolk of the International League.
• Dale was the fourth first-time winner with Wood Brothers Racing, following Glen Wood, Tiny Lund, and Kyle Petty, and ahead of Elliott Sadler, Trevor Bayne, and Ryan Blaney.
• Dale was the fifth second-generation racer to join his father in the NASCAR Hall of Fame: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Buddy Baker, Davey Allison, Maurice Petty, Jarrett, Richard Petty, and Bill France Jr.
Unemployed after three years as an Army officer and Vietnam vet, Al Pearce shamelessly lied his way onto a small newspaper’s sports staff in Virginia in 1969. He inherited motorsports, a strange and unfamiliar beat which quickly became an obsession.
In 53 years – 48 ongoing with Autoweek – there have been thousands of NASCAR, NHRA, IMSA, and APBA assignments on weekend tracks and major venues like Daytona Beach, Indianapolis, LeMans, and Watkins Glen. The job – and accompanying benefits – has taken him to all 50 states and more than a dozen countries.
He’s been fortunate enough to attract interest from several publishers, thus his 13 motorsports-related books. He can change a tire on his Hyundai, but that’s about it.
