Dale Arnold Jarrett was born on November 26, 1956, in Newton, North Carolina. His father is the son of NASCAR legend and two-time champion Ned Jarrett and is the father of former Busch Series racer Jason Jarrett. Although Jarrett was always interested in race cars, he is also a born athlete with excellent experience in soccer, basketball, baseball, and golf while in high school. He was one of the few talented people offered a golf scholarship to the University of South Carolina, but knowing that his heart was in the driver’s seat of a car, he declined.

Jarrett began his racing career at local short tracks as Hickory Motor Speedway, which was a racetrack his father owned and operated and was driving late-model series events before finally moving on to the Busch Series.

It was in 1982 that Jarrett began competing in the Busch Series and his best result was a third place at Hickory with sixth place in points as his finishing position. The following season he won four poles, 17 top-fives and fifth place in the standings. In 1984, Jarrett managed to get the fourth place in the final classification, which was the best of his career. He won six more poles in 1986 and his first Busch race at Orange County Speedway. That wasn’t all he did when he won the second race of his career at Hickory in 1987.

During that same season, Jarrett had two-10th spots, 26th in points and was runner-up for the Rookie of the Year title. Although he was driving for different teams in 1988, he participated in all of them with an eighth place at Riverside International Raceway. In 1989, he ran full time again with five top-ten finishes and two-fifths.

His big break came in 1990 when he replaced the injured Neil Bonnett and the following year he won his first Winston Cup race at Michigan International Speedway. He finished that season with 17th place in the final standings. The following year, Jarrett joined the newly formed Joe Gibbs Racing, which was started by the famous Gibbs football coach. The following year, Jarrett won the Daytona 500 and knocked Dale Earnhardt out of the race. The race was remembered as the Dale and Dale Show, a phrase coined by Jarrett’s own father. He had a total of 13 top-fives and fourth in finishing points that season.

Jarrett joined the Robert Yates Racing team in 1995 to replace the injured Ernie Irvan and, through that merger, Jarrett won at Pocono with a 13th place finish. Although Ernie Irvan returned to drive for Robert Yates a year later, Yates decided to create a team for Jarrett in 1996. He won the Daytona 500 again that season with a top 2 finish in the first three races of that season. also. He then won the Coca-Cola 600 and the Brickyard 400 with a third place in the final rankings. Although he won seven races the following season, he lost the championship to Jeff Gordon.

Once 1998 rolled around, Jarrett faced a gallbladder problem, but managed to win three races with a second result during the final two races of the season. He underwent offseason surgery and returned the following season winning his first Winston Cup title for an impressive 201 points. During the turn of the century, Jarrett won the Daytona 500 for the third time. In 2003, Jarrett took home North Carolina Speedway and came back 26th in the final points. He bounced back in 2004 with 15th place in points and won again in 2005 at Talladega Superspeedway.

Jarrett finished 2006 with fourth place at Kansas and 23rd in points. The following year he started the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup with 18th place and qualified for the Daytona 500, but finished the race in 22nd place.

This father of 4 is hoping to start in 2008 and while he’s only participating in the Busch Series part-time, you can be sure he will make you aware of his presence.