A champ's last ride

Jarrett set for final points race

BRISTOL, TENN. -- As Dale Jarrett prepared for the last real start in his 24-year career at NASCAR's top level, praise for the 1999 Cup champion flowed around Bristol Motor Speedway.

Jarrett will start 37th today in his final points race, his last time behind the wheel except for an All-Star race in May.

"He has had a heck of a career, and I have had a blast racing with him," four-time series champion Jeff Gordon said on Saturday. "I feel fortunate to have raced him for some great wins, great battles for wins as well as for championships.

"He is just one of the highest-quality individuals and race car drivers that I have ever raced against."

Jarrett, 51, earned that reputation through 667 starts that featured 32 wins -- three of them Daytona 500 victories and one at Indianapolis Motor Speedway -- one championship and more than $59 million in winnings. Along the way, he became known as a tough but classy and clean racer who developed into a true ambassador for NASCAR.

"When you see him coming in the mirror and he's faster than you, you just get up out of the way and let him go, and he does the same for you," Greg Biffle said. "He falls along the lines of the Mark Martins and Rusty Wallaces and all the guys that have been at this level."

A second-generation racer, Jarrett grew up in NASCAR traveling the circuit with his father, two-time champion Ned Jarrett. And when Ned moved into the broadcast booth, the duo provided one of the more moving moments in recent history when the father tearfully called his son's first Daytona 500 victory in 1993.

Tony Stewart, who had yet to transition into NASCAR and watched the race on television, called it his favorite Jarrett memory.

"Seeing him win the Daytona 500 and having his dad doing the commentary live as he's coming down to win the Daytona 500 was pretty cool," Stewart said. "I'm excited for him as a person. I'm sad as a driver to see him go. You have to be excited for somebody like him that's done this as long as he has and he's leaving on his own terms."

Ned Jarrett will wave the green flag at today's start as a tribute to his son's final race. Then Jarrett will follow his father once again, moving full-time into the broadcast booth as a commentator for ESPN. He started the job last season calling Nationwide Series races, and he'll move into the Cup booth this July when ESPN assumes its portion of the TV package.

He's preparing for this final race and new career with no regrets.

"As I've said a number of times, it's been a privilege and an honor to drive for the car owners that I have and represent the sponsors that I have," Jarrett said. "I couldn't have asked for a better scenario. If you gave me a chance to go back and do it all over again, I wouldn't have changed a thing about it."

He's driven for many of the top names in NASCAR: Cale Yarborough, the Wood Brothers, Joe Gibbs, Robert Yates. And he raced against the biggest stars, including Richard Petty, whom he watched race his father.

He wasn't afraid to take risks, joining upstart Michael Waltrip Racing to drive a Toyota.

Jarrett's final full season suffered because of the switch. Waltrip's three-car team struggled last season, and Jarrett missed 12 of 36 races in a humbling send-off for a former champion. He failed to score a single top-10 finish last season, and he heads into his final start searching for his first victory since October 2005 at Talladega.

Waltrip will honor the commitment Jarrett made to him with tribute decals "Thanks DJ, A Champion, A Legend, a Friend" on his cars.

And he'll continue to have a presence in the garage through his work with ESPN. It should make him available as a mentor to newcomers in search of guidance, and many of today's younger drivers fondly recall Jarrett being among the first well-wishers to visit them in Victory Lane following their initial Cup wins.

That kind of support stuck with Dale Earnhardt Jr., who was stunned to see Jarrett at the early-morning celebration of his 2001 victory at Daytona that came just four months after his father was killed at the race track.

"I looked to my right, and standing next to me was Dale Jarrett," Earnhardt recalled. "I asked him what he was still doing there. ... He said, 'I wouldn't miss this. That was the coolest thing I have ever seen you do.'

"That was just, I don't know, it showed me a lot about his character right there. At that time in my life, it meant a lot to me for somebody to care and want to experience that with you. Obviously there was a void there for me, and it meant a lot to me that he understood that."