By Dick Mittman
allstate400atthebrickyard.com
Saturday, August 5, 2006
Dale Jarrett is leaving Robert Yates Racing at the end of this year, but he's not giving up on his longtime team until the final lap of the 2006 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup season.
"I look at every week as an opportunity," said Jarrett, two-time winner of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.
This is tough for the popular veteran Jarrett, who already has announced he will depart Yates at season's end to join Michael Waltrip in Toyota's first venture into America's top level of stock car racing. It probably will be Jarrett's final stop in NASCAR since he turns 50 five days after the 2006 finale Nov. 19 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Jarrett, who qualified 35th for Sunday's 13th Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, will take his "Brown Truck" UPS sponsorship with him to Toyota. Driver Elliott Sadler also is leaving Yates after this year, and there was a recent shakeup in the mechanical management of the team.
In a Cup career that stretches back 22 years, Jarrett has driven in 623 races, won 32 and banked $54,841,962. He also has won at least one race in 11 of the past 12 years.
This season, though, has been one of disappointment. He placed ninth at Atlanta in March and since has no finish better than 12th, with most finishes in the high 20s or 30s.
It could be coast-and-collect time for Jarrett, who joined the Yates team in 1995. Except he said that isn't in his nature.
"I still believe in my heart … you want to believe you can get in a race car and can make a little bit of a difference," he said, "and that you still have some kind of a chance.
"But regardless of how bad the season has been to this point, being able to come (to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway) is quite a thrill."
Jarrett, who took the Brickyard checkered flag in 1996 and 1999, stood bravely on the back of his transporter behind the garages and talked strongly about what was happening with and around him. He sounded like a lame-duck football coach trying to rally his players late in a losing season.
A former star high school quarterback, Jarrett visited the NFL Indianapolis Colts' training camp Friday in Terre Haute, Ind. He talked with Colts All-Pro quarterback Peyton Manning and Head Coach Tony Dungy.
"We keep trying to reinforce to the guys of the race team that they look at people and decide the ones who they're going to keep in their organization are the ones who work hard in these difficult times," he said. "(They) are the people you want around, not people that may want to think about giving up just because we haven't run well and they're making all these changes.
"Now is when people can really solidify their jobs by working extremely hard and being a positive influence in this race team."
Jarrett qualified in the top six for this race five consecutive times, from 1997-2001. But he only has managed a best starting spot of 17th since then, in 2002 and 2004, and his starting spot of 35th Sunday is his career low at Indy.
He didn't qualify for the 10-race season-ending Chase last year, and it's pretty certain he won't again.
Still, he isn't feeling sorry for himself.
"Certainly, the attention is on those 10," he said, "and it should be. They deserve that right to have that happen.
"I think it's an opportunity (for us) to show what you're made of and what your team is made of that you keep going through these trying times to get better until the last lap is finished at Homestead. I still believe we can get better and that we can draw attention to ourselves.
"We have an obligation to our team and to our sponsors to do everything that we can. Just because it didn't work out that we're part of the Chase, then I think that's motivation to go work harder."
The arrival of Toyota next season is being seen in different ways, Jarrett said. The same goes for him leaving his long-time association with Ford for a seat with the first Japanese manufacturer in NEXTEL Cup.
"I hear mostly from the fan club members, but you spin both sides," Jarrett said.
"There're a lot of people who certainly understand and are sticking with me as a driver. You have the diehard Ford fans that think I've totally fallen off my rocker and can't understand why I'd do something (like that).
"And then I have people questioning loyalty and things like that. We wouldn't even want to get into that conversation because I can go down a whole list of facts about loyalty."
But Jarrett then re-emphasized his desire to keep the Yates team boat afloat through the rest of the season even though he will be working in what he calls his "moonlighting job" with Waltrip and Toyota in his off time.
"My main focus job, as I've always said, is whenever I either retire or was leaving, which now is I'm leaving, I want this race team to be in as good a shape as it has been for the majority of the time I have been here," he said, "and racing to where they can float someone and could go win.
"So we've got a lot of work ahead of us to make that happen."
***
Tickets: Tickets are on sale for the 2006 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 6 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Fans can order tickets online at www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com, by calling the IMS ticket office at (317) 492-6700 or (800) 822-INDY outside the Indianapolis area, or at the ticket office at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Parking and camping information also can be obtained through the ticket office.
Hours for phone orders and the ticket office are 8 a.m.-5 p.m. (ET) Monday-Friday, while online orders can be made at any time.
Reserved seats start at just $35.
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