Dale Jarrett - NASCAR Driver
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Dale Jarrett - Bio
While most Cup Series drivers had their career paths chosen by the time they were out of elementary school, when Dale Jarrett graduated for Newton Conover High School in Hickory, N.C., he had no idea how he wanted to make a living. After all, he was the star quarterback of the football team, the star forward on the basketball team, the star shortstop on the baseball team and the star golfer."I knew that he was going to be a professional athlete of some sort because he had so much God-given talent," Ned Jarrett said. "I really thought he was going to be a pro golfer more than anything else." Dale was offered a golf scholarship to the University of South Carolina but turned it down because he "wasn't much interested in studying," as Ned put it.
Dale got the itch to drive a race car at the age of 20, when he started putting together a machine with high school friends Andy Petree, now a NASCAR team owner, and Jimmy Newsome. In his debut race at Hickory, Jarrett started 25th and finished ninth. It was then that he decided he wanted to race cars for a living.
While Dale was struggling to make a name for himself, he met his future wife Kelley, who knew immediately that their life together wasn't going to be normal. "He would work on his race car at the shop until 9 or 10 at night, and I just couldn't understand why he wasn't coming home for these home-cooked meals," said Kelley, who was a fifth-grade teacher back then. "Well, I realized right then we weren't going to be June and Ward Cleaver."
Despite that, Jarrett, the 1999 NASCAR champion, says all the struggles were worth the rewards.
Dale Jarrett - Statistics
| Year | Top 5 | Top 10 | Laps Led | Earnings | Races | Wins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 0 | 0 | N/A | $596,038 | 5 | 0 |
| 2007 | 0 | 0 | N/A | $2,001,767 | 25 | 0 |
| 2006 | 1 | 4 | N/A | $4,346,590 | 36 | 0 |
| 2005 | 5 | 9 | N/A | $4,641,213 | 41 | 1 |
| 2004 | 6 | 14 | 25 | $4,208,217 | 36 | 0 |
| 2003 | 1 | 7 | 49 | $3,249,861 | 36 | 1 |
| 2002 | 10 | 18 | 441 | $2,674,818 | 36 | 2 |
| 2001 | 12 | 19 | 511 | $4,437,634 | 36 | 4 |
| 2000 | 15 | 24 | 333 | $3,893,805 | 34 | 2 |
| 1999 | 24 | 29 | 1061 | $3,565,329 | 35 | 4 |
| 1998 | 22 | 26 | 950 | $2,289,735 | 45 | 3 |
| 1997 | 21 | 27 | 2110 | $2,373,293 | 45 | 7 |
| 1996 | 22 | 31 | 825 | $2,210,750 | 48 | 4 |
| 1995 | 14 | 19 | 580 | $1,333,304 | 43 | 4 |
| 1994 | 7 | 13 | 55 | $854,770 | 41 | 1 |
| 1993 | 15 | 23 | 263 | $1,011,753 | 40 | 1 |
| 1992 | 5 | 13 | 99 | $404,459 | 40 | 0 |
| 1991 | 11 | 17 | 47 | $490,772 | 46 | 4 |
| 1990 | 10 | 21 | 187 | $318,760 | 42 | 2 |
| 1989 | 5 | 9 | 214 | $251,234 | 39 | 0 |
| 1988 | 5 | 7 | 5 | $161,315 | 43 | 1 |
| 1987 | 5 | 13 | N/A | $132,655 | 51 | 1 |
| 1986 | 14 | 19 | N/A | $990 | 32 | 1 |
| 1985 | 9 | 17 | N/A | $0 | 27 | 0 |
| 1984 | 9 | 19 | N/A | $52,095 | 32 | 0 |
| 1983 | 17 | 21 | N/A | $42,325 | 35 | 0 |
| 1982 | 1 | 14 | 0 | $11,465 | 28 | 0 |
