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1999 In Review
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Points: 1st
Wins: 4 (Richmond, Michigan, Daytona Pepsi 400, Indianapolis)
Poles: 0
Top 5s: 24
Top 10s: 29
Earnings: 3,590,829
What Went Right?
Just about everything, which isn't hard to figure out considering Dale Jarrett won his first Winston Cup championship. The 43-year-old finally put it all together in '99, setting the standard for consistency with 29 top-10 finishes and 24 finish in the top five. It took 13 Winston Cup campaigns, but D.J. finally claimed the Cup. His championship season was highlighted by a Brickyard 400 win and triumph at Daytona in the Pepsi 400.
What Went Wrong?
You have to go all the way back to Day 1 of the 1999 season to find the only real blemish on the No. 88's championship season. He finished the Daytona 500 upside down after getting caught up in a multi-car crash. His only other failures usually came during qualifying, where he often put himself deep in the field. In fact, the champion won't be in the Bud Shootout at Daytona -- he didn't win a pole in 1999.
-- Ron Buck
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By night he feasted at five-star restaurants. He then woke up joking with Regis and Kathy Lee, or appearing on Good Morning America.
He listed the "Top Ten NASCAR Driver Pet Peeves" on David Letterman.
No. 8: Kids in the back keep asking, "Are we at lap 236 yet?"
He closed the New York Stock Exchange, climbed to the top of the Empire State Building and toured the Statue of Liberty. He watched the New York Knicks from a courtside seat at Madison Square Garden.
And that was just Dale Jarrett's week in New York prior to the Winston Cup Series Awards Banquet. Life is good when you are the champion. Just ask Jarrett.
It's what Jarrett has done over the past six weeks since winning his first Winston Cup title that makes him so hungry in 2000. And while he's enjoyed the spoils of being a champion, Jarrett only has to look over his first 12 years as a Winston Cup driver to know what it will take to keep his crown.
With Daytona just around the corner, it's time to go back to work. But the weeks of basking in the glory of his long-awaited championship won't be wasted. They will serve as motivation to keep the No. 88 team on top.
"It's an experience every driver, car owner and crew member should be able to experience," Jarrett said. "Because I know how hard each and every one of them has worked to get into Winston Cup racing. Everybody should be able to enjoy this experience.
"I hope I get to keep it for a few years. I now know why Dale Earnhardt worked so hard to win seven championships -- it's such an incredible experience. It just makes you that much more inspired to try to win more (championships)."
His crew chief Todd Parrott agrees.
"It's been a dream -- to be the NASCAR Winston Cup championship team," Parrott said. "It's a feeling I think every competitor needs to experience in life. But it makes you want to go out there and work twice as hard.
"I'm looking forward to getting all these (fun things) done so we can get back to work."
To say Jarrett, 43, is coming off a career year would be stating the obvious. But a close look at his championship season reveals a few interesting facts. D.J.'s four wins in 1999 were bested by three other drivers. Jeff Gordon won a series-high seven times, Jeff Burton claimed six races and Bobby Labonte took five checkered flags.
And only three former champions have won titles with fewer wins. Terry Labonte's championship seasons of 1984 and 1996 included just two wins each. Alan Kulwicki won just twice in 1992. Darrell Waltrip is the only other champion with fewer wins, claiming three races in 1985 on his way to championship.
As Jarrett looks toward 2000, a few more trips to Victory Lane would be nice.
The key to Jarrett's title was consistency. Jarrett never endured a slump, at one point reeling off 19 straight top-10 finishes, and finishing in the top 10 in a remarkable 29 of 34 races -- not to mention 24 top-five outings. Avoiding those "bad days" that ruin championship aspirations turned out to be the defining trademark of the No. 88 in '99.
"When I think about it, there were just so many different times that I realized we had a special race team and an opportunity that seemed to say things were going our way," Jarrett said. "I've sat back and been on the other side, as many of my competitors were I'm sure this season, watching and waiting for that guy who was leading in points to falter a little bit. But we were just able to take days that seemed like they weren't going to be that good and overcome that adversity and make good days out of them.
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What About 2000?
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"We certainly feel like we'll have the opportunity to win another championship in 2000. We think we've only enhanced our race team by bringing Ricky Rudd aboard. For the entire organization, it'll give us more opportunity to win. It might just give Robert Yates some of those days Joe Gibbs enjoyed last year with both of his cars running up front."
-- Dale Jarrett
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"You're trying to prove everyone else wrong -- that you aren't going to fail. So that's just added pressure you just put on yourself. But that's what makes me proud of our race team as I look back over the 1999 season. Every time they had the opportunity, or I had the opportunity for something to go wrong, they stepped up and really made something good out of a potentially bad situation. And that's when you know you have champions all around you."
The champions didn't change much over the offseason. Instead, team owner Robert Yates added a few more champions to the team by luring five former "Rainbow Warriors" to serve on Jarrett's pit crew this season. These "Sunday Specialists" will save the No. 88 precious seconds in the pits and allow other crew members to focus on specific daily duties.
Another change is the addition of Ricky Rudd to the Yates team garage. The veteran Rudd comes aboard as the driver of the No. 28 car -- the same car Jarrett started his career with Yates driving back in 1994. While the impact on the No. 88 team may not be visible to the casual fan, Jarrett understands the advantages of having another competitive car in the garage.
"We certainly feel like we'll have the opportunity to win another championship in 2000," Jarrett said. "We think we've only enhanced our race team by bringing Ricky Rudd aboard. For the entire organization, it'll give us more opportunity to win. It might just give Robert Yates some of those days Joe Gibbs enjoyed last year with both of his cars (Bobby Labonte and Tony Stewart) running up front.
"Hopefully it'll come one day that Ricky and I are battling for a championship."
Whether or not Jarrett can defend his title in 2000 will be played out over nine months starting Feb. 20. Last year, Jarrett found himself upside down in the Daytona 500. But the next week he was finishing second at Rockingham and by midseason was leading the points race.
It took awhile, but Jarrett says the championship couldn't have come at a better time in his life.
"I think things come to you in life when you can handle them," Jarrett said. "That's the way God brings things to you, when you are mature enough to do the right things with a championship like this.
"We realize it's more than just winning races and winning a championship. We have an obligation now. I think we do appreciate it more because we know how hard we had to work to win it.
"I certainly do feel that this has come at a time in my life where I can appreciate the magnitude of it."
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ALSO SEE
Labonte spotlight: Second to the best
Martin spotlight: Putting the pain aside
Stewart spotlight: The new sensation
Jeff Burton Spotlight: A list of goals
Gordon Spotlight: Entering a new era
Earnhardt Spotlight: Still intimidating
Wallace Spotlight: 'I'm still hungry'
Ward Burton: A foundation built for success
Skinner spotlight: Keeping 'big picture' in mind
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