He hasn't become an answer to a "Whatever Happened To" question -- yet.

But one of the most burning questions in Winston Cup racing in 2003 has been pretty close: "What's happened to Dale Jarrett this season?"

The former Winston Cup champion has been mired in one of the worst slumps of his career. For a guy who is used to consistently being in the top-10, Jarrett has virtually dropped out of sight ... and almost out of mind.

But the veteran Cup driver maintains hopes of turning his horrendous season around. He may have taken a small step in that direction this past Sunday at New Hampshire, where he finished seventh.

Normally, a seventh-place finish is solid, but for Jarrett it was spectacular considering that it was his second-best finish of the season. Jarrett won at Rockingham, N.C., in the season's second race.

The finish at Loudon helped Jarrett climb in the standings. Admittedly, it wasn't a huge jump going from 29th to 28th. But it could have laid the groundwork for Jarrett to make a significant comeback in the remaining 17 races.

If Jarrett is to make a move, there's no better time than right now. In the next seven races -- Pocono (Pa.), Indianapolis, Watkins Glen (N.Y.), Michigan, Bristol (Tenn.), Darlington (S.C.) and Richmond (Va.) -- Jarrett has scored seven career wins.

Jarrett has three career wins at Pocono, with two being second-half season triumphs (1995 and 1997). He's also a two-time winner of the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis (1996 and 1999).

Of course, history has also been against Jarrett, as recently as last month at Pocono, where he qualified well (seventh), only to notch his worst finish of the season (42nd) after being involved in a fiery wreck on lap 53 when a blown tire sent him into the wall. Two weeks later at Sonoma, he was again a dismal 42nd.

It gets even worse: in the eight-race stretch from Martinsville (Va.) to Sonoma this season, Jarrett failed to finish five of those starts, being knocked out by crashes (three), as well as engine and transmission failure (one instance apiece).

	Jarrett (88) has had his share of bumps and bruises this year.

But his finish at New Hampshire has not only lit a fire under Jarrett and the rest of the No. 88 Ford team, it's also helped them at least partly forget about the struggles.

"After accomplishing what we did last weekend at New Hampshire, I am really looking forward to going to Pocono, a place where this team really runs well," Jarrett said. "Back in 1995, when I was driving the No. 28 car for Robert Yates Racing, we went to this event and won it after overcoming a tough season to that point. I'm not saying that's what will happen again, but it is definitely a good place to visit for this team."

Bill Elliott leads all active drivers with five triumphs on Pocono Raceway's unique 2½-mile tri-oval, followed by Rusty Wallace (four wins), and a three-way tie between Jarrett, Bobby Labonte and Jeff Gordon (all with three).

All told, Jarrett has 16 career starts in the July race at Pocono, resulting in an incredible 11 top-10 finishes. He's also led laps in eight of those starts. And check out this stat: With the exception of a 41st-place finish in the July 2001 race, Jarrett has finished in the top-10 in every July race at Pocono since 1991.

With that kind of track record, it's no wonder Jarrett is chomping at the bit to get back to Pocono. What happened last month there was an aberration. He hopes that what happens Sunday will be a much more accurate picture of his performance at the track that many drivers describe as being part-speedway and part-road course.

"Pocono is a great track for this team and for me," Jarrett said. "We had a little bad luck in June and it was really unfortunate because we had a car that was handling really well and I would have liked to see how that turned out (he was running in sixth-place at the time of his crash), but we're going to hopefully see that this weekend."

And instead of having to endure questions about what's happened to him this season, maybe Jarrett will leave Pocono hearing fans and reporters muttering something like: "Wow, did you see what Dale Jarrett did? He's on his way back, I tell you."

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at Motorsportwriter@Yahoo.com