Jarrett to make a run at driver’s title at Phoenix

Wednesday, Oct. 23, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Everybody said it would take a facility as spectacular as the new Las Vegas Motor Speedway to bring NASCAR luminaries such as Dale Jarrett to town.

Not entirely true.

The two-time Daytona 500 champion made his second Las Vegas appearance in the past three months Tuesday. But unfortunately for local race fans, who long for the day Jarrett and his Winston Cup buddies will begin trading paint at the new LVMS tri-oval, it was without the Robert Yates Racing No. 88 Quality Care Ford.

Jarrett spent the afternoon at the Las Vegas Convention Center, signing autographs for National Association of Convenience Store exhibitors and promoting GoodMark Foods and its Slim Jim brand's "FAN-tasy" sweepstakes.

One lucky fan will join Jarrett in Hawaii for a round of golf at one of the three Kapalua championship courses this winter. But for now, the only championship courses occupying Jarrett's attention are the paved ovals at Phoenix and Atlanta.

With only those two races remaining to run, Jarrett is locked in a three-way battle with Hendricks Motorsports teammates Terry Labonte and Jeff Gordon atop the Winston Cup standings. Labonte leads with 4,327 points, followed by Gordon with 4,295 and Jarrett with a very-much-in-striking distance 4,251.

"If I can win the race and Terry finishes about 20th, I can take the points lead in one race -- it doesn't take much," said the personable second-generation driver, discussing his game plan for Sunday's Dura Lube 500 at Phoenix International Raceway. "You saw that last week when he gained 40-some points on Jeff."

Reigning series champion Gordon lost his season-long stranglehold on the points lead at Rockingham, N.C., last weekend, finishing 12th while Jarrett and Labonte ran second and third behind Ricky Rudd. Jarrett dominated the race, leading 207 of the 373 laps.

"We did everything we had to do except win the race," said Jarrett, who started from the pole and collected 10 bonus points, five each for leading a lap and leading the most laps.

"When a guy (Labonte) finishes right behind you and you still gain 15 points on him, that's still a pretty good day."

Jarrett, the son of racing legend and current NASCAR television analyst Ned Jarrett, has had a bundle of pretty good days this season. Three stand out in particular.

In an unprecedented accomplishment, he swept the Daytona 500, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte and the Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, arguably NASCAR's three most prestigious events. He added a fourth victory in the Goodwrench 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

After last year's disappointing season at Yates, where he replaced the injured Ernie Irvan for much of the year (the two are teammates this year), Jarrett says 1996 has been a remarkable season and will remembered as such, with or without the Cup.

"Even if we don't win, we can't say we've had (only) a fair year or anything like that, because we've had a tremendous year," said Jarrett, who also termed '96 a learning experience.

"If you look back on some of the things we did at the first of the year, we probably would have been better off going another way. Like the first Darlington race. We took the lead late, but we knew we were probably going to run out of gas with one or two laps to go, which we did."

Jarrett said had he pitted, he probably would have finished sixth or seventh instead of 16th.

"That's probably 25 points right there," he said. "Those points would be pretty important right now."

But Jarrett, who made a summertime Las Vegas appearance for one of his Busch sponsors and said he's anxious to race in the soon-to-be-announced Grand National race at LVMS next spring, thinks he can make up the deficit beginning at the treacherous Phoenix mile.

"It's a track where I've run well but haven't had much luck at," said Jarrett, who has been slowed by flat tires in three of his six PIR outings. "But it's a track where a lot of things can happen.

"If you're just a little bit off on the chassis, it can put you pretty far back, because a lot of cars finish on the lead lap there. So if we're running well -- and I think we will, because our short track program has been pretty good all year -- it's a good opportunity for us (to reel in the leaders)."

His hope -- although he wouldn't say it -- is that Labonte and Gordon will be the ones to miss on the setup.

"My job is pretty cut and dried," Jarrett said. "I've got to finish up front. If I can finish up there, it puts pressure on those guys to run hard."

Dale Jarrett