NASCAR preview: Jarrett looks for repeat

Joe Macenka

Thursday, Jan. 20, 2000 | 9:22 a.m.

The magnitude of winning the 1999 Winston Cup championship didn't really hit Dale Jarrett until almost two months later, while he was relaxing at home with his wife and watching golf on television.

The occasion was the Mercedes Championship, and Jarrett was marveling as Tiger Woods and Ernie Els battled in what turned out to be a shot-for-shot duel that went into a playoff.

"I was sitting there talking about what it would be like to be like Tiger Woods and just be at the very top of your sport like that," Jarrett said. "Kelley made the comment that, 'Well, you are there right now."'

At 43 and 15 years into his career on stock car racing's premier circuit, Jarrett won the sport's biggest prize by ending Hendrick Motorsports' four-year stranglehold on the driving title.

It's been a hectic schedule since the season ended in November, filled with plenty of banquets, big checks and speaking engagements.

But Jarrett is ready to put it all behind him and start over in the season-opening Daytona 500 on Feb. 20.

"It's kind of a strange feeling to realize that everything we accomplished and as good as it's been, in just a few weeks, none of that makes any difference," he said. "I think the only difference it does make is that people look at us a little differently and we look at ourselves differently. We walk with a little higher kick in our steps and a little more confidence."

With good reason. The Winston Cup points system is designed to reward consistency, and no one was more consistent last year than Jarrett.

His equipment was a main reason he won four times and finished in the top 10 nearly every other week. Jarrett's Robert Yates Racing Fords went through all 34 events without an engine failure.

"That was the key to our winning the championship," crew chief Todd Parrott said. "That and Dale being smart to not put us in position when the car wasn't right to try to get something out of it that wasn't there."

The same couldn't be said of Jarrett's closest pursuers, especially Jeff Gordon, winner of three of the previous four championships.

Gordon led the circuit last year with seven victories, but while the number was impressive it was his lowest total in four years.

More important to Gordon, however, was his inconsistency. He spent a lot of time in the garage or running well off the pace, the result of a series of engine problems, something his team had been able to avoid for more than four years.

Gordon goes into the 2000 season with his third crew chief in six months. The latest, Robbie Loomis, moves from Petty Enterprises to Hendrick Motorsports in an attempt to help restore stability to a program that relied for years on the expertise of the now-departed Ray Evernham.

The addition of another crew chief and several new crew members, as well as Chevrolet's introduction of a new Monte Carlo, has some people wondering whether Gordon will be viewed as an underdog this year.

"I hope so," said Gordon, who wound up sixth in last year's standings, his worst finish since coming in eighth in 1994. "I don't mind the focus not being on us right now."

Gordon's attention has turned to finishing races, something he failed to do a circuit-high seven times last year. And he wants a strong finish to the season, another longtime Gordon trademark.

"Sometimes it's nicer to kind of be that quiet, stealth team that comes up through there and surprises them," he said.

Two drivers who did that in 1999 will be looking for repeat performances.

Bobby Labonte won five races and finished a career-best second in the points but wound up 202 behind Jarrett. Tony Stewart, Labonte's teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, won a rookie-record three races and finished fourth in the points.

Two drivers are hoping the new year brings better health. Mark Martin, third in the points last year while winning twice, and seven-time series champion Dale Earnhardt, who won three races and wound up seventh, both had back surgery in the offseason.

Martin's Roush Racing teammate, Jeff Burton, also is expected to contend for the title. He won six times last year and finished fifth despite a problem with poor starting positions.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., the two-time Grand National champion, makes his much-ballyhooed step up to Winston Cup driving on a full-time basis this year.

Earnhardt, who headlines a rookie class that also includes Dave Blaney, Matt Kenseth and CART defectee Scott Pruett, said his only goal is to be the top first-year driver.

"It's going to be pretty much up for grabs," he said. "It's going to have a lot to do with whose team jells quickly."