Jarrett not bothered being marked man

Thursday, March 2, 2000 | 9:25 a.m.

As the reigning NASCAR Winston Cup Series champion, Dale Jarrett knows he is a marked man this season.

But that doesn't seem to bother the 43-year-old second-generation NASCAR championship driver.

"I like our position," Jarrett said. "It's a lot more fun for them to be shooting at you."

With a win in the Daytona 500 and a fifth-place finish last weekend at Rockingham, Jarrett comes to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for Sunday's CarsDirect.com 400 with an even bigger target on his back.

And plenty of confidence.

Jarrett won four races in 1999 and failed to finish in the top 10 only five times in 34 races. If that isn't enough of a confidence builder going into the 2000 season, Jarrett and Robert Yates Racing added five members from Jeff Gordon's highly successful pit crew and a new teammate in Ricky Rudd.

"(Winning the Winston Cup title) gives us a confidence level that puts us a little ahead of others who haven't won it and maybe others who haven't won it recently," Jarrett said. "We realize what it is going to take (to repeat), and we don't plan on backing off from that."

So far, Jarrett hasn't. He opened the 2000 season by sitting on the pole for the Daytona 500, winning the Bud Shootout and the 500. He followed up his dominating effort at Daytona with a solid fifth-place finish at Rockingham and comes to Las Vegas with a five-point lead over Bobby Labonte in the Winston Cup standings.

Jarrett, who has 23 career victories to his credit, certainly will be counted among the favorites to not only win this weekend's race, but the Winston Cup championship, as well.

Other serious contenders to win the estimated $400,000 first-place check from this weekend's CarsDirect.com 400 include Bobby Labonte, who won last week's race at Rockingham; Mark Martin, who won the inaugural race here in 1998; defending race winner Jeff Burton; 1999 Winston Cup rookie Tony Stewart; Ward Burton, runner-up in last year's race at LVMS; and Rusty Wallace, who opened the season with a fourth-place finish in the Daytona 500.

Jarrett, Jeff Burton, Bill Elliott, Wallace and Martin, the top five finishers at Daytona, are eligible for a $1 million bonus if they can win Sunday's race -- the second of five Winston No Bull 5 races this season.

Jarrett, the son of former NASCAR champion Ned Jarrett, already has won one million-dollar bonus this season by capturing the Daytona 500.

Jarrett ties his recent success to the maturation of the Robert Yates Racing team for which he has driven since 1995.

"People ask me if I've become a better driver," Jarrett said. "I feel that with more experience, I've become a better driver. But along with that, my equipment got better.

"It's amazing how much of a better driver you become when you have the equipment and the people around you."

But that's not to suggest that Jarrett struggled during his first four years with Yates. After finishing 13th in points in 1995, Jarrett placed in the top three in the championship three years in a row.

While finally capturing the Winston Cup title after a 15-year wait certainly was satisfying, Jarrett said he is not be content to rest on his laurels.

"When you win it, you almost don't want to accept anything else," he said. "As long as I race now, that's what I want to continue to try to do."