Personnel problems and bad chassis force 1999 series champion to rebuild from ground up.
By JOANNE KORTH
Published July 2, 2003
Normally, the golf course is a perfect place for Dale Jarrett to relax, to clear his mind of all things related to racing.
Not this season.
Even when he reaches for a driver, he thinks about driving.
"I used to say that the golf course was a good place to get away, but right now, there's not any getting away. There's nowhere," said Jarrett, a scratch golfer who has spent most of the Winston Cup season scratching his head. "As I'm sitting and thinking, it's totally about this race team and what I can do as a driver to do my job better and how we're going to pull out of this."
Jarrett, who drives the No.88 Ford, is having his worst season since joining Robert Yates Racing in 1995. The popular veteran is 29th in the standings and has failed to finish five of the past seven races, bringing his DNF total to a series-high six.
Who could relax?
"If you look back over the history of this sport, I think every single race team - no matter how good they were - has been through this type of situation," said Jarrett, the 1999 champion. "You just have to fight back and work through it."
As NASCAR returns to Daytona International Speedway for Saturday's Pepsi 400, Jarrett's free fall ranks among the biggest surprises of 2003. A season that began with optimism quickly gave way to personnel problems and the need to rebuild.
In February, Jarrett won at Rockingham to extend to 11 his streak of consecutive seasons with at least one victory, the longest active streak in Winston Cup. But since then, he has just one top 10 to offset seven finishes of 36th or worse in 14 races.
"To say it's been a struggle is probably putting it mildly," Jarrett said. "It definitely has been that with personnel changes and problems on the race track as far as getting our cars to handle. We found a lot of things aerodynamically in our chassis that seem to make us feel that we're starting to right this ship. We've done a lot of work over the last few weeks."
In April, the Parrott brothers - team manager Todd and crew chief Brad - were released. Shawn Parker, the car chief on teammate Elliott Sadler's team, became Jarrett's crew chief. And everyone at RYR went back to the drawing board when it became apparent that no two of the team's in-house chassis were exactly alike.
"There are little changes in each of them," Jarrett said. "So, we're getting back to the basics and I think that's where you have to start when you get in a situation like this."
Jarrett believes the team is making progress, though his results certainly do not show it. He is resigned to what likely will be a lengthy rebuilding process.
"We have to realize this isn't something that's going to change overnight," said Jarrett, whose four Daytona victories match Jeff Gordon and Bill Elliott for most among active drivers. "The problem we have is that we run so many tracks. What we think we're doing to make things better for us may work at some tracks, and then we get to a different type of track. It could take a while."
Jarrett, who lives in Hickory, N.C., has been dropping by RYR's new shop in Mooresville, N.C., on a regular basis to pat people on the back and keep morale high. With Parker and car chief Jason Burdett in place, Jarrett is optimistic.
"You know you have all the pieces of the puzzle and you can be successful, but there are a lot of teams out there like that," he said. "We just have to keep our heads up and keep digging. There's no substitute for determination and hard work and effort."
And no peace for Jarrett until the problems are solved.
