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JOANNE KORTHAfter an awful 2003, the veteran and his team did some revamping and the early returns are positive.
Dale Jarrett needed a sign.
Days before the Nextel Cup season was to begin, Jarrett was armed with a new crew chief, a new team manager, a newly-designed Ford Taurus and new confidence. What he needed was an indication his results would be new as well.
Then he teed off.
"When I hit a good driver the other day at the golf tournament, that kind of told me," said Jarrett, a near-scratch golfer. "Because my golf game stunk last year, too."
Coming off the worst season since his rookie year in 1987, Jarrett is off to a strong start with a victory in the Bud Shootout and 10th place in the Daytona 500. He returns this weekend to North Carolina Speedway as defending winner of the Subway 400.
"I don't know that there's anybody out here who appreciates starting over and having a clean slate as much as we do this year," said Jarrett, 47, the 1999 series champion. "I'm looking forward to the opportunity to make amends for what was just a terrible season at Robert Yates Racing last year."
Of course, Jarrett did this a year ago. With a new crew chief, Brad Parrott, calling the shots, Jarrett followed a 10th-place finish in the 2003 Daytona 500 with his 31st career victory, outdueling Kurt Busch in a paint-swappin' finish at the 1.017-mile track in Rockingham, N.C., known as the Rock.
Jarrett extended his series-leading streak of consecutive seasons with at least one victory to 11. Good thing he got it out of the way early.
"It was a shining moment in a difficult season," Jarrett said.
Soon, the promising start dissolved into disarray. By season's end, Jarrett was on his third crew chief and ranked 26th in points, snapping his streak of seven consecutive seasons among the top 10.
"I don't know that I can really put it into words how frustrating it was because it was different," Jarrett said. "You keep trying. You keep working."
While most at RYR agreed the cars prepared for Jarrett and first-year teammate Elliott Sadler were not up to snuff, Jarrett wondered whether he might be the problem. Having advised many young drivers through the years not to overdrive their cars, Jarrett caught himself trying to do too much with too little.
"It was difficult, but we've put that behind us," said Jarrett, signed to drive for RYR through 2006. "We never expected to have a season like that. You put 2003 behind you. That was probably the longest year I can ever remember, but it's over with now and we've done a lot of things in the offseason to get ourselves prepared to make a better effort than last year."
Late last season, Yates brought in Eddie D'Hondt to serve as team manager for an outfit badly in need of organization. During the offseason, he hired crew chief Mike Ford, who spent the past three seasons with Bill Elliott at Evernham Motorsports. Ford was an original member of the No. 88 team, serving as a mechanic and jackman on race day from 1996-99, including Jarrett's championship year.
"I've been very pleased with what I've seen in Mike with his organizational skills and his people skills," Jarrett said. "I can see what he has learned as Bill Elliott's crew chief and what he knows about the cars. He is going to fit my style and I'm really looking forward to it."
Jarrett also is benefiting from an improved Taurus, which has a more aerodynamic nose and tail for 2004. Under the hood, Robert Yates Racing is known for building powerful engines. But an unlikely alliance with rival Roush Racing appears to be helping both teams maximize power and efficiency as Ford tries to keep pace with the Chevrolet and Dodge camps.
"Our assembly with their tuning techniques seemed to make a real difference," Jarrett said. "I think we're already seeing benefits. And the teams are even talking and sharing information about chassis setups, so this may go further than I thought at the beginning."
Robert Yates Racing enjoyed a successful Speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway. Sadler won his 125-mile qualifying race, started on the front row for the 500 and finished seventh. Jarrett won the nonpoints Bud Shootout, had the fifth-fastest qualifying speed for the 500 and finished 10th.
So far, the signs are good.
"This isn't to sit here and say that we're all the way back," Jarrett said after winning the Bud Shootout at Daytona International Speedway. "But we are a much better race team. We're going to be a lot more competitive."