Jarrett grateful for successful career
Retiring NASCAR veteran Dale Jarrett is grateful of his long and successful career at the top level, which came to an end last weekend when he competed in the Sprint All-Star Challenge at Lowe's Motor Speedway
The 1999 Cup champion had already made his final points start at Bristol but went on to race one final time in the more relaxed environment of the All-Star race, where he finished in 21st place.
"It's over - we've done it. It's been great and I wouldn't do anything different," Jarrett said after making his final Sprint Cup start.
"As I'll think back on my career I guess there is one word that comes to my mind and it's just fortunate that I was able to be part of a great sport in a time that it probably was gaining its biggest growth over the years."
Jarrett's greatest memories are from his years driving for Robert Yates Racing, besides a couple of seasons with Joe Gibbs Racing. Over that period of time he claimed his Cup title and 31 of his 32 victories, the last of them dating back to 2005 at Talladega.
"I should probably back it up from 1993 on, basically from 1993 to 2004 and 2005," he said. "That was a 10 or 11 year span that was just fantastic. You always hear about people loving to get up every day because they love to go to their job and that's what I was.
"I was mad on Sunday nights not because we had a bad day, but because I had to wait four more days before I could get back in the race car. That's how good it was and you wanted to do that every single day."
The 51-year-old refused to say he would never return again behind the wheel, but stated that only a request from his long-time sponsor UPS would ever change that. However, he doesn't see a change in his current plans anytime soon.
"I hate to use the word never, but I have no plans whatsoever of getting back in the car," said Jarrett. "And I can't even come up with a scenario. I've said a couple of times the only reason I would ever consider it would be because of something that UPS wanted me to do.
"That's my plan right now and I just don't see anything changing that. I've told this to my family and I've told it to the fans."
Jarrett will remain involved in NASCAR as race analyst for ESPN in their Nationwide Series broadcasts.
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