| | Before I say anything else, let me say this: Dale Jarrett had a championship season.
Yes, he was consistent. Yes, some other contenders had trouble along the way. And yes, Jarrett avoided the problems that had plagued him in past seasons.
But no, he wasn't just consistent. And no, Jeff Gordon, Bobby Labonte and Mark Martin did not have terrible years. Jarrett just had a championship season. And, while I may say it a few more times before I'm through, I just want to drive home the point: Jarrett had a championship season.
|  | | If he was anything in 1999, Dale Jarrett was consistent. But he also turned into a worthy champion. |
I say this because there are some similarities to my 1973 championship season and the year D.J. enjoyed in 1999. My car was very consistent, I finished in the top five a great deal and I sort of surprised a few people by winning the '73 Winston Cup.
When you look at Jarrett's numbers leading up to his title-clinching run Sunday at Homestead, he had 23 top-five finishes and 28 top 10s. Throw out his Daytona 500 crash and trouble-filled night in Bristol and Jarrett's worse finish was 18th.
But, before I start linking the two of us together in the history books, I want to make sure you understand I think Jarrett's season becomes much more impressive than mine when you consider the following. Sure, Jarrett was consistent, but his championship didn't come because he was just consistent.
While I won just once in 1973 and finished in the top five on a regular basis, Jarrett won four races on his way to the Winston Cup. Jarrett also ran well enough to win three, four, or maybe five more times throughout the year.
My championship season was really about consistency more than anything else. I seemed to be good enough to finish in the top five each week. But I was not that threat to win each and every week like Jarrett was this season.
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Jarrett vs. The Champs
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Here is how Dale Jarrett's season compares to other champions in the 1990s:
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DALE JARRETT
Races: 33*
Wins: 4
Top 5s: 23
Top 10s: 28
(*One race remaining)
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JEFF GORDON '98
Races: 33
Wins: 13
Top 5s: 26
Top 10s: 28
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JEFF GORDON '97
Races: 32
Wins: 10
Top 5s: 22
Top 10s: 23
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TERRY LABONTE '96
Races: 31
Wins: 2
Top 5s: 21
Top 10s: 24
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JEFF GORDON '95
Races: 31
Wins: 7
Top 5s: 10
Top 10s: 16
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DALE EARNHARDT '94
Races: 31
Wins: 4
Top 5s: 20
Top 10s: 25
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DALE EARNHARDT '93
Races: 30
Wins: 6
Top 5s: 17
Top 10s: 21
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If you were to ask those guys in the No. 88 garage, Todd Parrott and Jarrett will tell you there were races that slipped though their fingers at the end. Really, how many times did we hear Jarrett say his car had no chance to win? Not many.
But it was those little things that went wrong at the end of races that deprived them of more wins. Things that weren't big enough to knock 'em out of the top five, but things like a flat tire, or the wrong set of tires, the weather, or little adjustments on the car at the end that left the 88 a little off the winner's pace.
Nobody, however, was able to keep up the pace Jarrett set over the entire season. And that's why the word consistency will be linked to his season. But again, Jarrett had a championship season. Not just a consistent season.
Another thing Jarrett was able to do each week was cover up any mistakes he or the team may have made. There were races this season when the No. 88 team had a chance to drop the ball. I look back at Sears Point as a prime example of how the No. 88 never showed a weakness -- even when it wasn't as strong as it needed to be.
Out in California, Jarrett qualified 29th! And he was racing on a road course, something he's never been fond of doing. Come race day, he ran way back in the pack for much of the day. I just knew he was going to have a terrible day. But you know what happened when the race was over? He had finished a career-best sixth on the road.
It was about that time when I said to myself, "I don't know how they are going to beat this guy."
But Sears Point wasn't the only time Jarrett's points lead avoided a big hit. There were more than a few times during the year when I'd look up during a race and see where the No. 88 was running and it wasn't good. But by the end of the day, he was right where he needed to be to move on to the next track with a healthy lead.
That says all you need to know about not only Jarrett, but the entire No. 88 team. That whole crew fought back from some tough odds this year to get some great finishes. Some championship finishes.
Jarrett and the team did everything they had to do to win a championship. When they qualified poorly, they worked their way through the field -- without wrecking or getting into any kind of trouble. They were just phenomenal.
You know who else was phenomenal? Robert Yates.
Here's a guy who has been the premier engine builder in this sport for years. But when you are considered the premier builder, you always have to take those motors to the edge. You always have to try new things to find that extra five horsepower. Over the years, Yates has been the first to take his engines to the edge, and he's sometimes fallen off into "Never, Never Land." That's when his engines blew up and Jarrett had those two or three title-depriving DNFs during the season.
But this year, Robert and Doug Yates made sure that their engine shop dedicated itself to finishing races. They didn't go over the edge. Sure, they went right to the edge, and even looked over the edge. But they took a step back and their engines were just marvelous.
Some have also compared Jarrett's championship to mine in a area which I'll agree we share. We both sort of broke up runs of success by dominant drivers in our eras. My title came during a time when Richard Petty ruled the track and Junior Johnson was building a championship team around Cale Yarborough.
Petty won Winston Cup titles the two years prior to my championship, and the two years after my '73 season. Yarborough would win three straight titles from 1976-78, after Petty won his fourth crown in five years in 1975.
Jarrett's championship ends a four-year run by Rick Hendrick with Gordon (1995, 97-98) and Terry Labonte (1996). His 88 Taurus is also the first Ford to win since Alan Kulwicki in 1992.
But in reality, my championship was much more unexpected. And that's a compliment to Jarrett. As dominating as Petty and Johnson's cars were back in the 70's, I easily would have been a 100-1 underdog to win the Winston Cup in 1973. Jarrett, meanwhile, has been right there the past couple of years, knocking on the door.
Jarrett isn't a guy who just showed up on the scene three years ago and won a title. He's been running Winston Cup full-time for 13 years, fighting his way to the top, and now finally has proven he belongs in the company of Gordon, Labonte, Rusty Wallace, Bill Elliott and the other champions he'll share the track with in the new millennium.
Jarrett will never have to prove himself as a racer again. He put together a championship season. No longer will he be introduced to strangers as, "This is Dale Jarrett, race car driver." From now on, it will be "This is Dale Jarrett, Winston Cup champion."
And that's pretty big.
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ALSO SEE
No. 88 in '99
Jarrett, Yates earn well-deserved championship
Yocum: Gamble pays off for Jarrett
Weber: Father knew best
Jarrett's hard drive to the top
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