Jarrett looks for success with new crew chief

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Like many Winston Cup teams, Dale Jarrett's No. 88 experienced change during the offseason.

	Dale Jarrett has finished in the top 10 in Winston Cup points each year since 1995. Credit: Autostock

Not the wholesale dismantling or pink-slipping variety, but the kind of key moves that reverberate from driver to shop janitor.

After a sour season -- Jarrett finished ninth in the final 2002 point standings -- longtime crew chief Todd Parrott has assumed new duties. Younger brother Brad Parrott is Jarrett's new chief, and those moves, coupled with a few hires and strategic reorganization, have revamped Robert Yates Racing's signature team.

"I'm really excited," said Jarrett, who's participating in NASCAR's second three-day preseason test session at Daytona International Speedway. "I like what I see going on at the race shop. I like what I see here at the racetrack, so far. So it's kind of brought a new energy to our team."

Already, the changes are working on more than attitudes. Jarrett was third-fastest among 26 drivers in Tuesday's first two sessions -- at 183.083 mph. He was third-fastest in Wednesday's morning session (182.448 mph), and fastest in the afternoon (183.064 mph). And that's with not much quality time.

Todd Parrott was named RYR's director of competition on Dec. 18, the same day his brother succeeded him, and though barely a month has passed, Jarrett is ecstatic about the synergy.

"You always have to have something a little bit new going on," Jarrett said, "and I think that kind of the unknown, sometimes, is a little bit exciting, because you don't know exactly what you can achieve and accomplish."

Jarrett hasn't lacked for accomplishment at RYR. Until last season, the 1999 Winston Cup champion had finished in the top five every season since 1995, the year he joined RYR. From 1996 to 2001, he and Todd Parrott were one of the Cup garage's top driver-chief combinations.

But the magic waned before last season. As Parrott's responsibilities and exhaustion levels increased, Jimmy Elledge was imported to be Jarrett's 2002 crew chief. Parrott ascended to team manager, but he and Elledge never clicked because too many wills conflicted early, and Elledge left RYR at the end of March.

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Thrown back atop the pit box, Parrott remained there, literally, through the Nov. 16 season finale at Homestead, and figuratively, until a December meeting with Doug Yates. The latter, who begins 2003 as RYR's new general manager, sparked Parrott's interest in the director of competition job (it includes overseeing RYR's other team, Elliott Sadler's No. 38 and crew chief Raymond Fox III). So Parrott again leaped off the box.

"He's the one that sat down and said, 'What do you think?'" Parrott said of Doug Yates. "I had to think about it a couple of days because of what happened last year. I wanted to make sure that I didn't make the wrong decision or get the wrong person or just do the wrong thing. And I think working with Raymond and Brad, I'll be able to give them a lot of experience and support."

Parrott says it's increasingly difficult for crew chiefs to manage all the things they must. He welcomes the challenge of directing RYR's research and development, testing, chassis design and fabrication. He no longer sweats personnel matters, and he gets to work with both RYR teams. He's also 20 pounds slimmer, more at ease with personal issues that plagued him last season and ready to concentrate only on his corner of RYR's world.

"Last week here for three days was probably the most fun I've had in a year, at the race track," Parrott said of Sadler's test. "I'm enjoying it. It's just a different stress level."

"Everyone was in agreement with this," said Jarrett, who didn't want to lose Parrott. "It wasn't that I was saying that we need to do this, or Todd was saying [it]. We all sat down and agreed on what we needed to do and then we moved forward from that."

The day-to-day calls now belong to Brad Parrott. He and Todd grew up under the influence of their father, Buddy, one of the garage's best-known crew chiefs, and Brad spent six seasons (1996-2001) tutoring under his older brother on Jarrett's team.

He worked his way up to assistant crew chief and spent the 2002 season as the crew chief for Jeff Burton's No. 9 Busch Series team. The two combined for five victories in 13 races, with Parrott ultimately validating himself as a pit boss.

"Brad was the obvious choice here because he'd worked with our race team -- someone that I knew and respected -- and he's matured a lot," Jarrett said. "We've been able to see that maturity. I think what we've seen is a young man that's really eager to show what he can do."

Of the two brothers, Brad is the more outgoing. Todd is quieter, more mechanical- and technical-minded. So it's Brad who has reorganized the No. 88 personnel, utilizing a couple of extra engineers hired by Doug Yates, and bringing his Busch Series car chief, Darrell Morrow, along for the ride. The younger Parrott, who grew up with Fox -- their fathers also were childhood friends -- says the No. 88 and No. 38 teams will freely exchange information. At the track, Brad Parrott will team with engineer Garth Finley and shock specialist Chris Hill to form Jarrett's "offensive" brain trust.

"Plain and simple, I told those guys anytime they felt I was wrong, to step up to the plate," Brad Parrott said. "Because I've been there, I know what they're feeling. I want them to tell me what they're feeling. The final call will be Brad Parrott's, the crew chief, but it's going to be with the intention of having input from all my offensive guys."

Neither brother is worried about an authority clash.

"Well, we're not going to because that affects the people part of it," Brad Parrott said. "If we ever get into it again, it'll be in his motor home or it'll be in my hotel room. But we love each other very much, and we have great respect for each other."

"He knows what I like," Todd Parrott said. "He knows how I like things, and what a perfectionist I am, and he knows I expect the same thing out of him. So I'm real excited about it."

Jarrett says Brad Parrott's fresh perspective -- particularly with other team members -- already has paid dividends.

"You think on the surface it all looks good," Jarrett said of last year's failed experiment. "And this is the same way. It all looks good and makes sense. But you have the feel about this -- that this is something that really is going to work."