Conversation: Dale Jarrett

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Dale Jarrett's career in NASCAR Nextel Cup racing hit a low point in 2003 when Jarrett finished the lowest that he ever has -- 26th -- since he began running full-time in Cup.

But in his long career Jarrett has seen fortunes ebb and flow, and so he did nothing drastic in the interim.

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But what the 1999 NASCAR champion and his owner, Robert Yates, did do was make the changes that would enable Jarrett and his teammate, Elliott Sadler, to maintain positions at the front of the Nextel Cup Series on a weekly basis.

The first three races this season have shown the moves, which include new crew chief Mike Ford and an engine alliance with Roush Racing, are paying off.

Jarrett took a break Wednesday before a golf outing at the Bay Hill Club to talk with NASCAR.COM senior writer Dave Rodman about subjects ranging from his career turnaround to the prospect of his daughters driving to Nextel Cup's new set-up package for this weekend's Golden Corral 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Q: You got a chance to drive a Ford GT last week at Homestead. That got me thinking about your daughter, Natalee, being about ready to get her driver's license. Have you picked out her first car, yet?

	Jarrett will run this Arnold Palmer tribute paint scheme at Atlanta. Credit: TSI

Dale Jarrett: Yeah, I've been thinking about it a lot, as a matter of fact. It's coming up for her to start driving in a few weeks. She won't be driving a Ford GT, but just the thought of her out driving is a little bit scary.

Natalee is very mature for her age and I think that she respects what can happen in a car. But even more than her, I worry about the other people out there, and having a teenage daughter starting to drive makes me know that it's going to be a lot of fun.

Then again, I've got a lot of confidence in her.

Q: With everything Natalee and Karsyn have done together in athletics, are they going to be sharing this first car when Karsyn is old enough to drive?

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Dale Jarrett: It's only going to be a couple of years before there's more expense because Karsyn is not going to have any of that hand-me-down stuff. She's going to say "my sister got a car of hers and I want one of my own."

That's fine -- that's probably the way that it should be. But they will do a lot together. Natalee especially is going to become the new taxi service. Instead of mom having to be everywhere, now she'll have to carry Karsyn around for a while and hopefully Karsyn will appreciate that.

Q: Seriously, with Dale Jarrett Ford being a major dealership, did you select the car or has Natalee taken advantage of that to walk the lot and pick out her car?

	Jarrett meets with Arnold Palmer at Bay Hill in Miami recently. Credit: TSI

Dale Jarrett: You know, we talked about it for a long time and it was interesting some of the vehicles that she came up with. I said, "You know, Ford doesn't make those."

So she said, "You mean, I have to have a Ford?" And I said, "well, yeah." When it came to that point she had a couple of choices, but she eventually said, "This is what I'd like, but y'all make the choice and you pick the color and surprise me."

She wanted it to be more of a surprise so it will be there ready for her. She's getting a Ford Explorer. It's a very safe vehicle and something she can haul her brother and her sister around and all their basketball and soccer and baseball stuff in the back -- so it's a multi-purpose vehicle.

Q: I know you're not where you want to be with the 88 UPS Ford, but you've turned the corner. What would you say is the biggest element in the turnaround you guys have fashioned?

Dale Jarrett: I think the biggest thing has probably been Mike Ford's leadership, and myself and the rest of the team having confidence in Mike's abilities.

Coming in, he knew there were a lot of things that needed to be changed here and he was willing to make those changes. Our guys have fallen right in with him and that includes our teammates, Todd Parrott and Elliott Sadler getting onboard there too.

	In February, Jarrett started off his season by winning the Bud Shootout. Credit: Autostock

I think we knew that we were in trouble as a race team and that Mike's leadership and his abilities have helped us tremendously. We have some areas to get better in, but you know, other than a freak deal with a rock tearing off our timing belt at Rockingham, we're just that little bit away from both cars being in the top-five in points.

We feel pretty strongly about where we're at. We know we have room for improvement, but we know we have time to get there.

Q: Two races into the latest "new era," with the new aero package and the new tires, would you give it an unqualified endorsement?

Dale Jarrett: Well, I like the way that the racing is going, but I don't think that it's going as well as we need it to be for the fans' sake. The racing hasn't been what you'd call spectacular, at Rockingham and Las Vegas.

But I think we need to give it a little bit more time simply to let people figure out this tire a little bit more and this aero package a little bit more and let's see how the racing goes the next five or six races.

Matt Kenseth and his team have figured it out and they've kind of made the show not look so good. There's been good racing back though the through the top 10, so I think we need to give it a little bit more time.

But I do like the way the tires wear and I like the fact that you have to come in and put on four tires. Some guys tried two at Las Vegas and that didn't work. I like that idea.

	Jarrett chats with Nextel Cup rookie Brian Vickers. Credit: Autostock

It doesn't come down to that fuel mileage and that hard tire situation any more.

Q: Specifically, how do you see it playing out this weekend at Atlanta?

Dale Jarrett: That's another place that you're going to have to take care of the tires, too, because Atlanta is probably our fastest racetrack and it has long corners.

You have a mile-and-a-half racetrack that has tremendously long corners. If you want to run the car extremely hard you can make that happen but you're going to use up the rear tires -- especially the right rear tire.

If you do that in the first 20 laps then the next 40 laps of a fuel run your car is not going to be very good, so you're going to have to get that balance as to what you want to do.