Conversation: Arnold Palmer/Dale Jarrett

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Honor, respect and achievement converged on Wednesday morning at Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Club as Palmer, the legendary professional golfer and course developer met with former NASCAR Cup champion Dale Jarrett.

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The duo had convened at the site of next weekend's Professional Golf Association tour stop, the Bay Hill Invitational, to celebrate this weekend's depiction of Jarrett's Robert Yates Racing team's "tribute to a legend."

For Sunday's Golden Corral 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Jarrett will drive a No. 88 UPS Ford with a paint scheme honoring Palmer's 50th participation in the Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club, April 5-11.

Before they teed it up, the duo sat down in front of a fireplace at Bay Hill with NASCAR.com's Dave Rodman to chat about the mental parallels of golf and racing, their alternate favorite golf and motorsports memories and whether Jarrett was really named after Arnie.

Q: Dale, rumor has it that you really were named after this guy. Is that true?

Jarrett: (laughing) That's what my parents tell me. My middle name is Arnold, so I'd like to claim that, anyways. I couldn't have a better role model than Mr. Palmer.

Q: It feels like after your dad, two-time NASCAR champion Ned Jarrett had so many trials and tribulations in the racing business he was almost trying to influence you to become a golfer, do you think?

Jarrett: I think certainly, knowing how difficult the sport was when my dad was racing in the late '50s and early '60s, if there could have been an easier way you always want something that's better and best for your children.

I think that as he started me playing golf, at about the age of nine, that that would have been his choice, for me to be a golfer. It's been a great game for me to be around, but I think I made the right choice in driving racecars.

Q: Arnold, how important to you is it that a driver of Dale's stature and background is the one that's going to celebrate your legacy this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway?

Palmer: Well, I've admired his driving, from a distance, although I did one trip to a race something like Atlanta at Homestead a few years ago (in 1999) when my friend Jim Pate was chairman of Pennzoil.

	Dale Jarrett and Arnold Palmer. Credit: Dave Rodman/TSI

I got to say hello to a lot of the guys (drivers) and of course, knowing this guy (Jarrett) is a pretty good golfer, that just made us a little closer and of course, what he's doing in racing is just fantastic.

Q: D.J., we know that this year's tournament is going to be Arnold's 50th Masters. You've had a tough life -- and I'm not kidding, with your racing schedule -- but how many Masters tournaments have you actually been able to attend?

Jarrett: It's been difficult to get there in person. I think I've been there three different times, either for a practice round or the opening round, and then obviously we're on to racing on the weekend.

I can remember winning the race at Martinsville a couple of years ago and sitting in my truck after all the Victory Lane celebration and interviews. I wouldn't let my transporter leave until I got finished watching The Masters.

That's how much the event means to me. I love to watch it, and to think that Mr. Palmer has been there now for 50 years is just incredible. That's an incredible feat that I'm sure will never be matched.

Q: DJ, do you have a favorite Masters memory, even if it was from afar?

Jarrett: Oh gosh, I think you're asking the wrong person that question. Mr. Palmer could probably talk about a lot more memories but I think there were a lot of different things.

Watching the different people and the different ways that they won the tournament. Mr. Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, the way Tiger Woods has gone about winning; and then the others that had the misfortune of looking like they were going to win and unfortunately they don't.

	Dale Jarrett's No. 88 Ford is decked out in green this weekend. Credit: Autostock

I liken it to trying to win the Daytona 500. That race is the ultimate, and you put everything into it. So to watch the great shots that some of these gentlemen make is just incredible.

Q: Arnold, conversely from your side, with your golfing career and your golf course development business, you're really busy, but do you have a notable racing memory?

Palmer: Well, I had a trip to Indianapolis one time that was a good one. Dale, did you know about this?

Jarrett: No, I didn't.

Palmer: I was doing a commercial out there at the track, and Rick Mears was going to give me a ride in one of these new Chrysler New Yorkers that were sitting there.

So Rick says, 'come on, Arnie, I'll take you for a ride around the track.' Well, everyone wanted to take part in that, so we ended up with five people in the car. We started around the track and it was fun -- we were enjoying it.

And he was putting the pedal through the metal. Of course, when we came back into the pits after a few trips around, in doing some thinking later about how fast we were going -- because the speedometer needle was way past the top -- Rick looked a little upset.

So I said, 'what's wrong?' And he said, 'you know, that wasn't very smart of me.' I said, 'why wasn't it?' And he said, 'we were running on the rims and if a tire had blown we might have gotten hurt.'

That's one of the things I really remember (laughing) because he did a great job. He was a pretty good driver, wasn't he, Dale?

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Jarrett: Yes, he was pretty good, I'd say (laughing).

Q: Arnold, as a Pennsylvania guy the first thing that might come to mind as an alternate career would be football, but if you would have had to think about an alternative sports career, what would it have been in?

Palmer: Well, in sports I'm not sure. I suppose I would think of flying, mostly, because I enjoy that. That would have been my alternative to being in golf, one way or another.

I like all sports. I played a little football, I played some basketball and I played baseball, so you know, I kind of got hooked into the golf business like Dale did in racing.

My father was a golf professional and it was something I was raised with, so it was very natural for me to get into golf.

Q: DJ, I think it goes without saying that golf might have been your choice, with the opportunity you had for college golf scholarships, but can you compare the mental duress you endure as a driver with the strain of standing over a potential winning putt on No. 18?

Jarrett: I think there are definitely some similarities there, even though in the racing business we have a team there with us.

	Dale Jarrett models his special Palmer tribute uniform. Credit: Autostock

With the driver in the car, it's you against the racetrack and the competitors and with what you go through, with the mental thinking you have to do, to either win a race or to make that putt on the last hole to win, there's a lot of stress there.

I think that the people that learn to deal with that the best are the ones that are successful, and that's no different in either business. It takes a lot to make that happen, and I've been fortunate in my career to get in that position quite a bit.

To get back to something that Mr. Palmer brought up a while ago. In 1999 I had the good fortune and the honor to play golf with him in Winston-Salem in a pro-am tournament there.

That was also the year that I won the Winston Cup championship and Mr. Palmer came to Homestead, where he was the Grand Marshal for the race at which I ultimately clinched the championship.

So it was a pretty special year for me. There were a lot of good memories and a lot of good things that happened.

Q: Arnold, again let's switch up. You've got the oil tank full of Pennzoil and a new set of Coopers on there, could you imagine running four-wide at a place like Talladega, in a race and how does that compare to standing over a potential winning putt?

Palmer: Well, as Dale says, it's something. It's tough. And of course, a lot of people think just driving a car or playing golf is just what it is. You hit a golf ball, you go find it and you hit it again.

There's a lot of thinking that goes into both sports. And I am absolutely amazed at the technicalities that these guys have to do with driving in a race. I've only learned that in the last few years, just from watching.

Because I know Dale and a couple other drivers, it became pretty interesting, with the tires and the wear on the tires; the fuel calculations and the weights. And you guys draft a lot, don't you?

Jarrett: Yes, we do.

Palmer: You never think about a car getting in back of another car and drafting. But you don't use as much fuel and you go faster. It's amazing what you do and of course, in golf we have a lot of things that are similar.

You know how to hit a shot, and of course you're always thinking about protecting against hitting a bad shot or the shot that may get you in trouble. I shouldn't have said the bad shot, because you don't think about the bad shot.

You think about where you want to put the ball and make the good shot all the time and that's part of the whole business of playing the game.

Q: Dale, I would bet that paint schemes, and even sponsors don't matter so much when you think about races you've won. But to win at Atlanta, carrying the "Tribute to the Legend" paint scheme, how special would that be?

Jarrett: It would certainly make the other 30 or 31 wins -- whatever it is -- pale in comparison, if I could make that happen. Certainly, that would be the fitting end for this tribute to a legend.

I think that we have a good opportunity to do that. I think that if we could make that happen that it would be the perfect honor to a gentleman that has meant so much, not only to the sport of golf, but to people in general, for the way that he's conducted his life.

Q: And Arnie, in a career that's had so many accolades and so many achievements, this weekend, to watch this Nextel Cup race at Atlanta, will you have a little bit more interest?

Palmer: Oh, definitely. I will be watching to see who the winner is, and how that all turns out. It's exciting and I'm looking forward to getting it started.