Dale Jarrett: "We made good adjustments on the stop, then and on the last caution Mike (Ford, crew chief) made a couple of adjustments that really brought the car to life," Credit: Autostock

Jarrett ends skid with top-five at Dover

DOVER, Del. -- Top-five finishes in the Nextel Cup Series have been scarce for Dale Jarrett this season; but Sunday at Dover International Speedway, he earned his first top-five since Michigan -- about a month ago.

MBNA AMERICA 400 •   Photo Gallery •   Results •   Standings

Jarrett's No. 88 Ford was strong all day after starting 11th in the MBNA America 400, and he steadily improved to finish fourth.

In 27 previous races this season, Jarrett had only four top-fives on his way to 15th in the standings, and those came in a nine-race stretch between the Michigan International Speedway races in June and August.

"We had a good car today -- this UPS Ford ran well all day," Jarrett said. "We had one section there on the long green-flag run where I guess we wore both front tires out, I couldn't get it to turn and we lost a lot of ground."

MBNA 400 Videos Victory Lane Ryan Newman celebrates after leading 325 laps and winning at Dover Red Flag Matt Kenseth loses control entering pit road and jumps the retaining wall Double Whammy Brian Vickers tears up the front and back end of his car on Lap 48 Early Exit Kasey Kahne has engine troubles just 13 laps into the race Hard Hit J. Burton blows a tire, slams into the wall and his car starts on fire

Jarrett fell back at the start, but charged back to the top 10 by lap 40 and was never listed worse than 12th on any of the 10-lap rundowns for the remainder of the 400-lap grind. He fell to 12th at lap 280 when his tires were at their worst.

"We made good adjustments on the stop, then and on the last caution Mike (Ford, crew chief) made a couple of adjustments that really brought the car to life," Jarrett said. "I'm happy with that."

Jarrett's tear began when the team put in-house chassis into full effect through the summer and, after faltering in an attempt to get into the 10-race Chase for the Nextel Cup, Jarrett remained in 15th in the standings heading to Talladega Superspeedway next weekend.

However, he closed from 149 points out of 11th position in the standings, which pays a bonus of nearly a million dollars, but more importantly a spot on the stage at the season ending awards ceremony, to only 131 out with eight races remaining this season.

He felt Sunday's result was a harbinger of better things to come.

"It's a brand new racecar," he said of Sunday's weapon, "and now we've got two cars that run really good. We'll be running them most of the rest of the year."

Jarrett has victories at six of the eight remaining venues this season -- all but Homestead and Kansas Speedway.