Dale Jarrett fondly recalls his 'welcome to NASCAR moment' came at Martinsville with The Intimidator. Credit: Autostock

10 Questions: Jarrett

Dale Jarrett couldn't be more excited than he is about the 2005 Nextel Cup season, after all he's again teamed with crew chief Mike Ford at Robert Yates Racing.

At the end of 2004, Jarrett and Ford had completed the overhaul of their No. 88 UPS Tauruses to a set of chassis that Jarrett was more comfortable with, and that Ford was more effectively tuning.

During Preseason Thunder testing at Daytona, Jarrett sat down to answer 10 questions not specifically directed at his racing career.

1. What's your dream vehicle that you don't already own?

I think in light of the new Ford GT-40 being released, with what I've seen of it, and having driven it once -- with Ford giving me the opportunity to do that -- that would be the vehicle that I would love to have right now.

2. If time on the road weren't an issue, what would be your ideal pet?

	Credit: Autostock
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Probably the two that we have right now. We have a cat and a yellow Lab, and the yellow Lab is probably as good a pet as you could possibly own.

Q: How do they get along?

The dog is OK with the cat, but the cat is a Siamese and she doesn't think much of the dog. But they're OK. When the cat is in the house, the dog is outside, so they're all right.

3. What's your biggest pet peeve while driving on the road?

People driving in the left lane on the Interstate that aren't going the speed limit. That bothers me more than anything.

4. What's your worst hotel experience?

Probably showing up at a hotel that I knew that I had reservations for and I got there, actually late at night. We had made sure the room was going to be there, but we did not have a room and there was not another room there. I didn't have anywhere to stay.

Q: I can think of a lot of religious implications to that -- like staying in a stable. But where did you end up staying?

I had to drive quite a ways to find a hotel so I wasn't very happy about that, because I don't like to get up all that early, So that meant I had to get up early to get to the track.

5. What's your favorite food?

Unfortunately, it's pizza. I've had to cut back on the intake of that, some, as I've gotten older -- but I love pizza.

Q: You and Ryan Newman both. So what's your favorite pizza joint?

Favorite pizza joint? Oh, gosh -- I don't know that I have a favorite, but we have a nice little place in Hickory called the Village Inn Pizza Parlor. It's been there for a long time, so that's probably our favorite.

6. If you had to choose, would it be being honest, or being nice?

Being honest is always the best policy. I think you can obviously do both -- but you've got to be honest with yourself and everyone else.

7. What's your fondest childhood memory?

Oh, wow -- I have a lot, having a good childhood and wonderful parents. I'd have to say that it would go back to the 1965 Southern 500, where my dad won the race.

We were there; the Camden High School band played the national anthem that day. My dad won the race by, like, 14 laps. We went to Victory Lane and Doc and Festus from Gunsmoke were in Victory Lane.

Victory LaneJimmie Johnson celebrates his first Bud Shootout win Race reactionHear from the top finishers in the Budweiser Shootout Segment 2The action heats up in Segment 2 of the Budweiser Shootout Missing a spark?Dale Earnhardt Jr. has troubles in Segment 1 Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

Then we went home. That race virtually clinched the championship for my dad, and when we got there it seemed like the whole town of Camden, S.C., was in our front yard.

Q: When you tell that story, and knowing a lot of modern day fans don't realize what Darlington has meant, does it make you even sadder that a historic place like Darlington has been cut to a single race?

Oh, there's no doubt. You can't replace history and what some of these places have done and meant to our sport. Yeah, maybe it's not quite as nice as some of the new places, but you can't find better racing or better memories than Darlington.

8. What would your dream date be? Where and with whom?

Obviously, with my wife, Kelley -- probably at a little place in the Bahamas that we like to go to. We usually try to get there at least once a year.

It's just a small place -- a little hotel where there's probably not usually 20 people on the little beach area. We just stay in a little hut there for three or four days and that kind of satisfies both of us for a little bit of time because we don't get enough of that one-on-one.

9. What's your worst prank, either perpetrated by you, or done to you?

Oh gosh -- that's a difficult question for me because I've been pretty fortunate. I'm not one to play a lot of pranks on people so people have left me alone.

I'm not sure that I have a good answer for that one. I've seen a lot of stuff take place from others.

I think one of the funniest stories was from a guy -- actually two guys -- that worked for me on my Busch team. The guy that drives my motorhome now was driving the hauler to Dover and the other guy was in the sleeper, with a CB radio back there with him.

He had closed the curtain and was talking to him like he was another trucker. The guy driving could never see or find this other truck, so it was a pretty comical story.

That went on for three or four hours before he figured out that the guy that was talking to him was right behind him.

10. What was your "Welcome to NASCAR" moment?

Probably my first race, in what was then the Winston Cup Series, in Martinsville, Va. I had raced the night before in Nashville, Tenn., in the Busch race because I was running the Busch Series full-time.

That had got delayed over there and we were late getting back in. I was flying with Darrell Waltrip and we had to land in Winston-Salem. We were driving to Martinsville and we literally were passing the crews as they were going to the racetrack and we were going to our hotel to catch a few hours sleep.

But that day, as we got down near the end of the race, even though I wasn't racing Dale Earnhardt for position, I had caught him and got on the inside of him going down the frontstretch to pass Dale Earnhardt in my first race.

I was running, I think, 14th but I was going to pass him and I drove it off in the corner really hard to make sure I got by him, and I slid up the track and he came back underneath me.

We did this about four times in a span of about seven laps, and it only took me four times to realize what he was doing to me. But I think that was my welcome -- and we laughed about that when it was over.