Dale Jarrett sped his Ford Fusion to a session-best speed of 189.215 mph Wednesday morning. Credit: CIA Stock Photo

Jarrett admits times tougher on Cup circuit

Former champ remains positive in quest for first Chase appearance

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Dale Jarrett's been racing at NASCAR's premier level for so long it's no effort for him to take a big-picture look at how the 2006 Nextel Cup Series championship might shake out.

And he knows his new-look No. 88 Robert Yates Racing Ford team has a tough task ahead of it if Jarrett is to make his first Chase for the Nextel Cup.

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In fact, when asked to rate his team, Jarrett refused to quote an exact ranking.

"As far as a number, you'd be hard pressed to say that right now looking at it that you could put us any better than really the 15th spot that we finished in the points last year," Jarrett said. "Simply because there are a lot of unknowns with our race team right now.

"If you look at it on paper, and obviously that doesn't get to the playing field or the racetrack in this case -- that's why we go out and have the races -- but if you look at it we've improved our team immensely in a lot of areas.

"We have a better product with the Ford Fusion. We have a better engineering staff than we've ever had at Robert Yates Racing and we have two very hungry crew chiefs that have come in to take over and lead this group.

"So I would say that the potential is there for both teams to be in the top 10 and make the Chase -- it's just a matter of us going out and making that happen now."

Yates actually has a pair of crew chiefs who began last year working for owner Ray Evernham. Slugger Labbe will head Jarrett's team after leading Jeremy Mayfield to his second consecutive Chase berth.

Tommy Baldwin will be teammate Elliott Sadler's chief mechanic after serving as Kasey Kahne's crew chief the past two seasons.

Jarrett's 1999 Winston Cup championship means little now in relation to how difficult it is to piece together a title-contending season in 2006, he said at Preseason Thunder at Daytona International Speedway.

"I remember something that someone said a long time ago, whether it's winning a race or winning the title -- that part hasn't changed because you still have to beat everybody else to do that," Jarrett said. "But I think because of the level of competition [it's different now].

Dale Jarrett testing Monday morning session Pos. Car Speed 15. 88a 185.227 25. 88b 184.691 Monday afternoon testing Pos. Car Speed 23. 88b 185.395 26. 88a 185.288 Tuesday morning session Pos. Car Speed 17. 88a 184.260 35. 88b 183.009 Tuesday afternoon session Pos. Car Speed 4. 88b 186.544 34. 88a 183.775 Wednesday morning session Pos. Car Speed 1. 88b 189.215 Wednesday afternoon session Pos. Car Speed 28. 88b 188.225 PRESEASON THUNDER •   Complete testing speeds

"It used to be, and I'll go back to '99, if we had an off day we could still run in the top 10 most of the time. I think I'm right in saying that in that year we finished in the top 10 29 out of 34 races -- and in some of those days we didn't run extremely well.

"But because the competition wasn't as keen as it is now, you can have a pretty reasonable day in this day and time and be lucky if you run in the top 15.

"So things have changed that much, so when you see that you realize if you have just a little bit of an off day you're gonna finish outside of the top 20 and those points don't add up very fast.

"So that's what makes it more difficult now because you have so many teams there that can make you go from a reasonable day to a really bad day with either just missing the setup or having a slight problem.

"I think that's why it becomes so much more difficult to get in the Chase, and then from that point on to go on and win the championship."

One thing Jarrett does have a fix on is winning the Daytona 500 -- a feat he's accomplished three times: in 1993, 1996 and 2000. He's also the defending Bud Pole winner for the race.

Jarrett and Labbe, who himself won the "Great American Race" in 1991 with Michael Waltrip, hope the new Ford Fusion will be an effective enough weapon to get the job done.

"Yeah, you like to think every time you come here you have that opportunity at least," Jarrett said. "But you look at it and we've had kind of a dry spell as far as running well here.

"We've won some poles and things, but that's not really what we're after. We're after trophies, but that's the wrong trophy."

Jarrett's victory is the last by a Ford in the Daytona 500, so Jarrett and Sadler took advantage of their split schedule of Daytona testing to get a baseline with Sadler's No. 38 Fusions and then incorporate some changes into one of Jarrett's cars.

Slugger Labbe's job is to find a way to get the No. 88 in the Chase. Credit: Autostock

"I believe that with the change to the Fusion that that's gonna allow the Fords to get themselves in a position to be more of a factor in the Daytona 500 this year," Jarrett said. "If you look back you probably won't see many laps led by a Ford [since 2000].

"So I believe the Fusion is gonna allow us to, again, be more competitive and have that opportunity again, so I'm excited about it."

The most critical element, Jarrett said, is the chassis changes his crew made based on the information from Sadler's test.

"We made some chassis changes with one of our cars to hopefully get a piece that would really drive much better than what we've had here the last three or four times," Jarrett said. "This has become such a handling racetrack.

"I told the guys over the winter, 'I'm willing to give up some speed, if we can get me something that I know come Sunday afternoon in the Daytona 500 -- while the other guys are maybe having to feather the gas a little bit in different parts of the corner -- if I can stay wide open, then that's what I'm after.'

"I spoke with [Sadler] every day after his test last week, and we were kind of fighting the same thing, so once we saw that and once his drafting practice was over on Wednesday -- actually after the morning session was over -- we started making some serious changes to one of the chassis of our cars.

"So we feel like it's totally off the wall from what we've done in the past, and that's the kind of thing that Tommy Baldwin and Slugger have brought to our team because what we were doing was different than what they've done.

"Obviously, Slugger has had quite a bit of success here over the years -- even since we've had our success -- so things have changed and what they've brought to us is a better driving car."