ESPN2 announce team will reunite three old friends

If the three people in the booth for ESPN2's live coverage of Friday night's NASCAR Busch Series race from Phoenix International Raceway sound as if they are very familiar with each other, there's a good reason: they are.

Jerry Punch, lead announcer, and analysts Andy Petree and Dale Jarrett are all originally from Newton, N.C. and all graduated from Newton-Conover High School. More than 25 years ago, all three worked together on a fledgling racing team and each of them have gone on to stellar accomplishments in their chosen professions. Now fate has brought them back together to call the action of a NASCAR race on television as they work together in the booth for the first time.

"To me it's the epitome of the American dream," said Punch, whose career path from Newton led him to becoming an emergency room physician before returning to his first love of motorsports as an announcer for ESPN. "You've got three boys from a small town in rural western North Carolina who chased their dreams, and then it comes back to us standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the booth to bring a NASCAR race to an audience on national TV. It just doesn't get any better than that."

Jarrett followed the footsteps of his father, Ned, a two-time NASCAR champion, into driving, and his career has resulted in the 1999 Cup championship, as well as 32 Nextel Cup and 11 Busch Series wins. While still an active driver, he is now following his father again as Ned was a popular analyst on ESPN's coverage of NASCAR from 1988-2000. Jarrett made his debut with ESPN last week and will work on 10 Busch Series race telecasts this season while filling in for ESPN's lead motorsports analyst Rusty Wallace.

Petree won two NASCAR Cup championships as a crew chief for the late Dale Earnhardt and helped steer Harry Gant to numerous victories as well. He later won races with his own team, and drove in some Busch Series and Craftsman Truck Series races. He made his television debut earlier this year and has quickly developed a style that has caught on with fans.

In 1977, just as Jarrett was trying to start his racing career, Petree, a high school friend, was with him as they formed DAJ Racing to run in the limited sportsman class at Hickory (N.C.) Speedway. The "D" in DAJ stood for Dale, the "A" for Andy and the "J" for another Newton friend, Jimmy Newsome. Punch, who by that time was in medical school at Wake Forest University, would help out on weekends.

"Even though it's been a lot of years ago, it doesn't seem that long ago that we were riding down the streets of Newton," said Jarrett. "I was driving a pickup truck and we had an engine in the back, and Jerry and Andy were back there holding it so it wouldn't turn over and we were going to our small little race shop in downtown Newton."

"It was a small garage behind a florist," said Punch. "It had a dirt floor and one light bulb hanging down."

Punch, who was on a planned vacation for the past two weekends, said he called Jarrett after Saturday's race telecast from Texas Motor Speedway and congratulated his old friend on his debut. "He's a natural on television," Punch said of Jarrett. "I told him that when I turned on the TV, I was reminded of his dad, and that he gave the audience a hug through the TV screen, Ned Jarrett style."

ESPN2 will have a live, primetime telecast of Friday night's Busch Series race from Phoenix, beginning with the pre-race NASCAR Countdown show at 9 p.m. ET. Working with Punch, Petree and Jarrett will be pit reporters Allen Bestwick, Dave Burns, Jamie Little and Vince Welch.

"I'm really looking forward to it from both a professional and personal standpoint," said Petree. "Dale and I started our careers together and it's neat getting us back together in the booth. We had never worked together in television until last week, but being a good friend and someone I've known a long time, the chemistry was automatic."

"This is going to be fun," said Jarrett. "You'll have three guys in the booth that have literally grown up around this sport and love the sport and love to talk about it. I've watched and listened to Jerry and Andy and they do a terrific job, as does Rusty, and hopefully I can be a pretty good fill in, that we'll show that we really do enjoy the sport and know something about it and the fans will be the winners."