 | | Dale Jarrett looks to stay ahead of familiar competition. Credit: Autostock |
By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
January 13, 2007
09:58 PM EST (02:58 GMT)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- How does Dale Jarrett feel about driving for the first full-time foreign manufacturer in NASCAR's premier stock car series? Jarrett said during Wednesday's lunch break on Day 3 of Jackson Hewitt Preseason Thunder that compared to driving a Ford built in Mexico or a Chevrolet built in Canada, he was perfectly happy to wheel a Toyota built in America. The proof of what Jarrett said on Wednesday will come, of course, when more than 50 teams unlimber their hardware in the same garage at Daytona International Speedway at next month's Speedweeks 2007. In a nutshell, Jarrett said that, rather than while away the last two years of his stellar Cup Series career at Robert Yates Racing -- where he felt like his progress had stagnated -- he needed a little jazzing up to his repertoire. So before the end of last season he announced he would drive the last two years of his 21-year career for Michael Waltrip's Toyota flagship team. "The motivation, I guess, was because I felt like whether it was me or a combination of myself and where I had been for 12 years -- it was like we were just kind of finishing out my career; it just wasn't new and exciting anymore," Jarrett said. "I just felt like a change like this was something that was exciting to me -- to think about the opportunity that I have to help a good friend of mine, Michael Waltrip, start up his race team. "I've been very impressed and was even before I took the job with everything that Michael and his people had done to get prepared for this; [so] to help him and Toyota come into the sport was a challenge I felt like would give me that energy and that fire inside of me again to really want to help and make this something special." Judging by his outlook on his current Toyota, fielded by Michael Waltrip Racing, and his former manufacturer, Ford -- it won't take long for the excitement to find him.  |  | | Dale Jarrett will team with Matt Borland in 2007. Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images |
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"We could talk for an hour about a lot of the stuff that I've thought about," Jarrett said, throwing a rhetorical question back at the busy interview room. "If everything stood still, then your jobs would be a lot harder. You would not be on laptops sending everything back [to your offices], and it would be a lot more difficult for you to do your job. "And it's the same [in the garage]. Things are not going to stand still. If we did that, again, things would be kind of boring for everybody -- if we didn't have that technology and that advanced technology to make things new and more exciting." That was Jarrett's view on advances in technology. He was even more pointed about the onus of Toyota being the first foreign manufacturer to compete full time in Cup. "As far as Toyota, sure, the parent company is foreign," Jarrett said. "We could get into the argument about where the Ford Fusion is built; every one of them are built in Mexico. The Monte Carlos are built in Canada. "So we could go through all that stuff and see who is right and who is wrong, but there are a lot of Toyotas that are built in the United States. They employ a lot of people. "They are a great car company -- probably not too far from being No. 1 in the world. But you're not going to get that across to some people, and I'm not going to try to and that's not my job or my plight to come out here and try to convince everybody that this is the right thing to do, for Toyota to be involved. "But we have to be accepting of change. If we don't, then you would still be watching 12-inch TV screens, and that's not a lot of fun whenever you've got everything else that's out there." Jarrett said, in the end, the new manufacturer would be good for the sport in a somewhat intangible way. | "As far as Toyota, sure, the parent company is foreign ... but there are a lot of Toyotas that are built in the United States."
- Dale Jarrett
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"Toyota is going to put a lot of dollars into the sport, and I don't mean the dollars in the way that a lot of people are talking about -- going and buying this and buying that and buying people," Jarrett said. "They are going to put a lot of dollars in promoting our sport, and that's going to be good for our sport as a whole." Jarrett was asked a blunt question about what he saw as Ford's status in the series, especially in the face of stepped-up manufacturer support by not only Toyota, but also Dodge, whose DaimlerChrysler parent company is based in Germany. "Well, [Ford] certainly can keep up," Jarrett said. "But I said this even since Dodge came in, I don't know how many years ago that it's been, [but] I think that they brought a new era into our sport, too, with a lot of engineering and a lot of support from that manufacturer. "And I think that Ford has slacked off a little bit in that respect over the years and they are still very strong. They have some very good teams out there, but they are going to -- it's going to continue to cost money to be successful in this sport. "And you have to be willing to put those dollars out there, and when the company itself is struggling a little bit, that makes it more difficult. "So they are going to have to realize, that's what they are going to have to do, and hopefully we'll start selling more Ford vehicles and that will help them. But from the technology side of it, I do think that they haven't put the effort there that the other manufacturers have." Jarrett said his Dale Jarrett Automotive Group would maintain its Ford store in Hickory, N.C., with a Suzuki store next door -- but that getting a Toyota franchise was never part of his decision to go to a Toyota team. "As far as the dealership goes, that process had been started well before I ever thought about driving a Toyota," Jarrett said. "My partners and I had explored that opportunity a little over two years ago, applied and got the application and sent it back to Toyota, and had been approved at that time. "Do I want to acquire a dealership? Absolutely, because it's a money-making operation, and that's what we're in business to do. So hopefully, that is down the road and hopefully maybe the first won't be somewhere in North Carolina [and] we are ready now to explore outside of North Carolina if we have to." But for at least two more years, Jarrett's a racer, and thus that's where his short-term goals are centered. "Thinking that we could make the Chase, that would be up there pretty far," Jarrett said. "A more realistic goal for us would be to be around that top 15 in the points in the first year. "I think that is attainable and you know, it would have been easy to go in and say, well, I think we can finish in the top 25 -- but that's not setting your goals very high, so you tend not to work as hard. "And we can get to Victory Lane, I think -- and I've stated a number of times that I would like to be that driver that took Toyota there first." | 
