FanHouse DaleJarrett

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Today marks the 51st running of the Daytona 500.

But for most Americans, NASCAR's green flag really dropped 30 years ago in the 1979 Daytona 500 when television carried flag-to-flag coverage of the sport's biggest race for the first time.

It was a dramatic finish -- Richard Petty edging Darrell Waltrip with the great Indy car champion A.J. Foyt keeping them honest. But it was "The Fight" going on in the infield after the race that captured the country's attention.

Here's what everyone will be talking about as the NASCAR haulers roll into Daytona International Speedway next month for the start of one the most unpredictable seasons in recent memory.

The last time backstretch tickets to the Daytona 500 were this cheap, Sterling Marlin pulled into Daytona victory lane to collect his second consecutive 500 trophy and a young Jeff Gordon went on to finish the season 34 points ahead of Dale Earnhardt to claim his first Winston Cup championship.

That was 14 years ago and America's interest in NASCAR was just being piqued. Corporate America was figuring out the sport's massive potential. Drivers were accessible, candid, genuinely grateful for any media coverage they could generate and still a bit surprised to be recognized by fans West of the Mississippi or north of the Mason Dixon.

It was NASCAR on-the-verge. Just as it is now.

Thanks to a new deal that the IRL IndyCar Series inked with the cable television network Versus in 2008, ESPN ended up with just five of the series' 17 2009 events after being the permanent home of the open wheelers for many years.

And, as a result, the Worldwide Leader ended up with a glut of talent for its broadcasting efforts -- forcing a few benefits into the hand of NASCAR television watchers.

Those benefits, as the broadcaster announced today with a press release, include expanded NASCAR roles for standard IndyCar lap-by-lap point man Marty Reid and longtime IndyCar pit reporter Vince Welch.

Reid, who I think is a much more exciting lap-by-lap guy than ESPN's Sprint Cup guy Jerry Punch (he reminds of the nearly always monotonous Joe Buck on FOX), will be taking on a more pronounced lap-by-lap role in the second half of the Nationwide Series season. In the past, Punch has been responsible for the majority of Nationwide and Sprint Cup broadcasts in the second half of the season.

And, as many of you know, 2009 won't be Reid's first Nationwide Series rodeo as the broadcaster has done a handful of races in the past two years in an effort to give Punch a break here and there.

David Ragan is ready to drive the truck.

Or, he's at least ready to drive the colors of the truck.

Roush Fenway Racing & UPS announced on Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway that Ragan would sport the brown and white colors of UPS on his No. 6 Ford starting in 2009 as the sponsor makes it's second high-profile move in three years.

While he didn't race it, Dale Jarrett finally hopped into the big, brown UPS truck Saturday prior to the Sprint All-Star Race XXIV during driver introductions.

Watch below as Jarrett takes the mammoth vehicle for a low-speed lap around the speedway:



I suppose you could say this is my way of honoring the former Sprint Cup champion who finished his career with an impressive 32 race wins in NASCAR's top series. Among those, were wins at Daytona, Charlotte, Darlington, and Indianapolis -- some of the sport's crown jewels.

Frankly, I know for a fact that I just simply couldn't write a a story about Jarrett that matches with some of the best stories that NASCAR writers can do, so I'll take my humble dose and let them tell the story of his incredible career.

Here's a few of my favorites from around the Web:

"Patience Has Its Rewards, Jarrett Finds"
- David Poole, Charlotte Observer

"Final Run: Jarrett Expects Emotion Outing"
- Rea White, NASCAR Scene

"Jarrett leaving behind Hall of Fame Career"
- NASCAR on FOX crew, FOX Sports

Here's to you, DJ.

With Dale Jarrett racing in his final points-paying NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Sunday afternoon at Bristol Motor Speedway, plenty of memories come flooding back about his storied NASCAR career.

The top of that list? The "Dale and Dale Show" from the 1993 Daytona 500. Watch below as his father, Ned Jarrett, calls his son (Green No. 18 car) to victory past Dale Earnhardt and others -- and try not to smile as he crosses the finish line.



That moment, with Ken Squier stepping out of his role in CBS booth in play-by-play to allow Ned to seemingly instruct his son to victory in the sport's biggest event, is definitely one of the tops in Daytona 500.

Check out all of the NASCAR Fanhouse Daytona Speedweeks Coverage.

The start of the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season has brought together two names that ultimately ended the 2007 season on the opposite ends of the spectrum.

Michael Waltrip will start alongside pole winner Jimmie Johnson for Sunday's 50th running of the Daytona 500.

Johnson, last year's Sprint Cup champion, drove a lap at 187.075 mph to secure his second-career pole for the season-opener. Waltrip, who finished 44th in last year's season standings, guaranteed his spot in the Daytona 500 with a lap of 186.734 mph.

Both laps were faster than the pole-winning speed in 2007.

While Johnson was excited to be on the pole for the season's biggest event, it was Waltrip that was nearly speechless about his effort. Exactly one year ago, Waltrip was facing the biggest storm of his career after his car was found to have an illegal additive in the engine prior to qualifying for the 2007 edition.

It would lead to a season that saw both he and his Michael Waltrip Racing team miss several races, fall out of the top-35, and lose sponsors for 2008. Somehow, his team trucked on and this time around at Daytona, all three MWR cars face a go-or-go-home situation if they want to make the event.

Waltrip, a two-time 500 winner, joined teammate David Reutimann and Joe Nemechek as the three drivers that guaranteed a spot in next Sunday's race based on time. The third MWR car with Dale Jarrett on-board will have to race his way into the race on Thursday during the qualifying races.

Nemechek's near pole-winning run was doubly impressive considering the team operates out of Denver, Colo. and has only been in business for three years.

So do you remember when TallGlassofMilk reported that Dale Jarrett would be taking over Rusty Wallace's spot in ESPN's booth back in October? (October 17th, to be exact)

Well, a lot of things have happened since then, but one thing is for sure. TGOM was right.

From the ESPN mouth itself:

Dale Jarrett, the 1999 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion and one of the founding drivers of the NASCAR Nationwide Series, will expand his role with ESPN and join high school friends Dr. Jerry Punch and Andy Petree in the booth for ESPN¿s full season of NASCAR coverage in 2008.

Rusty Wallace, NASCAR Cup champion in 1989, will become lead analyst for ESPN studio programs in 2008, highlighted by serving as analyst for an enhanced NASCAR Countdown, the program that precedes all NASCAR telecasts.

I know I'm very, very satisfied with this move. What about you?

There was plenty of anti-ESPN sentiment through the end of 2007, though former-driver-turned-broadcaster Wallace shouldn't take all of the blame. Regardless, fans were by and far unhappy with some of Wallace's on-air thoughts, there seemed to be some occasional in-fighting amongst last year's ESPN team with Rusty, and, to me at least, Wallace just didn't have "it" when it came to working a race on TV.

So now, we'll get Wallace nearly every night on ESPN2's NASCAR Now as a lead analyst and as an infield studio reporter during races. I think I can handle that.

The booth changes, though, are just the start of many, many changes in the ESPN NASCAR telecasts in 2008, including:

The last time Dale Jarrett wasn't in a race Geoffrey Bodine took home the trophy. Terry Labonte, Rick Mast, Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin rounded out the top 5 in that race -- the 1994 Tyson Holly Farms 400 at North Wilkesboro.

Saturday night, those drivers will no longer get to hold that distinction. Jarrett ran a lap of 123.226, nearly 3 miles per hour slower than pole-winner Jeff Gordon, that failed to qualify him for the Nextel Cup Series event.

It's not much of a surprise to see Jarrett miss a race now, as he has used up his entire allotment of past champion provisionals early in the 2007 campaign. It is a surprise to think that it's been 424 races since DJ hasn't been around on Sunday (or Saturday night).

David Reutimann is the only Michael Waltrip Racing entry to make Saturday night's Jim Stewart/Crown Royal 400.

DJ parted ways with crew chief Matt Borland this week, and today at Richmond got a little heated after a question from a reporter about Jarrett having nearly 12 different crew chiefs over the past 5 years.

"That's because y'all count everybody that was put in for one race or another. I didn't have a thing to do with it sometimes and to be quiet honest it's not something I'm concerned with. If it takes 42 [crew chiefs] from now until whenever I don't really care what the number is," said Jarrett.

The last time Jarrett missed a race, however, he came back and won the next weekk. Hmm...

Jeff Gordon Makes 3-in-a-Row

Gordon went out 14th on the grid Friday night and held on to win the Budweiser Pole Award. It is Gordon's 61st career pole and he has now started first in 5 of his past 6 races, earning four poles. Carl Edwards will start 2nd. Scott Riggs, outside the top 35 in owner points, starts fourth and A.J. Allmendinger made his 3rd race of the year. Johnny Benson will start Saturday night's race in what will be his first Nextel Cup start since fall 2005 at Atlanta.

Dale Jarrett got some much needed practice time at Indianapolis on Tuesday in preparation for the 2007 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.

"With this team, we need time on the racetrack. This was invaluable to a team like ours," said Jarrett.

Jarrett was among four other drivers from each manufacturer who were on hand to assist Goodyear in finding the correct tire combination for the July 29 race. Jimmie Johnson, Bobby Labonte, and Ricky Rudd were the other three.

The time has to be invaluable to those teams because NASCAR decided this year to remove Indianapolis from the scheduled test docket. Teams worked with NASCAR to develop testing sites for this season, and Indianapolis was removed from that list because it doesn't compare well to other tracks -- with the exception of Pocono.

The test was supposed to be a two day lapping extravaganza, but the threat of rain in the Hoosier state led to one day session.