| | You might get tired of hearing about Dale Jarrett over the next few weeks. You shouldn't. You should listen to what is said. Listen and learn. You can learn a lot from a champion. Not just a champion racer, but any champion athlete who remembers that being a role model is important.
Champions are role models. Some aren't good role models, but every one is a role model.
What's been an outstanding season is winding down for Jarrett and the rest of Winston Cup. Jarrett hopes to continue his strong stretch run this week in Phoenix, Ariz., at the Checker Auto Parts/Dura Lube 500k. The Phoenix International Raceway event is the first of three that wrap up the year.
|  | | Tony Stewart was the biggest surprise among those sho made a bid for the Winston Cup this season. |
Rusty Wallace won a rain-shortened race here last October. Jarrett holds a 246-point lead over Bobby Labonte with races in Phoenix, Homestead, Fla., and Atlanta remaining on the schedule.
Don't expect a change at the top. Jarrett has five straight top-10 finishes and six in the past seven races as he charges toward his first Winston Cup title.
There will be a lot written about Jarrett over the next few weeks, into the offseason and through the 2000 Daytona 500. But, before we get into all that, I wanted to take a look at the next five guys in the point standings heading into Phoenix. All have had a great season, just not the great season that Jarrett & Co. have enjoyed.
Labonte. Mark Martin. Jeff Gorton. Tony Stewart. Jeff Burton. They started the season full of confidence, strength, talent, enthusiasm and energy. A starting five of power and performance that has already produced a combined total of 20 wins in 31 races.
Jeff Burton, 32, was the rising star in the spring, winning two of the first five events. Just eight races into the 1999 season, he held an early and attention-taking 85-point lead in the standings. He spent six weeks on top of the standings before yielding to Jarrett at Richmond in Round 11.
Burton, however, fell off the pace and is currently sixth in points. But his six wins, including last time out two weeks ago at the North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham, N.C., are second only to Gordon. Youth, and six finishes of 32nd or worse, tarnished what could have been a sparkling season for the Exide Ford team.
Burton is currently 283 behind Labonte in the standings, but he is at least another full season away from his dream of winning the championship.
Stewart brought talent and temper to Winston Cup in his rookie season. And all season we saw both -- a rookie, riding a rocket to the top.
Stewart hasn't been out of the top-six in points since the Coca Cola 600 at Charlotte in May. He made it into Victory Lane under the lights at Richmond in September. He has finished in the top-five in a third of the races. No one expected Stewart and the Home Depot Pontiac to challenge for the Winston Cup championship this season. They will next season.
How many weeks did three-time series champion Jeff Gordon lead the Winston Cup point standings in 1999? One. The week after he won the season-opening Daytona 500.
Gordon won two of the first four races, he has seven wins this season and 16 top-three finishes in 31 races. At one point, Gordon had four straight top-two finishes, topped off by a win at Sears Point. But five times this season, Gordon has finished a race 38th or worse.
Last year, he never finished lower than 38th. In fact, in the last four years, Gordon posted a total of just three finishes of 38th or worse. None in '95. Two in '96. One in '97. None in '98.
Gordon has won three Winston Cup championships on the track. This year, he and the Rainbow Warriors might have lost one off the track. Now, with crew chief and contract issues behind him, Gordon hopes to be the point leader after the Daytona 500 again next year, and for many weeks after that.
Even Martin didn't have enough muscle for Jarrett this year.
Martin took his Valvoline Ford to Victory Lane at the Rock in the second race of the season, but didn't win again until Dover some 25 races later. He was at the front of a lot of races, he just wasn't in front at the end of those races.
Martin is a champion still waiting to be crowned. In the 1990's, he has finished second in points three times in nine years. He has never finished out of the top-six in points, but he'll have to wait until the next century to finish first in points.
Last year, Labonte finished sixth in the points chase with two wins in 33 races. Right now he's second in points, with four wins in 31 races. His Interstate Batteries Pontiac has seven straight top-eight finishes. Labonte is clearly championship caliber, but he is still inconsistent. In one nine-race stretch this season he finished 19th or worse five times.
After the Daytona 500, Bobby was 24th in points. In the next 30 races, he was never lower than fifth in points. And over 21 of the past 22 weeks, he was either third or second. The question now, where will he be after the next three weeks?
Where will any of the top-six be when the checkered flag falls in the snow at Atlanta? Hopefully, on top of their game. But none will be on top of the world. That spot will already be taken by Jarrett.
We've talked in the past about how Jarrett wants to finish strong, as Gordon did last season. Well, every driver and every team wants to finish strong. But, I believe it's very important for the guys second through sixth in the point race to finish with not just good runs, but very good, or even great runs.
It's a long winter when you've struggled throughout the season. But I think it can be an even longer winter if you've had an outstanding season, and still missed the ultimate goal, winning the championship.
There's not much time in the offseason to think about it, but that precious time can be consumed with thoughts of, "Man, we were good, and we still couldn't get the job done." Those words always drop the temperature a few degrees during the all too short, and often too chilly, winter months. | |
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