| | CONCORD, N.C. -- People keep asking Dale Jarrett when he will start counting points instead of racing for wins.
But the second-generation Winston Cup star, driving hard toward what would be his first series title, isn't about to go conservative behind the wheel of his Robert Yates Ford.
"I don't think that we can race what you would call conservatively," Jarrett said. "Smart, yeah. I'm going to try to be smart on the racetrack. But I don't think that makes it conservative."
|  | | Dale Jarrett says he can't count on his challengers to slow up, so why should he? |
Jarrett goes into the UAW-GM-Qualify 500 on Sunday at Lowe's Motor Speedway holding a lead of 251 points over Bobby Labonte and 276 over Mark Martin.
But some of the focus on the championship battle has been blurred this week in the wake of two bombings at area Lowe's Improvement Warehouse stores. With Lowe's owning the naming rights to the suburban Charlotte track, security has been beefed up for Sunday's race.
"We have a tremendous amount of security," said H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler, general manager of the track. "Some of it you see, and some of it you don't see. With the confidence of having things covered, it enables us to feel good about the safety of the people coming in."
The recent troubles, including a bomb threat phoned in to the speedway a week ago, has apparently not affected ticket sales and the usual race day crowd of about 170,000 is expected.
On the track, some people figure that Jarrett, with only six races remaining, is a shoe-in for the title. The son of two-time series champion Ned Jarrett isn't among them.
"We aren't counting anything, yet," Jarrett said. "Everybody keeps wanting to know if we think it's all over and I have to keep telling them, 'No way.' You think Bobby and Mark and Tony (Stewart) have stopped trying to catch us?"
But Jarrett, who qualified ninth for Sunday's race, knows that attitude can make a world of difference. That's why he is feeling pretty good going into the race on the 1½-mile oval, a track where he is comfortable and confident.
|
“ |
We
aren't counting anything, yet. Everybody keeps
wanting to know if we think it's all over and I
have to keep telling them, 'No way.' You think Bobby and Mark and Tony have stopped
trying to catch us? ” |
|
|
— Dale Jarrett |
"It makes you breath a little easier whenever you're at a place that you've done well at in the past," Jarrett said. "We know that without any unfortunate luck that we should be in the top five here at the very worse, and we should be contending to win."
That was not the case a week ago in Martinsville, Va., where Jarrett has often struggled on the tough half-mile oval.
He rallied late in that race for a 10th-place finish to salvage something decent from a difficult day. But Martin had an even tougher day, finishing 16th and losing second place in the standings.
"I'm really relieved to have Martinsville over with," Martin said. "That has never been one of my favorite places and I always seem to struggle there. Charlotte, on the other hand, has always been good to us.
Martin, who will start fourth in the 43-car field, is the defending champion of this race. He has brought back the Roush Racing Ford that led 215 of the 334 laps last October.
"If we win some races between now and the end of the year, maybe we can put some pressure on those guys," Martin said. "But all we can do is what's best for us."
Labonte, who won the pole for Sunday's race, echoed Martin.
"We know we can't do it by ourselves," he said, referring to winning the championship. "If we go out there and do the best we can, that's all you can ask. If something happens to Dale and we can take advantage of it, that's good.
"But that team is so good, and Dale is driving so good, I don't think they're going to have a problem. But we can't mess up either, or we just get further behind if we do." | |
ALSO SEE
Notebook: Foyt's Cup team will run Pontiacs in 2000
 |
