| | NEW YORK -- Dale Jarrett stood on the stage of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, looked up and smiled.
The devout NASCAR driver wasn't looking for a heavenly sign during Friday night's awards banquet. He was smiling up at the balcony and the Robert Yates Racing crew that helped him win his first Winston Cup championship with one of the most consistent
seasons ever in the stock car series.
"I've always heard that good things come to those who wait," Jarrett said. "This is certainly an example of that."
|  | | Dale Jarrett poses next to his Winston Cup trophy during the NASCAR Awards ceremony at New York's Waldorf Astoria.
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Just moments before, the new champion was presented with a check for $2,965,767, raising his season earnings to nearly $6.5 million. That is a far cry from the $35 he won for a ninth-place finish in 1977 in his first race.
But Jarrett said the big money pales in comparison to winning his first stock car championship at age 43.
"I guess you could say I've paid my dues and my family has paid my dues," Jarrett said. "There were people who never thought I'd get here. Sometimes, I was one of them."
Jarrett was once considered little more than a journeyman, someone who simply followed his dad into the family business and wasn't quite as good.
But two-time champion Ned Jarrett, still close to the sport as a television analyst, says he never doubted his son's ability. And now he may be enjoying this championship even more than his son.
"The first time Dale ever got in a car, I knew he was serious about racing," the father said. "It was at Hickory (N.C.) Speedway, I think in 1977.
"A couple of his friends were building a car and Dale came to me and said they couldn't get an engine, and if I could find them one, maybe he could convince them to let him drive.
"Something happened and they never ran a lap before the first heat race. Dale had to start last. Bobby Isaac, who was a NASCAR champion, was at the track that day, was watching the car and saw it moving up through traffic after the race started.
"He came up to me and said, 'Did they put somebody else in that
car? He can't be that smooth.' I couldn't believe it, either. After
that, I knew that racing was going to be it for Dale."
On Friday night, Ned praised his son for his devotion to his family and his sport. The two hugged as the father made his way to the stage and again as he moved back toward his seat in the audience.
There were lots of misty eyes in the packed ballroom.
Jarrett has said repeatedly since clinching the title with one race remaining in the season that he might not have been ready to be a champion until now. But his pleasant personality and good will had made him a favorite among the teams in the NASCAR garage area for many years.
"Nobody deserves this more than Dale Jarrett," said Jeff Gordon, who won the series championship three times in the last four years. "As much as we want to win it every year, you can't help but feel good for him and that team."
Jarrett's will to win was never more apparent than in the middle of this season when the team struggled for a fifth-place finish in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, N.C.
"This team just kept coming back from adversity all year," Jarrett said. "That race in Charlotte was one of the keys. We were way off early and got lapped by Jeff Burton and almost got lapped a second time before we finally got the car running right. We needed every one of those 600 miles that day."
Crew chief Todd Parrott has been with Jarrett since the No. 88 car began racing in 1996 and is like a younger brother to the driver. He said the two had a rare confrontation after that race.
"He told me we're a lot better team than that and we couldn't afford to have to work that hard to finish in the top five," Parrott said.
"After that, we made some changes in the engine room and we made some changes to the cars and we got a lot more consistent."
That consistency helped Jarrett lead the championship the last two-thirds of the season and beat runnerup Bobby Labonte by 201 points.
The Yates team's average finish for the year was a series-leading 6.76. Jarrett, who won four races this season, is proud of what he and his team accomplished.
"I decided at a young age what I wanted to do," Jarrett said. "It's what excited me. I spent a lot of time on my bicycle and sitting at the wheel of my parents' car in the driveway pretending I was a race driver. But I could never have dreamed of this."
Jarrett accepted checks totaling $3,040,767 during Friday night's banquet.
His race winnings totaled $3,608,829. Added to that was $2,815,767 from the NASCAR and Winston point funds, as well as $225,000 in contingency money.
Jarrett also took some time for giving Friday. He and his wife, Kelley, have raised money for several years for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
On Friday, Jarrett handed Foundation officials a check for
$220,000. That includes $110,000 from performance incentives -- for
15 top-three finishes in 1999 -- and a matching gift from team
sponsor Ford Quality Care.
Elliott remains a favorite
Bill Elliott had a tough year, finishing 21st in
the Winston Cup standings. But the driver from the mountains of
northern Georgia remains No. 1 in the hearts of his fans.
Friday, Elliott was selected the stock car series' Most
Popular Driver for the ninth straight year and the 14th time in 16
years.
He got 60 percent of the 21,000 votes cast by telephone.
"The fans have stuck with me through thick and thin," the 1988
series champion said. "When things aren't going right, it's the
fans who give you that extra shot of adrenaline. They are the
backbone of this sport and that's why I am deeply honors to have
won this award."
Donlavey honored for contribution to sport
W.C. "Junie" Donlavey, who has been involved
in stock car racing as a team owner since before NASCAR was formed
51 years ago, is the recipient of the Myers Brothers Award.
The award is presented annually by the National Motorsports
Press Association to the individual or group voted by its
membership to have made the greatest contribution during the year
or in their career to the sport of stock car racing.
The award is named after two of the sport's pioneers, the late
Billy and Bobby Myers, and is supported by the Tosco Corporation.
Donlavey has fielded cars for more than 150 drivers, including
top names like David Pearson, Fred Lorenzen, Lee Roy Yarbrough, Ray
Hendrick, Bobby Isaac and Charlie Glotzbach.
"We've been around a while and we never had a lot of money or a
lot of races," Donlavey said. "But it has been fun. And that's
why I'm still here. There is nothing I could do where I could have
this much fun."
The other winners are ...
Exide All Charged Up Award: Jeff Burton, $50,000.
True Value Hard Charger Award: Jeff Gordon, $50,000.
Gatorade Front Runner Award: Bobby Labonte, $30,000.
Clevite Engine Builder of the Year Award: Doug Yates, Robert
Yates Racing, $50,000.
Tosco Oil Contingency Award: Dale Earnhardt, $100,000.
Tosco Gasoline Contingency Award: Dale Jarrett, $50,000.
Raybestos Top Stopper Award: Bobby Labonte, $71,500.
Plasti-Kote Quality Finish Award: Todd Parrott, Robert Yates
Racing, $50,000.
MCI WorldCom Fast Pace Award: Bobby Labonte, $45,000.
DuPont Point Fund Award: Dale Jarrett, $50,000.
Bud Pole Award: Jeff Gordon, $125,000.
Goodyear Tire Award: Dale Jarrett, $35,000.
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