Talladega II: Jarrett family preview

Jarrett family to team up at Talladega

"Restrictor-plate racing is probably some of the most nerve-wrecking racing that we do just for the simple reason that so much of the racing is out of your hands as a driver. We are racing in such close quarters that if one guy slips up and has a problem, then there's probably 10 to 15 guys that are going to suffer the consequences of one person's problem. Our game plan for the plate races is usually always the same -- we work and adjust on our car During the first three quarters of the race so that we have it just right to make a run for the win during the last 20 to 30 laps."
    Dale Jarrett on Racing at Talladega

Jarrett Welcomes Third Teammate to RYR . . . Robert Yates Racing will field a third car during this weekend's EA Sports 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. Jason Jarrett, son of Dale Jarrett, will make his NASCAR Winston Cup debut this weekend. It will mark just the second time the father and son have started a NASCAR event together, but the first in the Winston Cup Series.

"It certainly should be an exciting weekend," Dale Jarrett said. "This, obviously, is a great opportunity for Jason. Knowing the work Robert Yates Racing has put into its superspeedway program, he should be able to make it into the field on time. We've raced in a Busch Series race together and we always talked about running in a Winston Cup race together. And actually, in that Busch Series race he almost qualified faster than me. We started 11th and 12th. But this is something we're both looking forward to as well as the entire family. Jason has been doing some testing for RYR for a couple years now, and he's never asked for anything. Doug (Yates) came to me after Jason did some testing at Talladega earlier this month and asked me what I thought about them putting Jason in a third car and I thought it was great. Hopefully, we'll be able to get to do some drafting together but I'm really looking forward to the weekend."

Dale and Jason's lone start together in a NASCAR event was the Busch Series event on May 23rd, 1998 at Lowe's Motor Speedway where they started 11th and 12th, respectively.

UPS Team to Race Daytona Car at Talladega . . . Dale Jarrett will race the same car he finished 10th with at Daytona in July. The difference will be the changes in the rules as set forth by NASCAR which allows the use of a bigger restrictor plate and a bigger rear spoiler. While NASCAR continues to try to find ways to break the tight field up at the superspeedway events, Shawn Parker, crew chief on the UPS Ford, expects fans will still see a lot of close racing and anticipates fuel mileage will come into the equation like it did in Daytona.

"The cars are just so equal now that it is going to be hard to break up those packs of cars," Parker explained. "I still think the best way to have better racing is to go back to the regular-sized fuel cells and let the tires wear more to where handling becomes more of an issue. I think we'll still see all the cars bunched up. The thing about Talladega is that it is so much faster and with a break every 30 laps you won't have to change tires each stop. Obviously with the bigger restrictor plates we'll be burning more fuel so we may have to make more stops but it is the same for everybody."

UPS Team Tests Kansas . . . Jarrett and the #88 UPS Team is using its final test of the season at Kansas Speedway where the Winston Cup Series will visit in less than two weeks. The team wraps up its test at the 1.5-mile oval on Wednesday evening before leaving for Talladega on Thursday.

-ryr/ups-