'Man, he looks like a driver'


By CHRIS HOBBS
Record Sports Editor

NEWTON - When the time came for a dose of Superman, he dipped into a phone booth to change into his famous blue suit and red cape.

NASCAR racing hero Dale Jarrett's start was a bit more practical and laid back.

"I can remember the first race at Hickory Motor Speedway," said Newton's Jimmy Newsome, 51, a partner with Jarrett as three young guys tried to get into racing in 1978. "We get there, we get the car set up and we're trying to look for Dale and I don't see him for a few minutes. He steps into a restroom and when he comes out, he's got this racing suit on. Not many had racing suits, in that division especially, but he was gorgeous. Well, it was just a nice-looking race suit. He just looked the part and I said 'Man, he looks like a driver.'"

That was the night, alongside buddies Newsome and Andy Petree, that Jarrett's racing career began. It was also the culmination of everything from Jarrett getting into the mix with Newsome and Petree to Petree relenting and letting Jarrett become the driver to Jarrett finally finding what soothed his soul. The proposal

The previous winter, as Newsome and Petree toiled away trying to build a race car in the old tire shop owned by Newsome's dad, Bull, there was the winter night that Jarrett stopped by and asked his two Newton-Conover High buddies to hear his proposal.

They had a car. Jarrett thought he had a way to help them get the engine they needed. The catch? Jarrett wanted to drive the car. Once they worked out the details and scrapped up the money to get an engine, DAJ Racing, for Dale, Andy and Jimmy, was formed and the focus turned to getting a car into the lineup at Hickory Motor Speedway.

"There wasn't a lot to it," Jarrett said remembering that first night as a driver. "We had been trying to get to the racetrack, but we just couldn't get everything together. Actually, that engine that we had, the first engine in the car, wasn't that new one that we had purchased. That didn't come until a few weeks later. All I had ever done was go up and practice a couple of times. I remember Jimmy had to work late that night but we finally got all the pieces together and got the car to the racetrack."

In all the hustle and bustle, Jarrett got no practice time, missed qualifying and had to start way back in the pack.

"Here I was in a 24-car field and driving was something I had never done before," Jarrett said. "I remember passing cars and having no idea what I was doing. I was going all around the track, and I can remember going through the dirt with my left-side tires coming out of Turn 4. It was amazing."

But it fell well short of the overall impact it had on Jarrett. He finished ninth and he, Newsome and Petree later headed to the favorite hangout of teens in that era, Poppa's Pizza Parlor in Newton, for pizza and beer.

"We won $35," Jarrett recalled. "I do remember going up top there where my dad was and telling him that was absolutely the most exciting thing I had ever done in my life. I had been fortunate, had won championships in football and basketball and won golf tournaments, but driving that race car that night was the most exciting thing I had ever done. I only finished ninth, but I said 'I've now found what I want to do. I don't know how I'm going to do it, but this is what I want to do.'"

DAJ Racing, started virtually from scratch and was always scratching for money, lasted about two years before Newsome, trying to get his feet under him as the operator of his dad's tire store, opted out.

"I quit after two years and then Dale and Andy hung around and did it for a while," Newsome said, remembering how he felt at age 21 when he and his buddies signed their names to a loan to keep their love for racing going.

"I think it was for like $2,000 or $1,500," he said. "And I thought that was the most money in the world."

While Jarrett moved on to other levels of racing and the struggles he experienced until getting a NASCAR ride and eventually his first victory at Michigan in 1991, Petree worked part-time in Newsome's tire shop for a while.

Later, with Ned Jarrett's help, Petree was hired at Junior Johnson's racing shop. Newsome said Petree's first job was sweeping the race shop floors.

Petree rose from there to become a NASCAR crew chief on championship teams with Dale Earnhardt Sr. and to own his own NASCAR teams. He will now join Jarrett in the broadcast booth with ESPN.

"One of the things I admire about both of those guys," said Newsome, "is nothing was given to them. They started at the very bottom, they earned their way. You don't see that a lot anymore, not to the same degree of those guys and the success they've had. Their heart is what brought them to the top. Their heart has always been in racing."

Hawker and driver

A part of Jarrett's heart will always remain at Hickory Motor Speedway, a place he spent a lot of time when his father managed the track.

At the speedway, he was Dale Jarrett the ticket seller or popcorn machine guy, program hawker or master manicure man for the lawn, and then Dale Jarrett the driver in that fancy racing suit.

For many years, he was a NASCAR driver trying to find the right fit. He raced in the old Busch Grand National Series, once finishing second in 11 races, before he finally found Victory Lane for the first time in 1986.

Five years later, Jarrett won a NASCAR Winston Cup Series race in Michigan and it boosted his career.

"I just thought the idea of getting there to the main NASCAR Series was intriguing," Jarrett said. "But even when I got there, you wonder 'Do you belong here?' Eventually it got to the point that I felt like 'Was I going to have a ride?'

"It was probably about 1991 or 1992 that I felt 'OK, this is where I belong. I can do this.'"

Newsome said early on he wasn't sure if Jarrett would reach his current level of stardom. But as he sat back and ran his tire shop and the years went by, he saw things begin to fit and Jarrett's career skyrocket.

"The one thing I admire about Dale is that he was willing to gamble anything," Newsome said. "He knew that racing is what he wanted to do. He wasn't going to take no for an answer. It was like he almost refused to lose and he didn't care what it cost him. If he had to borrow money, this and that, he knew he was going to get to the top. A lot of people were telling him he needed to quit, that he ought to be doing something else, maybe golf or something, but he said 'No, this is what I want to do and I am going to get good at it.'"

Established veteran

By 1999, Jarrett was an established NASCAR star and en route to winning the driver's championship for the first time.

"He just hung around long enough and the talent did catch up with his dedication and motivation," said Newsome, who is proud of the role he played in the start to Jarrett's career but sees it as a small one.

But to Jarrett, who is quick to acknowledge the contributions of others, DAJ Racing was special.

Amid all the fame, money and attention that the 1999 season brought him, Jarrett made a point to bring Newsome into the picture and connect the dots of how it all started. Jarrett invited Newsome and his wife to attend the NASCAR function in New York where he was to receive the championship trophy, at the Waldorf Astoria, with all the big wigs of the sport there.

Everyone flew to New York on a 36-passenger plane Jarrett borrowed from Dale Earnhardt Sr. and each had a handwritten personal note from Jarrett awaiting them at their seat.

During the three-day luxury stay in New York, Newsome and his wife attended a special get-together for Jarrett. Newsome said he remembers looking across the room and finding himself with the likes of Dale and Teresa Earnhardt, Jack Roush, Richard Childers and Bobby Labonte.

"It was a bunch of heavyweights," Newsome said. "And I am kind of sitting over to the side with my wife and Dale is making the rounds. He finally made it over there to me and I said 'Dale, what in the world, why am I here?' I'll never forget this. He said 'You are probably the most important person here' and I said 'Why is that?' He said 'Because you gave me something you could not afford to give me. You gave me your time and your effort you got me started and that's the reason you are here.'"