(born
October 12 ,
1932 in
Newton, North Carolina ) was a two-time
NASCAR champion.
Jarrett was best known for his calm demeanor, and he became known as "Gentleman Ned Jarrett". Yet he was an intense competitor when he put his two hands on the steering wheel of a
NASCAR Grand National stock car.
Jarrett was introduced to cars early in life: his father let him drive the family car to church on Sunday mornings when he was nine years old. Ned started working for his father's in the sawmill by the time he was 17, but racing was what he wanted.
Ned drove in his first race in
1952 at
Hickory Motor Speedway 's (North Carolina) first race. He drove a Sportsman
Ford that he co-owned with his brother-in-law, and finished tenth. This did not go over well with his father. His father told him he could work on cars but not drive them. Once his brother-in-law was sick for one race and he ask Ned to fill in for him. Ned used his brother-in-laws name and came in second in that race. That worked out so smooth that Ned went and drove in a few more races under an assumed name, but was finally caught by his father after winning a race. His father told him if he was going to drive to at least use his own name.
Jarrett raced in his first national race at the
1953 Southern 500 at
Darlington Speedway . He was out after 10 laps after the engine leaked oil.
Jarrett was the
1955 track champion at
Hickory Motor Speedway .
Jarrett came in second driving in the Sportsman series (now Busch Series) in
1956 , and won the
1957 and
1958 championships.
In
1959 he was looking to pursue a career in Grand National (now
NEXTEL Cup ) series. He purchased a
Junior Johnson Ford for $2,000. He didn't have enough money to cover the check, so he waited until the bank closed to write the check, entered two races, and won them both to cover the cost of his car.
In
1960 he won five races and took the championship over
Rex White in
1961 . He was among the top five drivers in 22 races and missed being among the top ten drivers only 12 times out of 46 races, with one win.
In
1964 , Jarrett joined team owner
Bobby Long and with the support of
Ford won 15 times but lost the championship to
Richard Petty . Jarrett picked up his first superspeedway win at
Atlanta Motor Speedway .
In
1965 , Jarrett became a super star when he won 13 races and another Grand National championship. He placed among the top five in 42 of the 54 races that he ran.
The
1965 Southern 500 at
Darlington Raceway was one of the wildest races in NASCAR history. Rookie driver Buren Skeen tragically died in two cars ran into the side of his car in the early laps.
Sam McQuagg was leading the race, when
Cale Yarborough tried to muscle past McQuagg for the lead. Yarborough flew over the guardrail, rolled around six times, and ended up at the end of the parking lot by a light post. Yarborough waved to the crowd as he walked back to the pits. A video clip of the wreck was used on ABC's Wide World of Sports for several years. With 44 laps left,
Fred Lorenzen and
Darel Dieringer were fighting for the lead far ahead of Jarrett. Lorenzen's motor expired, and even before he could get into the pits Dieringer's motor started smoking too. Dieringer continued at a slower pace to finish third. The race was won by Ned Jarrett by ''14 laps'', which is the largest margin of victory in NASCAR history.
In
1966 Jarrett was in the run for another championship when Ford announced that they were withdrawing from NASCAR. With that Jarrett decided that it was time to retire at the young age of 34. Jarrett is the only driver to retire as the NASCAR champion.
Jarrett left racing and dealt in
Real Estate and other business ventures before coming back to racing as a broadcaster. He also was the track promotor for
Hickory Motor Speedway .
In the 1978 he became a radio broadcaster on
MRN Radio . He interviewed
United States President Ronald Reagan live at the 1984
Firecracker 400 at
Daytona , the race famous as
Richard Petty 's 200th win.
He also has been a television broadcaster on
CBS ,
ESPN , and
Fox Sports Network . Ned called several of NASCAR's more memorable television moments. Ned called his son
Dale's first victory in the
1991 Champion 400 at the
Michigan International Speedway . Dale banged
Davey Allison 's fender to the finish line in what was then the closest finish in NASCAR history. The victory was long coming - it was in Dale's 129th race.
Another famous moment was when he called Dale's victory at the
1993 Daytona 500 , openly siding with his son on the last lap and coaching him home to victory over
Dale Earnhardt . Embarrassed by his loss of objectivity, he tried to apologize to Earnhardt after the race, but Earnhardt merely smiled and said, "I'm a father, too."
He has a daily radio program about racing on
MRN Radio called "Ned Jarrett's World of Racing".
As of 2004, Jarrett had been inducted in twelve motor sports and sports Halls of Fame.
The Jarrett family is known as one the first families in NASCAR history.
Ned is the father of
Dale Jarrett , who earned his first NASCAR championship in
1999 and currently drives the UPS #88 Ford for
Robert Yates Racing . Ned and Dale became the second father-son combination to win Cup championships (after
Lee Petty and
Richard Petty ). Ned's other son is
Glenn Jarrett , who was a regular
Busch Series driver and had a few
Winston Cup starts in the 1980s. Glenn now covers cable television as a race broadcaster. Ned also has a daughter Patti, who before becoming a mom, also worked in racing. Patti is married to
Jimmy Makar , a crew chief on the NASCAR Nextel Cup circuit. Dale's son
Jason Jarrett also had numerous Busch and a few
NEXTEL Cup starts, with several wins in the
ARCA RE/MAX Series.
