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http://www.racingone.com/article.asp?artnum=15170
Thursday, September 26, 2002
Kansas a Blur for Jarrett
Lee Montgomery
Staff Writer
Dale Jarrett will be going to Kansas Speedway for the first time this weekend.
At least in his mind.
See, Jarrett doesn’t remember last year’s Protection One 400 at the sparkling new track west of Kansas City. No, he’s not trying to play some mental game and block out a bad race.
He’s not playing a game at all. He’d like to, but a concussion is no game. That’s what happened to Jarrett after he nearly knocked down the wall in Turn 1. The hard hit didn’t cause Jarrett to miss any time in his No. 88 Ford, but it did cause his memory of Kansas Speedway to be erased.
“Yeah, I don’t remember anything,” Jarrett said recently, trying to recall events in 2002. “It’s kind of strange. It was actually the first time I’ve had a concussion, especially one of this magnitude. I don’t remember arriving in Kansas City. The only thing I do remember is that entrance into Turn 1 and getting tapped.
“From that point, I don’t remember anything before the race started and I don’t remember anything after that until I was getting on the airplane to come back to North Carolina. So it’s all kind of wiped from my memory.”
So while other drivers have a race’s experience at the 1.5-mile track, Jarrett will be a rookie.
“It’ll be like my first time at Kansas City,” Jarrett said. “I don’t remember the garage area. I know the shape of the race track just from the past and knowing it’s a lot like Chicago, but from actually being on the track, I don’t remember any of that.
“I don’t even remember where the motorhomes are parked or what shape the garage area is, so it’ll be interesting going back there. I’m looking forward to it. We’re taking the same car that we ran last weekend and the car that won both races for us this year, so it’s performed very well. I know we should have a good car and, hopefully, a good weekend.”
Jarrett hasn’t had many of those this season. Only two drivers, Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart, have more victories than Jarrett. But Jarrett still isn’t in the Top 10 in points. For every victory or Top 5, Jarrett has a 37th or a 35th or a 42nd.
His season started with crew chief Jimmy Elledge, but Elledge left – or was pushed out, depending on whom you believe – and Todd Parrott moved back atop the war wagon. Parrott never really left, as he was the team manager, but when Elledge departed, Parrott was back as the single voice running the team.
Things have gotten better for Jarrett, but he still plays games with himself.
“I think the first thing that comes to mind is it’s a year that I’d say, ‘What if?’ ” Jarrett said. “What if we would have made it through, and I got tapped on the very last lap of the very first race of the year and went from possibly finishing fourth to finishing 14th or 15th. (What) if I don’t quite move too far to block Jeff Burton to try to help give me the push at Daytona the second race? That’s what I look at.”
Jarrett said he could see himself in the thick of the points race instead of 11th, 310 points behind.
“You look at 310 points out, I could easily come up with that but we all could,” Jarrett said. “Everybody’s been in that position, and it’s been a year of inconsistency for us. That’s basically been it. We haven’t performed at the level that we needed to week in and week out, and it seems that everything has contributed to that.
“We uncharacteristically had a couple of engine problems earlier in the year, and you don’t expect that to happen to cost us points. I’ve created some from a driver’s standpoint as far as making mistakes. Our pit crew, at times, has put us in a position that we shouldn’t have been in, so you look at everything.
“We’ve missed the handling a couple of times, so it’s just been very inconsistent and, unfortunately, it’s put us in this position of trying to make up a lot and get ourselves back to that Top 5 that we’ve been accustomed to.”
That becomes the goal now: get back to fifth. He’s 120 points behind fifth-place Jeff Gordon, so that’s a reachable goal.
“What we think about now is making our program better,” Jarrett said. “We’re not giving up on 2002. What we want to do, and our focus is right now even though it’s very difficult because of the guys between us, is trying to finish fifth. We want to keep that alive. We have a lot of pride in what we do and this race team has never finished out of the Top 5 in the final point standings, so that’s our goal right now is to get ourselves positioned there somehow, someway, and the way we go about that is trying to win races week in and week out. We take our very best car and then try to make sure that we have the team and the people assembled and thinking in the right direction to get ourselves ready for next year.”
Jarrett said he’s learned a lot this season, so all is not lost.
“Patience is something you hear us talk about all the time, and I think I’ve learned that quite a bit,” Jarrett said. “I’ve also learned that right now, within this sport, that things are changing, and they’re changing at a rapid rate. It’s almost gotten to the point that as you look around at a lot of these young teams, and I’m not speaking just necessarily of the young drivers, but the teams that maybe haven’t been together as long. You’ve got new crew chiefs and teams that are building and they’re taking a lot of chances and doing things a little bit differently. There is technology and computer data that they get not only from the tests, but they’re willing to put in there. They’re not just guessing at springs or shocks and saying, ‘This is what we need to do,’ they’re using a formula now and that’s changing the way you look at things and do things within this sport.
“Todd and I have talked about this some, so I think that we’ve learned as much as anything that we have to be willing to adapt and change, and that’s something we’re going to have to continue to do if we’re going to stay competitive in this business.”
Thursday, September 26, 2002
Kansas a Blur for Jarrett
Lee Montgomery
Staff Writer
Dale Jarrett will be going to Kansas Speedway for the first time this weekend.
At least in his mind.
See, Jarrett doesn’t remember last year’s Protection One 400 at the sparkling new track west of Kansas City. No, he’s not trying to play some mental game and block out a bad race.
He’s not playing a game at all. He’d like to, but a concussion is no game. That’s what happened to Jarrett after he nearly knocked down the wall in Turn 1. The hard hit didn’t cause Jarrett to miss any time in his No. 88 Ford, but it did cause his memory of Kansas Speedway to be erased.
“Yeah, I don’t remember anything,” Jarrett said recently, trying to recall events in 2002. “It’s kind of strange. It was actually the first time I’ve had a concussion, especially one of this magnitude. I don’t remember arriving in Kansas City. The only thing I do remember is that entrance into Turn 1 and getting tapped.
“From that point, I don’t remember anything before the race started and I don’t remember anything after that until I was getting on the airplane to come back to North Carolina. So it’s all kind of wiped from my memory.”
So while other drivers have a race’s experience at the 1.5-mile track, Jarrett will be a rookie.
“It’ll be like my first time at Kansas City,” Jarrett said. “I don’t remember the garage area. I know the shape of the race track just from the past and knowing it’s a lot like Chicago, but from actually being on the track, I don’t remember any of that.
“I don’t even remember where the motorhomes are parked or what shape the garage area is, so it’ll be interesting going back there. I’m looking forward to it. We’re taking the same car that we ran last weekend and the car that won both races for us this year, so it’s performed very well. I know we should have a good car and, hopefully, a good weekend.”
Jarrett hasn’t had many of those this season. Only two drivers, Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart, have more victories than Jarrett. But Jarrett still isn’t in the Top 10 in points. For every victory or Top 5, Jarrett has a 37th or a 35th or a 42nd.
His season started with crew chief Jimmy Elledge, but Elledge left – or was pushed out, depending on whom you believe – and Todd Parrott moved back atop the war wagon. Parrott never really left, as he was the team manager, but when Elledge departed, Parrott was back as the single voice running the team.
Things have gotten better for Jarrett, but he still plays games with himself.
“I think the first thing that comes to mind is it’s a year that I’d say, ‘What if?’ ” Jarrett said. “What if we would have made it through, and I got tapped on the very last lap of the very first race of the year and went from possibly finishing fourth to finishing 14th or 15th. (What) if I don’t quite move too far to block Jeff Burton to try to help give me the push at Daytona the second race? That’s what I look at.”
Jarrett said he could see himself in the thick of the points race instead of 11th, 310 points behind.
“You look at 310 points out, I could easily come up with that but we all could,” Jarrett said. “Everybody’s been in that position, and it’s been a year of inconsistency for us. That’s basically been it. We haven’t performed at the level that we needed to week in and week out, and it seems that everything has contributed to that.
“We uncharacteristically had a couple of engine problems earlier in the year, and you don’t expect that to happen to cost us points. I’ve created some from a driver’s standpoint as far as making mistakes. Our pit crew, at times, has put us in a position that we shouldn’t have been in, so you look at everything.
“We’ve missed the handling a couple of times, so it’s just been very inconsistent and, unfortunately, it’s put us in this position of trying to make up a lot and get ourselves back to that Top 5 that we’ve been accustomed to.”
That becomes the goal now: get back to fifth. He’s 120 points behind fifth-place Jeff Gordon, so that’s a reachable goal.
“What we think about now is making our program better,” Jarrett said. “We’re not giving up on 2002. What we want to do, and our focus is right now even though it’s very difficult because of the guys between us, is trying to finish fifth. We want to keep that alive. We have a lot of pride in what we do and this race team has never finished out of the Top 5 in the final point standings, so that’s our goal right now is to get ourselves positioned there somehow, someway, and the way we go about that is trying to win races week in and week out. We take our very best car and then try to make sure that we have the team and the people assembled and thinking in the right direction to get ourselves ready for next year.”
Jarrett said he’s learned a lot this season, so all is not lost.
“Patience is something you hear us talk about all the time, and I think I’ve learned that quite a bit,” Jarrett said. “I’ve also learned that right now, within this sport, that things are changing, and they’re changing at a rapid rate. It’s almost gotten to the point that as you look around at a lot of these young teams, and I’m not speaking just necessarily of the young drivers, but the teams that maybe haven’t been together as long. You’ve got new crew chiefs and teams that are building and they’re taking a lot of chances and doing things a little bit differently. There is technology and computer data that they get not only from the tests, but they’re willing to put in there. They’re not just guessing at springs or shocks and saying, ‘This is what we need to do,’ they’re using a formula now and that’s changing the way you look at things and do things within this sport.
“Todd and I have talked about this some, so I think that we’ve learned as much as anything that we have to be willing to adapt and change, and that’s something we’re going to have to continue to do if we’re going to stay competitive in this business.”
