Also Known As...

  He began his career as a race driver under an assumed name.

  He once kept his career going by writing a check that should have bounced, but didn't because he beat long odds to win two races during the same weekend, earning enough money to cover it.

  Who is this man with a past that seemingly might be shady but actually is quite the opposite?

  None other than Ned Jarrett, among the most admired and respected figures in all of motorsports.

 

   "I look back on my early years in racing and I shudder," Jarrett said recently.  "I can't believe some of the chances I took, like writing that check.  It was out of character for me."

   It sure paid off, however, for Ned went on to win two major NASCAR championships and for years he was the most respected and beloved commentator in network television's racing telecasts.

   Like so many NASCAR competitors, Jarrett discovered racing because his father, Homer, was a fan.  Ned accompanied his dad to the dirt tracks that sprang up around the Carolinas in the years just after World War II.

   "We went to North Wilkesboro Speedway and the Charlotte Fairgrounds," recalled Ned.  "The excitement captured my imagination.  From the very start I thought about someday being able to drive a race car myself."

   His interest grew immensely when construction began on Hickory Motor Speedway in Jarrett's hometown.

   "The track was the talk of the area," said Ned.  "I recall going into country stores and hearing people discussing it.  Even oldtimers were saying things like, 'I could drive one of them cars!'  I was 20 when the track finally was ready for its grand opening in 1955.  I was deeply involved with the operation of my father's lumber business at that time, but even so I was intent on being part of that first racing card at Hickory.

   "I worked out a situation that enabled me to do it.

   "I had saved a little money from my job at the sawmill and I used it to buy half interest in a '39 Ford coupe from John Lentz.  It was decided that I'd drive the car, and I finished 10th in my first race.

   "My dad disapproved.  He didn't want me to race, even as a hobby.  I followed his wishes for several months, during which time John Lentz drove our car.  Then, one weekend, John showed up at the track very sick.  We didn't look too hard for another driver.

   "I went out in the infield and put on John's helmet.  We looked quite a bit alike, so once I was in the race car, no one could tell the difference."

   Ned finished second that night, the team's best-ever showing.

   "After the race, John and I agreed that I was the better driver," continued Ned, chuckling.  "So I stayed in the car after that, running under an alias as John Lentz.

   "Then, one night, we lucked up and won.  I had to go through the Victory Lane ritual.  Folks saw immediately that I was the driver, not John.  Naturally, word got back to my dad.

   "He came to me and said, 'Ned, if you're going to race, you might as well be the one getting credit for it.'

   "The next year I moved up to NASCAR's old Sportsman Division (now the Busch Series Grand National tour) and started chasing points.    I finished second in the standings my first season behind the champion, Ralph Earnhardt, Dale's dad.  I won the division title back-to-back in 1957 and '58."

   It was during the '58 season that I first saw Ned Jarrett drive a race car.  It was a summer night at McCormick Field, a minor league baseball park that temporarily had been transformed into a small speedway when the Asheville (N.C.) Tourists lost their spot as a Dodgers farm team.  Jarrett came strolling through the grandstands en route to the "garage area" behind where third base was located.  He wore a snow white uniform and a cool haircut--a military-type buzz on top and ducktails on the sides.  His gray helmet was tucked under an arm.

   He cut a striking figure.

   The fireworks that night, however, were provided by Ralph Earnhardt and Banjo Matthews, who were bitter enemies.  As they battled for the lead on the second lap of the feature event, Ralph turned Banjo over in centerfield, snapping a 15-race winning streak for Matthews at his home track.

   The race was red-flagged while the uninjured Matthews' car was uprighted.  A Matthews protege exited his own race car to confront leader Earnhardt.  The irate protege made the mistake of sticking his face into Earnhardt's window.  Earnhardt whip-lashed him with a punch to the mouth.

   "I remember that!" said Ned with a laugh.  "Those were different days."

   Jarrett knows this well, because he was involved in torrid rivalries as well, engaging in duels with the likes of Junior Johnson, David Pearson and both Lee and Richard Petty. 

   "Feelings got so strong between me and Junior that we were wearing out our cars by beating on each other," said Ned.  "Finally, Big Bill France, the NASCAR founder, interceded to stop it. 

   "One time David Pearson got boiling-over mad at me after we had a run-in and he wrecked.  As I came back around the track, David had wrenched the steering wheel off his car and threw it at me.

   "Through the years, things smoothed out between me and all these fellows.  We grew to count each other as friends."

   Ned Jarrett considers the worthless-check-made-good incident as critical to the big-time NASCAR career that would eventually lead to him being inducted into eight motorsports halls of fame.

   It happened in 1959.  Ned had decided to give up the grind of running as many as 80 races per year in pursuit of the Sportsman Division championship, graduating to what is now the Nextel Cup Series.

   "My timing was terrible," Jarrett conceded.  "The factories had pulled their support from the sport and there wasn't much money in it.  I scrounged around trying to find a ride, but there were no competitive rides to be had.  I saw that I was going to ave to buy my own race car, but I had no money."

   Ned got word that a car owner named Paul Spaulding had a '57 Ford for sale.  Junior Johnson had done pretty well in the car.  The price was $2,000.

   "I told my friends I was going to buy the car," continued Jarrett.  "They were skeptical, because I had no money.  I had it all figured out, though.  I would buy the car late enough on a Friday afternoon that Spaulding couldn't get to the bank in time to cash the check.  There were races in Myrtle Beach and Charlotte that weekend, each paying $1,000 to win.  I would just sweep them both in 24 hours and deposit the money to cover the check when the bank opened on Monday morning.

   "And the race car would be mine."

   Ned shook his head and smiled ruefully at the recollection.

   "My friends thought I was crazy," he said.  "And looking back, it really does seem a pretty insane thing to have done.

   "After buying the car I arrived at Myrtle Beach too late to get any practice.  Even so, I qualified eighth.

   "There was a tough field that night, including Bob Welborn, a bearcat of a driver.  I finally got up to the front and Bob and I had a heck of a race.  We ran side-by-side near the end.  My stomach was knotting up because I might not win and get the $1,000 I needed.  Then, coming off the final turn on the last lap, I saw Bob peel into the pits.  A wheel had broken on his car, and I got the checkered flag."

   So far, so good.

   Well, not necessarily.

   Ned Jarrett has a painful problem facing him as he headed to Charlotte for a race just a few hours later.

   "Back then, most drivers had their steering wheels covered with electrical tape before the races started," he explained.  "This improved the grip tremendously.

   "Well, whoever put the tape on my steering wheel for the race at Myrtle Beach had wound it on backwards, which meant I was gripping the gritty side.  As the race wore on, the tape began working on my hands like sandpaper, really chewing up the skin.

   "My hands were bleeding so bad when the race was over that I had to have tourniquets put on my arms to stop the blow flow.  I could see the bone in my thumbs.  En route to Charlotte, I stopped at the hospital in Conway (S.C.) to get patched up."

   Ned drove to Charlotte and, with no sleep, began working to get his car ready to race.  The vehicle was in bad shape--almost as bad as he was.  The Myrtle Beach track was rough and it had beaten up his car.

   "I started the race in Charlotte, but my hands were causing me a lot of agony," recalled Jarrett, wincing.  "Joe Weatherly had dropped out early, so we got him to drive in relieve for a spell.  Then, Junior Johnson got in the car.  Between the three of us, we somehow got that car to Victory Lane."

   Meanwhile, word had spread among the other drivers and crews about the bad check Ned had given Paul Spaulding to buy the race car.  Neither Joe Weatherly nor Junior Johnson would take any money for driving in relief.

   "They knew that if they did, I couldn't cover the check," said Ned.  "Obviously, I've never forgotten what they did.

   "Who knows where my career would have gone--or if it would have gone--if I hadn't made that check good."

   Those pressure victories were Jarrett's first at the major NASCAR level, and during the next seven seasons he would win 48 more times, taking the circuit's championships in 1961 and '65.

   The most memorable of his 50 wins?      

   No contest.

   It came in the Southern 500 of 1965 at demanding old Darlington Raceway, "The Track Too Tough To Tame."

   The temperature was blistering hot that Labor Day, and the heat wreaked havoc with the field, causing engines and tires to fail.  When the checkered flag waved, Ned Jarrett was the winner by a whopping 14 laps, the greatest victory margin in NASCAR history.

   I covered the race for The Charlotte Observer that day, and I filed a story that posed a question about the power of prayer.

   Ned had spoken to a Methodist Youth Fellowship group in Darlington County the night before the 500.  As he left the church, the teenagers he'd impressed told Ned they were going to pray for him to be safe and do well.

   "I had no idea," Ned said in his post-race interview, "that their prayers would be answered on a scale that would put me 14 laps ahead."

   There was no way Ned--who was to retire in 1966 at the age of 35--nor anyone else could have known at the time how much the outcome of the '65 Southern 500 was to impact big-time NASCAR racing three decades later.

   Sharing in the Victory Lane rapture at Darlington was Ned's youngest son, Dale, then 7 years old.

   "It was incredibly exciting, and the thrills didn't end at the race track," Dale recalled.  "When we got home that night we found that neighbors had decorated our house and yard with bunting and balloons.  They had a big party going.

   "I began dreaming that night about becoming a race driver."

   Dale Jarrett is proof that dreams come true.

   In 1999 he became the Winston Cup Series champion, making he and dad Ned only the second father-son duo to take the top NASCAR title.  The others: Lee and Richard Petty.

   Dale Jarrett has won some of the sport's biggest races--Daytona 500s in 1993 and '96, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte in '96 and the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis in '99. 

   After retiring as a driver, Ned Jarrett operated the Hickory track in his hometown and also Metrolina Speedway in Charlotte.

   Then, as the television networks expanded coverage of NASCAR, Ned's expertise and pleasing, easy-going manner led to a new career as a commentator for ESPN and CBS.  He also syndicated a radio show.

   Among auto racing's magic TV moments is Ned's play-by-play call of son Dale's dramatic rally to overtake Dale Earnhardt on the final lap to win the '93 Daytona 500. 

   Widely-liked during his driving days, Ned Jarrett saw his popularity soar beyond his belief once he became a TV personality.  At race tracks across the country appreciatiave fans stood in line for his autograph and to have photos snapped with him.

   Ned's fame has enabled him to undertake numerous efforts on behalf of charities and service organizations.  In recognition of his many contributions, Lenoir Rhyne University in Hickory bestowed on Jarrett an honorary doctor's degree in humanities.

   "Obviously, I'm grateful that things have turned out as they did," said Ned, who remains very much a competitor--only now it's on the golf course against his cronies at Catawba Country Club.  "It has been a wonderful ride.  A ride that I wouldn't have dared imagine back in the 1950s when I didn't even race using my own name."

   Some story.

   Some man.