Thanks Dale

By Mark Young

The other day I watched the 1995 Goody's 500 from Bristol, Tennessee on ESPN Classic. That was the race where Dale Earnhardt chased down Terry Labonte and wrecked him sending Terry to victory lane with a smashed up car. It was very cool to see the old cars race, the familiar names next to also familiar numbers but there was one car out there that was quite familiar but the driver behind the wheel was not who I thought it was. The car was the #28 Havoline Ford fielded by Robert Yates and the driver was Dale Jarrett. I had completely forgotten that after Davey Allison died Dale drove the #28. That race had me thinking about the teams Dale Jarrett had driven for in his career and it dawned on me that this is Dale's last points race in NASCAR as a driver.

I spent all week trying to figure out what to write about and I had my mind made up to tell Tony Stewart to Just Shut Up. Not because of what he said about the tires at Atlanta but how he said it. Then after watching that race and pondering Dale Jarret's past as well as his future I changed my mind. Dale Jarrett has been a driver that has done it all. He won the 1999 Winston Cup, he has won Daytona, but I think more importantly he was won the respect of his peers and the allegiance of thousands of fans.

You couldn't ask for a better person to put in the television booth to explain the happenings during a race weekend than Dale Jarrett.  He is intelligent, well spoken, and respected in the garage area.  His father Ned was a fantastic TV announcer for a very long time and I am sure Dale is going to do just as well.

I could have sworn while watching the pre-race coverage on FOX yesterday that Darrell Waltrip was retiring after the race instead of Dale.  I think it was super cool for Mountain Dew to give Darrell his old race car, in fact that is REALLY cool.  However, why couldn't that have taken place in two weeks at Martinsville?  I would have rather watched Dale receive all of the farewell gifts and awards that he received instead of dealing with more Darrell.

Thanks Dale for being a gentleman, thanks for racing clean, thanks for showing people that nice guys don't always finish last.  You may have finished your final points race four laps down but that doesn't mean we didn't notice you or appreciate all you have done.