The final break of the season has come and gone. Now Dale Jarrett and his #44 UPS team face a 17-week stretch of races to close out the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series season. The first stop on that long stretch comes at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where Jarrett has found success on several occasions. The weekend off served as a way for Jarrett to spend some time with his family and recharge his batteries.
"This was a good time to have off," Jarrett said. "We got the chance to go up to Cooperstown and watch Zach play some baseball and just spend time as a family. It was very relaxing and fun, but just like any vacation it never feels long enough. But I'm definitely ready to get back to racing and excited to return to Indianapolis."
The Allstate 400 at the Brickyard is scheduled for a 2:00 p.m. EDT start this Sunday.
Dale Jarrett Discusses Racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Why does Indianapolis always seem to be a strong indicator of who might win the championship?
"That has been a big question leading up to this race. Partly it just seems like a big coincidence. But honestly, I think that you find the teams that are poised to win the championship doing well here and, yeah, I think it's a pretty good indication. It has been over the years. If your team is doing well enough to race well here, then you've got to probably be doing well at most different types of race tracks. So I think this is a good indication as to who we can really look at. Truthfully though, you could look at one race before or one race after Indianapolis and see who's running well there too and say they have a chance to win the championship. It's not necessarily who wins at Indy, although certainly you can make a case there, but the teams that run in the top 10 here are teams you can look for to be a part of the championship, I think."
What does it take to run well at Indianapolis?
"I think to run well here, you obviously have to have a very good chassis combination. You've found something that not only works here but works at other race tracks. If you're on to that and can run well here, you can take that knowledge to a lot of other race tracks. Indianapolis has some of the same characteristics as Pocono, with long straight-aways into fairly moderate banking in the turns. So you have to be able to keep your car stable through those turns. You want it loose enough to be able to rotate in the corner and maintain that speed. But you don't want it rotating so much that the back end comes around on you. It's definitely a challenge and a delicate balance to find. If you don't have that, you're going be struggling all day long. You won't be able keep that speed in turns one and three and you won't be able to get back to the gas quick enough in turns two and four to build up enough speed down the straight-aways."
UPS Racing Team Notes of Interest
- Dale Jarrett has two wins at the Brickyard; his first came in 1996 and his second during his championship run of 1999.
- In addition to his two wins, Jarrett has five top-five's and seven top-10's in 13 starts.
- Jarrett has led a total of 186 laps at the Brickyard and has finished on the lead lap in all but two races.
- Jarrett's average finishing position at the Brickyard is 13.5, the best at any track in his career.
