The weekend off before Indianapolis wasn't quite enough to boost Dale Jarrett and his #44 UPS team into the starting field for the Brickyard 400.
Before Sunday, Jarrett was one of a handful of active drivers that had started every single race at Indianapolis since 1994. Having missed the last two races in Chicago and Indianapolis, Jarrett has become eager to compete again.
"It was a tough blow to miss the Indy race," Jarrett said. "Each time has been rough, but that one was especially hard. It is such a neat track with loads of history. Now we have another challenge ahead of us with returning to Pocono for a second time this year after missing the first race. I know Jason (Burdett) and the crew are up for it."
The Pennsylvania 500 is scheduled for a 2:00 p.m. EDT start this Sunday.
Dale Jarrett Discusses Racing at Pocono Raceway
Were you surprised to see Toyota get their first stock car win this season?
"No, I really wasn't surprised. I think it's a testament to how hard all the Toyota people have been working all season long. Obviously Jason (Leffler) and his whole Busch team did a great job. They should definitely be commended for all their hard work. All the Toyota teams and all the people from Toyota have been working long hours and doing everything they can to figure this whole thing out. This is such a competitive sport and the learning curve is definitely steep. Everyone has seen what Toyota has been able to accomplish in the Truck Series in a relatively short period of time.
And although they did have a little tough going early on, they are now finding a lot of success in that series. I expect that we'll see that same thing in the stock cars as well with the Busch Series and Cup Series. We're excited to be a part of this and look forward to all of our teams at Michael Waltrip Racing to continue to help Toyota build a strong foundation in NASCAR."
How is your team approaching this weekend in Pocono?
"We're just trying to keep plugging away and not get discouraged. It's been a tough summer, probably the toughest I've ever experienced. But fortunately the whole team has stuck with one another pretty good and have kept working and staying positive. But yeah, this weekend we're just going to keep trying new things and see if we can't hit on something that gets us in the show. We felt pretty good in practice last week at Indy so, with some of the things being fairly similar between there and Pocono, we'll try and work off some of those notes a little. I know David's (Reutimann) team has been able to find some decent speed lately and hopefully we can find that kind of speed as well."
UPS Racing Team Notes of Interest
- Dale Jarrett owns trophies for three victories at Pocono Raceway in 1995, 1997 and 2002.
- Jarrett earned an incredible six fall Pocono top-five finishes in a row from 1995 to 2000.
- In 20 fall starts at Pocono, Jarrett has completed 98.15 percent of the laps run.
- In those same 20 fall starts at Pocono, Jarrett has also led 311 laps.
