Father, Son Team Up to Make Telecast Another Family Affair

When Al Unser Jr. won the Indy 500 last year by 0.043 of a second, his uncle, Bobby, was in the ABC broadcast booth.

And when Dale Jarrett won Sunday’s Daytona 500 by 0.19 of a second, his father, Ned, was in the CBS broadcast booth.

Before the race, the elder Jarrett said he tries to maintain his objectivity when it comes to his son. “People tell me I often don’t give him the credit he deserves because I don’t want to appear biased,” he said.

But Jarrett threw objectivity out the window on the last lap Sunday, and that was OK. It wouldn’t have been natural any other way, and it made for pretty dramatic television:

“Come on Dale, go baby go. All right, come on. . . . I know he’s gone to the floorboard. . . . He can’t do any more. . . . Come on, take her to the inside, don’t let him (Earnhardt) get on the inside of you comin’ around the turn. . . . Here he comes.

“Earnhardt’s . . . it’s Dale and Dale as they come off Turn 4. You know who I’m pulling for is Dale Jarrett. Bring her to the inside Dale, don’t let him get down there. He’s gonna make it, Dale’s gonna win the Daytona 500. All right! Look at Martha (Ned’s wife). Oh, can you believe it?”

Later, in a hookup with his son, Jarrett said, “You did great, boy.”