Jarrett Winless but Consistent This Season

Dale Jarrett has been one of the most consistent drivers in NASCAR this season. Problem is, he’s been consistently second.

Jarrett, who followed winner Dale Earnhardt across the finish line last Sunday in the DieHard 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, has yet to win a race this season and has now finished second three times.

He also is second in the season standings, trailing leader Jeff Burton by 40 points heading into the California 500 in Fontana today.

“I guess it’s a little disappointing that we haven’t won,” said Jarrett, who does have 18 victories in his Winston Cup career. “We’ve put ourselves in position a couple of times.”

No question about that. Except for a crash that left him in 37th place in the season-opening Daytona 500, Jarrett has been near the front in every race, finishing no worse than 11th and compiling seven top-10s and six top-fives already this season.

Still, it’s frustrating not to get to Victory Circle.

“Whenever I say we’ve got to start winning and start leading more laps, I look back to 1996 when Terry Labonte won the championship,” Jarrett said.

Labonte won only twice that season but took the title thanks to 21 top-fives and 24 top-10s in 31 starts.

“We hope we get more than one victory, but the main thing is consistency,” Jarrett said. “We know that’s what wins these championships.”

ROOKIE RAGE: No Winston Cup rookie has won a race since Davey Allison took two checkered flags in 1987.

But Tony Stewart, this year’s top newcomer, is showing signs he could soon change that.

The former Indy Racing League champion, driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, finished a career-best fifth on Sunday in Talladega, Ala. And it was no fluke. He led several times in the race before falling back near the end.

After a slow start, the 27-year-old Stewart has a pair of sixth-place finishes and that fifth in his last five races.

“I’m not worried about a win,” Stewart said. “I’m worried about being consistent.

“When it’s our day, it will happen. It may not be this year. We may never have it happen, who knows?

“But if we can keep doing what we did (in Talladega), I’m sure a win is in the future.”

STAT OF THE WEEK: Those who think NASCAR’s Winston Cup series still is just a Southeastern sport might be surprised to learn that the California 500 in Fontana will be the 98th race in the state in the 51 years the sanctioning body has been around.

In fact, California, with 15 different tracks where the big stock cars have run, is tied for second with New York in that category.