Counting Down to Drive Time

How does a leading NASCAR driver get ready for a race?

Dale Jarrett, one of the sport’s veteran stars, gave a visitor a rare glimpse into how he and his Robert Yates Racing team spend the hours leading up to the green flag.

The race was the Budweiser Shootout last Sunday, a 70-lap non-points sprint that kicked off a week of racing at Daytona International Speedway.

The climax is the Daytona 500, which Jarrett has won three times, most recently in 2000 when he started on the pole. Jarrett, who turns 50 in November, almost put his new No. 88 Ford Fusion on the pole again this year, posting the third-fastest time in qualifying.

This year’s Shootout originally was scheduled for last Saturday night, but a chilly rain pushed the race to Sunday, after qualifying for the 500 ended. A visitor first joined him on Saturday afternoon:

3 p.m. -- It’s nearly six hours until the race, and it’s raining. Jarrett is relaxing on a couch inside one of the dozens of unmarked motor coaches where the drivers retreat in the speedway’s vast infield.

Dressed in a white T-shirt, blue gym shorts, white socks and no shoes, he’s planning to walk over to the track’s gym shortly for a workout.

For now, he’s watching TV, switching the channels between a college basketball game and a golf tournament. (Jarrett is an excellent golfer.) On a counter is a framed color photo of his children.

After 18 years in NASCAR’s big leagues, Jarrett is one of the sport’s elder statesmen, to which his gray hair testifies. He has struggled in recent years -- he hasn’t been among the top 10 points leaders since 2002 -- but he won last fall at Talladega and is still competitive, as shown by his qualifying run for the Daytona 500.

“To me it’s every bit as exciting as ever,” he says as the raindrops pound on the roof. “The spirit is still there. It will be time to quit if I don’t get excited about being here [at Daytona], because it’s 36 hard weekends from this point on.”

5:30 -- The rain lifts somewhat, and the speedway quickly turns festive. A rock band plays in the infield, and thousands of fans flow into the grandstands. But Jarrett is back in his trailer after his workout, grabbing a bite to eat, killing time. “We’ve done everything to the race car that we can do,” he says.

6:15 -- Jarrett emerges from his motor coach to attend the pre-race drivers meeting. Hatless, wearing street clothes and carrying his own umbrella, he walks a few hundred yards to the infield building where the drivers sit for last-minute instructions from NASCAR officials.

Jarrett can show his temper on occasion, but generally he’s amiable, mild-mannered and polite. He smiles a lot. When he reaches the building, he holds the door open for a visitor and says, “After you.”

7:15 -- While Jarrett returns to his motor coach to change into his driver’s uniform, his new crew chief, Richard “Slugger” Labbe, gathers Jarrett’s UPS team in the garage for a pep talk.

It starts raining again, and a dozen crewmen sit on the narrow floor inside the hauler that serves as team headquarters. While they eat hot dogs and potato chips from paper plates, Labbe keeps his remarks short.

“I’m not very good at meetings,” he says. “Let’s go have fun. But just remember, we’re here to win the race.”

7:45 -- NASCAR decides the rain won’t end soon, so it postpones the Shootout until the next day.

Sunday, 4 p.m. -- It’s cold and windy as the drivers prepare for their pre-race introductions on a stage facing the front-stretch grandstands. Jarrett unzips his parka, hands it to an aide and climbs a ladder to the stage with the other drivers. The announcer introduces them one by one. Jarrett draws a solid cheer from the crowd, but the biggest roar goes to Dale Earnhardt Jr.

4:15 -- Jarrett and the other drivers stand alongside their cars on pit road as the pre-race ceremonies continue. When the national anthem ends, Jarrett reaches into his pocket, takes out a black felt pen -- the one he uses to sign autographs -- and hands it to the aide.

Then he waits for several more minutes for the ceremonies and the TV commercials to end. He stands with his left hand in his pocket, the other rested on the top of his car. Facing the setting sun, Jarrett says very little, but he keeps smiling while photographers crouch in front of him, snapping shot after shot.

4:26 -- Finally the command is given to climb into the cars. Jarrett takes off his baseball cap and his sunglasses, puts the sunglasses in the cap and hands both to his aide. Then he twists his 6-foot-2 frame through the driver’s-side window and puts on his helmet.

4:35 -- Jarrett fires the engine and pulls away. As he and the other drivers go through their pace laps, some members of Jarrett’s pit crew do push-ups on the concrete behind the pit wall to loosen up.

4:42 m. -- On the radio that connects Jarrett with Slugger, the pit crew and Jarrett’s spotter high above the track, Eddie D’Hondt, Slugger gives everyone one last message before the start: “Let’s go have some fun tonight.” Then he adds, “Go get ‘em driver.”

5:55 -- But it’s not Jarrett’s night. After starting ninth, he finishes 10th, and never challenges for the lead.

“I wouldn’t call it a good run,” he says flatly.

A rookie, Denny Hamlin, takes the victory.

Still, Jarrett isn’t complaining. He kept the car in one piece -- narrowly missing a multicar accident early in the event -- and the Shootout gave him and his crew “a good 70-lap test” to prepare them for the rest of the week, he says.

6:30 -- Everyone now gets the next two days off and the big prize, the Daytona 500, is still up for grabs. So as his crew covers the No. 88 Ford for the night, Jarrett is still smiling.