Q&A: Dale Jarrett.

Dale Jarrett, driver of the No. 88 UPS Taurus, heads to Texas this weekend leading the NASCAR Winston Cup point standings by 45 points over second-place Jeff Gordon. Jarrett, who owns a pair of second-place finishes at Texas (1997 and 1999), spoke about returning to The Lone Star State and the reason for his good start in 2001.

Q: Being an odd-numbered year, the stats say you should finish second this weekend?

Jarrett: "I'm looking forward to it because it's a really good race track. The improvements they've made after listening to the drivers from the first and second year have made it much better to race on. It's been a really good track for us, even the second year in '98 we finished 11th but we were running third within the last 10 laps and lost a cylinder. We thought we had a chance to win that race, so it's been a good place. Last year, we had just gotten the car okay and got in an accident, so I really look forward to it. It's supposed to be like Atlanta, but it's really a lot different than Atlanta. It's a lot of fun to drive, but with the things we've learned this year it's kind of a mix between Las Vegas and Atlanta and that should work well for us."

Q: Last year you talked a lot about adjusting your tyres. Is that the biggest difference between your start last year and this year?

Jarrett: "I think that's the biggest thing. We've got three different engineers that we hired between last year and this year and they've really helped us understand. There were times last year when we were really close to being right on top of it, but we didn't stay in that direction because we didn't really understand exactly what all the data meant that we were getting when we would test. These guys have really helped us understand that. The tests that we've had this year, they've really improved us quite a bit, and now Todd and I both have a much better understanding of what we're looking for and what we're doing. That and our engine program is just incredible right now. I think those are the biggest differences."

Q: Last year, you said one of the reasons the newer guys were having success was that they didn't have notes from previous years to work off. Have you concentrated more on what the car wants that given weekend, instead of relying on what's worked in the past?

Jarrett: "Yeah, we have and I think that's helped us. We have those notes for reference, but even though they've changed the tire this year, the construction is still the same -- it's just a harder compound. We've gone back to '97 and have seen some things that we can use and be of some benefit, but mostly we're just doing what the car is asking for. Again, this is where our engineers have helped us because they're coming in and scientifically looking at the banking of each track. They'll say, 'Okay, here's what we had as far as springs for Las Vegas and here's what we ran at Atlanta. This is the banking for Texas, so here's where we need to be spring-wise and swaybar-wise.' The formulas they have to figure that out has been a tremendous help for us, so we're just looking at each track individually. The other thing with the tire situation is that running the same tire at more than one race track is a big benefit. Now you can go back and see what you did and have it be a big help to you, instead of having something totally different every week."

Q: Do you pay a lot of attention to the points standings this early in the season?

Jarrett: "I pay attention to what's going on. I found it rather interesting just looking last night at who is in the top 10. There's a different crowd up there, other than I guess Gordon and myself who have been up there the last five or six years. There are a lot of new faces and I think that's very interesting and good for the sport."

Q: It seems the championship is talked about from week one, so how do you balance concentrating on the race at hand versus getting caught up in leading the standings this early?

Jarrett: "It's not as much getting caught up in leading it, but to race for the championship you have to pay attention and you have to race for those points every single week. I know everybody says, 'Hey, we're just gonna do the same things we've been doing' and, yeah, that's what you want to do, but you have to understand that on days where things aren't exactly working, you have to make the most of it and get the most points that you can. That's what it's about. Then you get the victories whenever you have a good enough car and have things go your way, but you have to race for points. That's something Dale Earnhardt really talked to me about in 1999 was you have to race for the championship from the very first race. You want to win every race you possibly can, but you're points racing and you're racing to get the maximum amount of points that you can every single time that you're out there, so you have to pay attention to it in that respect."

Q: When you see guys like Jeff Burton, Mark Martin, Bobby Labonte and Tony Stewart off to slow starts, do you feel like a Basketball coach in that you know they're going to make a run at you before its over?

Jarrett: "Yeah, there's no doubt. You have to take advantage when you can because you know those guys aren't gonna stay down for very long, so when they are having their difficulties you have to make the most of it. That's what kind of hurt a little bit about Bristol. I had a little better car and was definitely a top-10 car, if not fourth or fifth-place, and that's what hurt, but you've got to take advantage whenever these things happen. You know these are good race teams and race drivers and they're gonna start winning their races and getting on streaks, so you do as much as you can to take advantage of that while they're not."

Q: Even though we're going to Texas this week, a lot talk has focused on Talladega. What are your thoughts about going back there with this current rules package?

Jarrett: "I'm not a big advocate of the rules that we have now. When we were at Daytona doing the test for all of this I said then that it wasn't something that I thought was gonna be really good for the drivers. What I saw was that it didn't make any difference how much experience you had, or how good your team was, or the amount of money your team might be able to spend. Somebody else is gonna be able to do just as well with these rules that keep everybody bunched up. You take people that want to have a lot of nerve and are just looking to win a race, it doesn't matter about what chances they're taking, it puts everybody in a little bit of a bad position at times. I think our rules before could have been worked on to help, but I think in the long run what we seriously have to look at is downsizing these engines and I think we've got to do that in a hurry. We should try to get rid of the restrictor plates and then we can go back to really racing on these superspeedways. I was a little disappointed because I had been told that there would be some changes after Daytona, but that didn't happen. I know the race at Talladega was fantastic and it is more conducive to those rules than what Daytona is, but, there again, it's just gonna be another wild show. I was hoping that we might end up back at something similar to what we've had in the past, but that obviously is not gonna be the case."

Q: Do you feel that if you and the other drivers keep voicing concern over this that there could be a change before next month?

Jarrett: "I don't know. I think the best way to do this is the drivers that want to see a change have to get into the NASCAR trailer and sit down and discuss this. You can't just go in and say, 'We need to make a change.' You better have some type of idea because I'm just like anyone else, if you come and tell me you've gotta make a change, you better have some type of solution to go along with it. There are a number of us that have talked and I think that we just have to get in and discuss this with NASCAR. It's not a matter of going in there and being mad about anything, it's just sitting down and discussing what we think the possibilities would be. I think if enough people do get in and discuss this, yeah, maybe something would happen if they understand that enough people want this to happen."

Q: Can you foresee you and some others going up there and talkintg about it in the next week or two?

Jarrett: "I've been there and there are a number of others who have, and I think we just have to continue. Some of us have talked about what we would like to see happen and we just have to continue to do that. If a change is made, that would be nice but if it's not, we're gonna go there and race and just hope that everything turns out well."

Q: There have been some comments about teams possibly not going to Talladega. What do you think about that?

Jarrett: "I think that's a little bit far-fetched. That's not what it's all about. It's still racing and those are the rules that we have to work with. I don't think it's a matter of being unsafe. I think it certainly puts us in a position for bigger accidents to happen whenever you've got the cars all bunched up like that, but as far as it being unsafe or anything, no, I don't see that. I just think that there should be some reward for experience and some reward for having a little bit better car or a better engine. With the rules the way that they are at Talladega, there just doesn't seem to be that reward."