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American racing driver and TV personality (born 1932)

Ned Jarrett (born October 12, 1932) is an American retired race car driver and broadcaster. He is a two time NASCAR Grand National Series champion. Because of his calm demeanor, he became known as "Gentleman Ned Jarrett". He is the father of former drivers Glenn Jarrett and Dale Jarrett.

Jarrett was introduced to cars early in life: his father let him drive the family car to church on Sunday mornings when he was nine years old. Jarrett started working for his father in the sawmill by the time he was 12, but a racing career was what he truly wanted to pursue. Ned drove in his first race in 1952 at Hickory Motor Speedway (North Carolina). He drove a Sportsman Series Ford that he co owned with his brother in law, John Lence and finished tenth. This did not go over well with his father. His father told him he could work on cars but not drive them. Once, John was sick for a race and asked Jarrett to fill in for him. Jarrett used his brother in law's name and came in second in that race. That worked out so smoothly that Jarrett drove in a few more races under the assumed name John Lence but was finally caught by his father after winning a race. His father told him if he was going to drive to at least use his own name. Jarrett raced in his first Grand National Series race in the 1953 Southern 500 at Darlington Speedway. He was out after 10 laps after the engine leaked oil. Jarrett was the 1955 track champion at Hickory Motor Speedway. Jarrett came in second driving in the Sportsman Series in 1956, and won the 1957 and 1958 championships. In 1959, he was looking to pursue a career in the Grand National Series. He purchased a Junior Johnson Ford for $2,000. He did not have enough money to cover the check, so he waited until the bank closed to write the check, entered two races, and won them both to cover the cost of his car. In 1960, he won five races, before winning the 1961 Grand National championship with 22 top five finishes and 34 top ten finishes out of 46 races, with one win. One indicator of the personal character of "Gentleman Ned" Jarrett is demonstrated by the decision to sell his 1961 (raced as No. 11) Chevrolet to Wendell Scott (the first NASCAR African American driver) who travelled from his Virginia home to Jarrett's shop on West "A" Street in Newton, NC, to take delivery of the Chevy Bel Air (raced the previous season) when Jarrett changed to Fords in 1962. Scott hauled the old blue coupe away on the back of an open trailer. Bobby Isaac frequented the shop on West A Street during this period when Bud Alman was the crew chief assisted by mechanic "John Carl" Ervin. Ervin later became crew chief to Jarrett and the No. 11 Fords. Jarrett was once overheard talking with Alman and Ervin about the need to "run all the races" to win the championship. Schedules in those days sometimes included more than one race per week. Among the unique tracks of the early era was Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston Salem, North Carolina, which was actually the area around the football field inside the Bowman Gray Stadium. The race schedule was difficult. The race teams were smaller, often having only one or two paid members. For example, Jarrett required significant effort in order to prepare for the 1963 Daytona 500 race when the latest "fastback" body was introduced by Ford. Alman and Ervin removed (air chiseled) most of the body from a 1962 Ford "fatback" dirt car. Next, the two air chiseled the new body from a 1963 fastback and fitted it onto the old body and chassis. This hybrid body became the car Jarrett drove to third in the "fastback Ford" sweep (top five positions) at Daytona that year. In 1964, Jarrett joined team owner Bondy Long and with the support of Ford won 15 times (one of which was with Charles Robinson) but lost the championship to Richard Petty. Jarrett picked up his first superspeedway win, at Atlanta Motor Speedway. In 1965, Jarrett became a star when he won 13 races and another Grand National championship. He placed among the top five in 42 of the 54 races that he ran. The 1965 Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway was one of the wildest races in NASCAR history. Rookie driver Buren Skeen died after two cars ran into the side of his car in the early laps. Sam McQuagg was leading the race, when Cale Yarborough tried to muscle past McQuagg for the lead. Yarborough flew over the guardrail, rolled around six times, and ended up at the end of the parking lot by a light post. Yarborough waved to the crowd as he walked back to the pits. A video clip of the wreck was used on ABC's Wide World of Sports for several years. With 44 laps left, Fred Lorenzen and Darel Dieringer were fighting for the lead far ahead of Jarrett. Lorenzen's motor expired, and even before he could get into the pits Dieringer's motor started smoking too. Dieringer continued at a slower pace to finish third. The race was won by Jarrett by 14 laps and 2 car lengths or 19.25 miles, which is the farthest margin of victory in NASCAR history (in terms of miles). Jarrett won the season's final race at Dog Track Speedway to clinch the championship; it ended up being his final NASCAR win. In 1966, Jarrett raced in only 21 of 49 races, achieving eight top ten finishes. When Ford announced that they were withdrawing from NASCAR, Jarrett decided that it was time to retire at the age of 34. Jarrett is the only driver to retire as the NASCAR champion. Ervin remained as a crew chief to the Jarrett family for years. Ervin later would become crew chief for Dale Jarrett in the No. 32 Busch car owned by DAJ racing. Jarrett left racing and dealt in real estate and other business ventures before coming back to racing as a broadcaster. He also was the track promoter for Hickory Motor Speedway.

In the early 1960s, Ned began a radio program on WNNC in Newton, North Carolina. His taped show was replayed and locally sponsored, in part by station owner Earl Holder, who gave him both a taping facility and recording studio time for a moderate rate to fill in local programming. It is believed by some that this radio station, WNNC, where Dr. Jerry Punch also began his career on the local high school radio station staff in 1965, was probably the beginning of Jarrett's radio career. Jarrett would sometimes record more than one radio show at a time in order to facilitate the distance required to compete in what was then the "Grand National" circuit of NASCAR. Jarrett gives much credit to his taking a Dale Carnegie class for his success as a broadcaster and in life. Later, in 1978, Jarrett became a radio broadcaster for MRN Radio. He interviewed U. S. President Ronald Reagan live at the 1984 Firecracker 400 at Daytona International Speedway, the race famous as Richard Petty's 200th win. Jarrett also hosted a daily radio program about racing on MRN Radio called "Ned Jarrett's World of Racing" until May 15, 2009, when he announced he would retire from the program. Joe Moore became its new host the following Monday, May 18. Jarrett was a television broadcaster on CBS, first as a pit reporter from 1979 to 1984, and later as color analyst from 1984 to 2000; he was also color analyst on ESPN from 1988 to 2000. He called several of NASCAR's more memorable television moments. He called his son Dale's first victory (in his 129th race) in the 1991 Champion Spark Plug 400 at the Michigan International Speedway. Dale banged Davey Allison's fender at the finish line in what was then the closest finish in NASCAR history. Another famous moment was when he called Dale's victory at the 1993 Daytona 500. At the insistence of CBS Producer Bob Stenner, Jarrett broke impartiality and openly sided with his son on the last lap, coaching him home to victory over Dale Earnhardt. "Its the Dale and Dale show, and you know which Dale I'm pulling for!" Embarrassed by his show of favoritism, he tried to apologize to Earnhardt after the race, but Earnhardt merely smiled and said, "I'm a father, too." In addition, Jarrett was a host for the original Inside Winston Cup Racing on TNN and NASCAR Tech on FSN. On May 26, 2007 Ned returned to the booth to call the Carquest Auto Parts 300 Busch race alongside Andy Petree, Jerry Punch, and his son, 1999 Cup Champ, Dale Jarrett. In 2015, as part of Darlington returning to its traditional Labor Day weekend, a throwback weekend was formed. As part of the throwback weekend, Ned Jarrett, along with his son Dale Jarrett and Ken Squier, called part of the 66th annual Southern 500. The team was reunited for part of the broadcast of the Southern 500 race in 2016 and 2017.

As of 2004, Jarrett had been inducted in 12 motorsports and sports Halls of Fame. He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1997. On October 13, 2010, Jarrett was selected to be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame as one of the 5 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductees of the 2011 class. He was inducted into the 2011 class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame on May 23, 2011.

Ned is the father of Dale Jarrett, who earned his lone NASCAR championship in 1999 and currently is a race broadcaster for NBC Sports. Ned and Dale became the second father son combination to win Cup championships (after Lee Petty and Richard Petty). Ned has spotted for Dale in the past. Ned's other son is Glenn Jarrett, who was a sporadic Busch Series driver and had a few Cup Series starts in the 1980s. Glenn now covers UHF television as a race broadcaster. Ned also has a daughter Patti. Patti is married to Jimmy Makar, who worked with Dale Jarrett for three years at Joe Gibbs Racing, and won the 2000 championship as crew chief for Bobby Labonte. Dale's son Jason Jarrett also had a few Busch and Cup starts, with wins in the ARCA Re/Max Series.

Ned is the son of Homer Keith Jarrett (1908–1983) and his wife, Eoline Marie (nee Leatherman) (1910–2002). They were married February 8, 1928 in Gaffney, South Carolina. Ned married first Olene Rebecca Proctor (1933–2014) on January 14, 1950 in Cherokee County, South Carolina. Together they had Glenn Ned Jarrett (b. August 11, 1950). They would divorce some time between then and 1956. Olene would marry again. Ned would also marry again, this time on February 18, 1956 in Catawba County, North Carolina to Martha Ruth Bowman (1931–2023). They remained married until her death and had two children, Dale Arnold Jarrett (b. November 26, 1956) and Patricia Dawn Jarrett (b. August 31, 1959).

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led. ** – All laps led.)

NASCAR Grand National Series results Year Team No. Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 Pts Ref 1953 Mellie Bernard Ford PBS DAB HAR NWS CLT RCH CCS LAN CLB HCY MAR PMS RSP LOU FFS LAN TCS WIL MCF PIF MOR ATL RVS LCF DAV HBO AWS PAS HCY11 68th 174 Ned Jarrett 79 Olds DAR59 CCS LAN BLF WIL NWS MAR ATL 1954 Mellie Bernard 17 Studebaker PBS DAB JSP ATL OSP OAK NWS HBO CCS LAN WIL MAR SHA RSP CLT GAR CLB LND HCY18 MCF WGS PIF AWS SFS GRS MOR OAK CLT SAN COR DAR CCS CLT LAN MAS MAR 147th 64 61 Olds NWS21 1955 30 Pontiac TCS PBS JSP DAB OSP CLB HBO NWS MGY LAN CLT HCY ASF TUS MAR RCH NCF FOR LIN MCF FON AIR CLT PIF CLB AWS MOR ALS NYF SAN CLT FOR MAS RSP DAR37 MGY LAN RSP33 GPS MAS CLB MAR LVP 173rd Ned Jarrett 89 Buick NWS22 HBO 1956 HCY21 CLT12 WSS PBS ASF DAB PBS WIL ATL NWS LAN RCH CLB CON GPS HCY HBO MAR LIN CLT POR EUR NYF MER MAS CLT MCF POR AWS RSP PIF CSF CHI CCF MGY OKL ROA OBS SAN NOR PIF MYB POR DAR CSH CLT LAN POR CLB HBO NWP CLT CCF MAR HCY WIL 166th 1957 23 Ford WSS CON TIC DAB CON19 WIL HBO AWS NWS LAN CLT PIF GBF POR CCF RCH MAR POR EUR LIN LCS ASP NWP CLB CPS PIF JAC RSP CLT MAS POR HCY NOR LCS GLN KPC LIN OBS MYB DAR NYF AWS CSF SCF LAN CLB CCF CLT MAR NBR CON NWS GBF NA 1959 Paul Spaulding 11 Ford FAY DAY DAY HBO CON ATL WIL BGS CLB2 NWS REF 37th 1248 Ned Jarrett 38 Chevy HCY9 MAR TRN CLT11 NSV ASP PIF GPS22 ATL31 CLB WIL20 RCH BGS AWS DAY HEI CLT 11 Ford MBS1 CLT1 NSV AWS17 BGS GPS3 38 CLB8* DAR HCY RCH15 CSF HBO19 MAR12 AWS8 NWS25 CON34 1960 CLT26 CLB1 DAY 4th 14660 11 DAY35 DAY6 CLT11 NWS4 PHO CLB11 MAR10 HCY2 WIL13 BGS5 GPS1 AWS3 DAR16 PIF1 HBO2 RCH3* HMS CLT30 BGS5 DAY7 HEI16 MAB4 MBS6 ATL15 BIR1** NSV20 AWS13 PIF4 CLB4 SBO14 BGS10 DAR5 HCY5 CSF GSP1 HBO2 MAR28 NWS7 CLT3 RCH3 ATL43 1961 CLT16 JSP19 1st 27272 B. G. Holloway Chevy DAY5 DAY DAY7 ATL5 HBO19 BGS5 MAR5 NWS24 CLB2* HCY19 RCH4 MAR6 DAR10 CLT8 CLT RSD ASP CLT4 PIF5 BIR1 GPS2* BGS6 NOR3 HAS6 STR11 DAY12 ATL14 CLB3 MBS3 BRI3 NSV2 BGS3 AWS4 RCH2 SBO3 DAR6 HCY8* RCH4 CSF ATL7 MAR13 NWS5 CLT18 BRI6 GPS6 HBO3 Ford PIF16 AWS3 HMS GPS14 1962 Chevy CON5 AWS5 DAY DAY16 DAY9 AWS16 SVH13* HBO10 RCH2* CLB1 NWS24 GPS1 MBS3 MAR13 BGS7 BRI4 RCH14 HCY13 CON19 DAR9 PIF1 CLT6 ATL39 BGS11 AUG2 RCH6 SBO6 DAY7 CLB5 ASH5 GPS15 AUG15 SVH6 MBS1* BRI9 CHT8 NSV5 HUN4 AWS3 STR6 PIF10 VAL1 DAR8 HCY17 RCH6 DTS1** AUG4* MAR3 NWS11 CLT11 ATL40 3rd 25336 1 CON20 J. C. Parker 49 Pontiac BGS6 1963 B. G. Holloway 11 Chevy BIR11 GGS19 4th 27214 Burton Robinson Ford THS24 RSD6 DAY DAY4 DAY3 PIF2* HBO4 ATL10 HCY3 BRI15 AUG1* RCH2 GPS2* SBO3 BGS5 MAR4 NWS25 CLB3 THS3* DAR20 ODS2 RCH1* CLT30 BIR4 ATL10 DAY5 MBS1* SVH1* DTS2* BGS2 ASH1* OBS4 BRR8 BRI25 GPS2* NSV7 CLB4 AWS9 PIF1 BGS5 ONA4 DAR21 HCY14 RCH1 MAR19 DTS1* NWS5 THS9 CLT32 SBO HBO20 RSD34 Herman Beam 19 Ford AWS5 1964 Burton Robinson 11 Ford CON1* AUG5 JSP7 SVH20 2nd 34950 Bondy Long RSD5 DAY8 DAY DAY27 RCH13* BRI6 GPS2* BGS2 ATL3 AWS16 HBO20 PIF1 CLB1 NWS2 MAR4 SVH12 DAR4 LGY1* HCY1 SBO3 CLT33 GPS14 ASH1* ATL1* CON3 NSV17 CHT4 BIR1** VAL19 PIF5 DAY23 ODS1* OBS2 BRR6 ISP2 GLN8 LIN15 BRI25 NSV5 MBS4 AWS1* DTS1 ONA3 CLB4 BGS3 STR2 DAR4 HCY RCH5 ODS1* HBO1 MAR5 SVH1** NWS29 CLT4 HAR2 AUG19 JAC1* 1965 RSD19 DAY2 DAY DAY5 PIF1 AWS1* RCH11 HBO1 ATL3 GPS2 NWS3 MAR10 CLB2 BRI3 DAR3 LGY1* BGS2 HCY2 CLT20 CCF1 ASH2 HAR1* BIR1** ATL3 GPS13 MBS2 VAL13 DAY20 ODS3 OBS5 ISP3 GLN2 BRI1 NSV2 CCF1 AWS2 SMR6 PIF1 AUG3 CLB7 DTS2 BLV1** BGS4 DAR1 HCY3 LIN4 ODS2* RCH19 MAR4 NWS3 CLT4 HBO16 CAR16 DTS1 1st 38824 Jabe Thomas 25 Ford NSV2 1966 Bondy Long 11 Ford AUG3 RSD8 DAY DAY5 DAY7 CAR36 BRI19 ATL18 HCY4 CLB GPS BGS NWS MAR DAR LGY MGR MON RCH CLT8 DTS ASH PIF SMR BRR28 OXF26 FON29 ISP3 BRI21 SMR25 NSV ATL CLB AWS15 BLV BGS DAR13 HCY RCH HBO MAR21 NWS CLT37 CAR3 13th 17616 Gray Racing 97 Ford AWS26 BLV GPS DAY ODS

Year Team Manufacturer Start Finish 1960 Ned Jarrett Ford 54 6 1961 B. G. Holloway Chevrolet 9 7 1962 38 9 1963 Burton Robinson Ford 8 3 1964 Bondy Long 17 27 1965 3 5 1966 10 7