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Cookies and milk. The rock band KISS and makeup. The Hoosier state and basketball.
All go hand in hand, are synonomous with each other. While the National Football League has the Dallas Cowboys and Major League Baseball the New York Yankees, the name Jarrett is to stock car racing what apple pie and Coke are to American summers.
Following in the footsteps of his legandary father and granfather, 25-year-old Jason Jarrett makes a living driving a racecar, and the 2001 season will see him behind the wheel of the ML Motorsports Team 67 Mary Louise Miller-owned Pontiac.
The son of 1999 Winston Cup champion Dale Jarrett and grandson of two-time champion Ned Jarrett, Jason Jarrett will run all 25 races on the ARCA RE/MAX Series schedule, beginning Feb. 11 at Daytona International Speedway in the 38th annual Discount Auto Parts ARCA 200.
"I was really impressed with them," Jarrett said Thursday of the ML Motorsports team. "I was really impressed, especially when you look at what they did in a short period of time."
In just its first full season in the ARCA series, the ML Motorsports team took fourth overall in the 2000 points standings, while driver Brian Ross was named Rookie of the Year.
Ross is exploring other opportunities, and third-generation driver Jarrett is now the center of attention.
Thursday evening he made a visit to the ML Motorsports complex at Warsaw Municipal Airport, answering endless amounts of questions and filming takes for a local television station. All this on a day when he left his Hickory, N.C. home at 6 a.m., had trouble with a flight out of Atlanta, and then rode in a car with ML Motorsports team manager Ed Mullen from Chicago to Warsaw.
Papers taped to the doors at Warsaw's Wal-Mart announce an autograph session Saturday from 2-4 p.m. Already he appears in a Play Station video game with Justin Labonte, son of two-time Winston Cup champion Terry Labonte and nephew of 2000 Winston Cup champion Bobby Labonte.
Jarrett hooking up with the ML Motorsports team is the talk of the ARCA circuit. And a year removed from Rookie of the Year honors and a fourth-place finish in the overall points standings, ML Motorsports can be tabbed as a contendor for the season championship.
"We have a good enough package here that if everything goes our way, a championship isn't that far out of reach," Jarrett said. "I'd be ecstatic if that happened. I hope we're still in position to challenge for the championship with three or four races to go."
Though the 2001 season is yet to begin, Jarrett has already made a statement in the No. 67 Pontiac. In preseason testing at Daytona International and Talladega Superspeedway, he was among the fastest, right along side South Bend native Ryan Newman, a Roger Penske driver who will make his way to the Winston Cup circuit in 2002.
"As far as goals, obviously I'd like to win a couple poles, a couple races," Jarrett said. "ML Motorsports could have another Rookie of the Year. Two years and two drivers named Rookie of the Year would be quite an accomplishment."
Last night, Jarrett was found sitting in a black leather chair at the ML Motorsports garage. He took a took trip down memory lane, speaking of his early memories of the sport that has made his family famous.
He spoke of sitting in an infield with current Winston Cup phenom Dale Earnhardt Jr., son of seven-time Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt, and friend Brad Means.
"I remember hanging out with Dale Earnhardt Jr., sitting in the infield when we were younger and talking about what we wanted to do," Jarrett said. "At the time you wouldn't think any of us would be in racing. We all went our separate ways. Obviously Dale Jr. is doing a pretty good job, and Brad works on cars for Andy Huston and Ricky Craven."
Jarrett, who says his family never pushed him to or away from racing, began his career in 1992, driving go karts near his hometown of Hickory, N.C.
In 1993, he claimed the sprint division championship of the World Karting Association's Carolina Cup Series at Rockingham Speedway.
A year later he moved up to the Limited Sportsman Division and took fifth in the overall points race, winning Rookie of the Year honors, taking one checkered flag and winning one pole.
The next stop on Jarrett's road to racing fame found him in the Late Model Sportsman Division, where he drove for three years, taking Most Improved Driver honors at Hickory Motor Speedway in 1996. In 46 starts in 1997 at Hickory Motor Speedway and Tri-County Speedway, Jarrett drove to 19 top-five and 33 top-10 finishes.
And then March 29, 1997, Jarrett literally followed in the footsteps of his father, grandfather and uncle - TV commentator Glenn Jarrett - when he drove in his first Busch Grand National race at Hickory Motor Speedway. Ned, Dale and Glenn Jarrett all made their Busch appearance at the .363-mile track.
"I always knew I wanted to try racing, but I was never pushed into it or pulled away from it," Jarrett said. "I'm a pretty competitive person. I played baseball in high school, was a pitcher. Not that I thought I would be a professional baseball player, but that satisfied my competitiveness at the time."
After high school Jarrett attended Lenoir-Rhyne, a school in Hickory where he majored in communications. It was then that Jarrett said he knew he had to get to the shop, DAJ Inc., his father's racing outfit.
The 1998 season saw Jarrett make 11 Busch starts. In 1999 he made a full-time committment to the Busch Series, but said it simply didn't work out. He called it a "learning experience," only saying it didn't work out.
Driving for the Rayovac team in the 2000 Busch season, Jarrett said he got burnt out on the series. He then started an October ARCA race at Charlotte, qualifying third and finishing fourth.
And that brings Jarrett to 2001, and the ML Motorsports team.
"In the offseason I really pounded the phone looking for a team," Jarrett said. "I called Craftsman Truck teams. I called ARCA teams. I guess things happen for a reason. I was lucky enough to get hooked up Dane and Mary Louise Miller. I guess it happened at the right time."
For Jarrett and the ML Motorsports team the time is now, and the possibilities are endless as a North Carolina dirt road.
