| | Welcome to Michigan everybody, a beautiful place in June by the way, for the 14th stop of the Winston Cup season, the Kmart 400. It certainly was a pleasant place a year ago for the eventual Winston Cup champion. But more of that in a moment.
|  | | Nobody could keep up with Dale Jarrett in last year's Kmart 400. |
I want to know what you think will happen this year? As you know, we've had 12 different winners in 13 races this year. The only guy to win twice is a rookie. And the one guy many people thought would challenge for the championship from the start of the season finally got to Victory Lane last Sunday in Dover.
Oh, did you happen to check to see who is third in the Winston Cup point standings? Here's a hint, his son is the only two-time winner in 2000. And by the way, did you check out the finishing order from Dover? I mean the entire finishing order? Like from, say, 32nd on back? You'll see the names of Gordon (Jeff), Burton (Jeff), Martin and Mayfield.
Didn't somebody say just last week that Dover was the beginning of a critical stretch of five races where you had to be up front every week if you want to be part of the big math class in November? Sometimes I get the feeling nobody is listening to me. I was just trying to help, trying to inspire everyone.
Well, those are four guys that started the race in the top 15 in points thinking that good things were just ahead. Oops. Now they're getting ready for 400 more miles on the flat and fast track at Michigan with Bobby Labonte leading the Winston Cup point standings by 82 points over Ward Burton. Dale Earnhardt is third is points, Dale Jarrett fourth and Martin fell from third to fifth.
Wait a minute! Did somebody say Dale Jarrett? I think he won the June race at Michigan one year ago. Let me check my notes ... yeah, it says here ... let me see ... it says ... "Jarrett kicked their butts!"
Now I remember that race: no caution flags, 200 green-flag laps, 400 green-flag miles. How could I forget that!
Jarrett's win at Michigan last June was a race of dominance, determination and direction. In a sport where great days are often assembled with imperfect parts, Jarrett enjoyed a rare afternoon where everything thing went great, as he started sixth and led 150 of the 200 laps.
His winning margin of a mere half second over Jeff Gordon is one of those obscene statistics that might indicate the finish was close. But on that Sunday, the miss was as good as a mile, or maybe two miles, because on the two-mile Michigan Speedway, no one ever threatened him. Heck, some drivers never saw him.
It was the kind of race that a driver can easily recall, and Jarrett did, with a smile and a little bit of a laugh.
"I knew at Michigan once I got out of being three-wide for about 5 or 6 laps there, and I was able to get in the line that I wanted to run, that we were going to have a real good car," Jarrett recalls. "It probably took me 15 laps (before) I said, 'We've got a car here today that these guys are going to have to contend with.'
"I'd like to think that I know a feel that I need to get around there and where the car needs to be fast and that's where it was fast. So, I didn't know that we were going to be as dominant as we were that day, but I knew early that we had a car very capable of winning the race."
And win the race he did, with just four other cars on the lead lap: Gordon, Burton-J, Burton-W, and that pesky Bobby Labonte fellow. Only three cars finished a single lap down. I think everyone else left early to beat the traffic!
You could present the case that the win at Michigan launched Jarrett's lopsided run at the Winston Cup championship. It was his second win of the year, and stretched his point lead to 66 points -- his largest margin to that point of the season.
Beginning with Michigan, he won three of nine races, and never finished lower than sixth in those nine races. He started the June race at Michigan with a 51-point lead in the championship chase, and by the time the checkered flag fell following the Michigan event in August, nine races later, his lead was a staggering and insurmountable 314 points.
That Sunday in Michigan was a microscopic look at Jarrett's long road to the Winston Cup championship. Every time he turned left, everything went right, as in correct, as is good. And while the first 13 races in 2000 haven't delivered the results DJ had dreamed of, he is suddenly and silently climbing toward the top.
Fourth at Dover last Sunday, and now fourth in the points. He is in the top five in points for the first time since the race at Bristol on March 26. And only one driver comes to Michigan with four straight top-10 finishes -- Dale Jarrett. Jarrett is also a three-time winner at the track, and this is the place where he won his first Winston Cup race on August 18, 1991.
Jarrett now has nine top-10 finishes in 13 races this season. Atlanta (36th), Bristol (21st) and Texas (33rd) delivered a blow to both the morale and the mathematics of the Quality Care crew, but Jarrett's approach has been that this is a long season. He's right.
The reigning Winston Cup Champion is a quiet contender once again. Of course, another win would be nice. And Michigan is always a nice place for a Sunday afternoon drive. | |
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AUDIO/VIDEO
 It's a wide open race, but Dale Jarrett likes his odds.
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