It’s one of my all-time favorite NASCAR moments and if you don’t remember check out the video below and then read Dale’s response to my question. So sweet!

Me: Your father called your first Daytona 500 win. It was such a huge moment in NASCAR history and in sports television history I think. It was such a great moment; did you ever get a chance to see the footage of your father calling the end of the race?

Jarrett: Yes, I did, yes.

Me: And what was that like for you, to see him?

Jarrett: Oh, more special than I can tell you. Ya know, as a father and son, and as a son in particular, you’re always wanting to do things to please your parents and to try to give them something back for all the time and effort that they’ve made in helping you to get through the early stages of your life and give you opportunities. Even though most parents and certainly mine were like this, they didn’t want any money back or anything like that. That was the best thing I could do was to make them proud and it was a very proud moment for my dad and myself and for my mom. It was just a very special day.

I had no idea at the time of what I was doing, trying to win the Daytona 500, that it was going to become such a special moment for my dad and myself. And actually for a lot of other fathers and sons around the country, we probably get more people to talk to us about that very moment in 1993 than anything else.

I know that a lot of parents and fathers & sons have special times that they can relate to but as far as being on national TV I don’t know that there was anything that comes close to that. I know that there have been other things along the way. I know Bob and Brian Griese in the Rose Bowl, I believe it was a number of years ago where Bob was the commentator and Brian was the quarterback. We actually had the opportunity to talk to them about that and just how special that was.

It was something that we’ll always have and people, again, remember to this day and say a lot, come to us with expressions of just how gratifying it was for them. It was a very, very special day that we’ll always have.

Jarrett: I think probably the biggest thing that came along as far as a change was whenever they required everyone to wear the HANS device. I look at that as a very positive impact and unfortunately this positive impact came from some negative things that happened. We lost a couple of lives to get to that point, to be able to make that decision and make that happen. To me that’s the best thing that has been done in our sport.

There’s a lot of things that have been changed, a lot of rules, some that would be up for argument whether they were better for the sport or just things that were done from what they felt like was necessity to make changes. The racing back to the caution thing where people could get laps back, that was getting a little bit out of hand and something needed to be done. People will argue they don’t like the idea, that now that it’s changed, that someone gets a free pass to get a lap back but it seems to have all worked out better for the sport.

The safety innovations that have come along inside the racecars were tremendous. The newer tracks, and things, have all been very positive for the sport. So there’s been a lot of things that I’ve seen, but I certainly think that the HANS device has been the biggest and one improvement that we had to have for the safety of our drivers in the sport.

Me: With Silly Season going on for what seems like all year long these days, do you think drivers get enough time to really prove themselves when they come to a team? Some guys have been there for a year, maybe two years, and then they’re getting swapped out again. Does the need for sponsors and money make it harder to get results and for a driver to prove themselves?

Jarrett: This kind of goes back to what we were discussing a little bit earlier about how young the drivers are in coming along now, that’s the positive side as they get those opportunities at a very young age. The other side of it is that as they get those opportunities to make their mark in the sport at a very early age, if things don’t go exactly as planned for them then they can also find that exit to the sport a lot sooner.

There’s not as much tolerance this day in time, you’re expected to produce. When you’re given these opportunities at a young age you’re expected to produce quickly. If that doesn’t happen then you can find yourself on the outside looking in and I would say that that can be very devastating to a lot of young people at that time of their life. So again, they have these opportunities early but there’s not as much patience given to these young drivers.

The teams, there’s so much pressure out there to keep sponsors around and to have these major sponsors that everyone wants to be producing and you’re not giving these drivers as much time to do that. It’s a situation that is very difficult. I don’t know that there’s an answer, it’s just if you’re going to take the chance of going in there and getting that opportunity at that young of an age you have to also be willing to accept the responsibility that if things don’t go well then you may be fighting for your job much quicker.

Is it fair? Gosh, that’d be hard to say. I don’t know if we’re given anything and told that anything about it was going to be fair. So you have to know that going in and I think that’s why as young drivers come into this they really, really have to look and focus on decisions that they’re making for their future at a very early age in life and make sure that they’re putting themselves in the right situation because just one wrong move could mean that you’re never going to get that first-class opportunity that you want.

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Me: Do you think that NASCAR could get bigger in terms of media coverage? It’s huge in its own right, but it still doesn’t quite get the respect, I think, that the NFL does and the NBA. Do you think it could get bigger and that the coverage could expand?

Jarrett: It could expand and it has expanded a lot, but what everyone would need to understand is how different our sport is because we don’t really have home teams. That’s the thing that separates our sport from getting more media coverage is that we don’t have that home team in Los Angeles or New York. The teams are based primarily around the Charlotte/Mooresville area.

Even though we go and have these tracks in a lot of different areas and that the media coverage has expanded tremendously you’re still not going to get that weekly and daily coverage because they don’t have the facility to go to, the team to go to there in that market area and talk to them during the week to see what’s going on. So that’s always going to keep us and make us a little more difficult of a sport for everyone else around the country to follow as much. They really have to have an agenda to why they want to do that. We’ve done a good job with that, ESPN’s done a good job with that, Fox has done a nice job, NASCAR has done a nice job and all of the teams and drivers and PR people have really helped in that respect to making their drivers and their teams accessible to the media.

It’s still always going to be something that we’re going to fight and there’s really no cure for it. So are we ever going to reach the NFL level? Probably not, simply because of those reasons that we don’t have those teams based in those areas for the media in those big market areas to cover on a daily basis.

Me: Speaking of the NFL actually. The No. 88 was your car number for a very long time and now Dale Earnhardt Jr. has it. Do you think that NASCAR should retire car numbers the way they retire jersey numbers in other sports? Or is it kind of par for the course that in NASCAR numbers change and numbers move?

Jarrett: Yea, I think we kind of set a precedent that that wasn’t going to happen in our sport. Obviously, NASCAR likes and requires that we keep it to a two-digit number, one or two, on these racecars.

When Richard Petty retired and they didn’t retire his number I think the rest of us could probably figure that our numbers weren’t going to be retired after that. If the guy that won 200 races couldn’t get his number retired then rest of us were probably not going to measure up to those standards or come anywhere close to having our number retired.

It is a little different but I think there again our sport is a little bit different in that respect. Whenever they take one of those numbers away from a team or something like that, or even a number of them, they have others that they can work around.

So I think everybody’s ok with the numbers not being retired. The drivers get, that deserve to be, in the hall of fames and things like that. It’s more the driver than what it is the number that they drove. And a lot of times in this you see where as NFL players go through their career they might be able to stick with the one number and in our situation it’s very rare that someone has just one number throughout their career.

Richard Petty might be the only person that drove the same number throughout his career and only had that one number, and I’m not even positive that that’s an absolute fact. It’s the only number I ever remember him running. But I think that everybody’s ok with the numbers not getting retired.

Jarrett: Well, obviously now that there’s the 18-year-old rule to whether it’s the Nationwide or any of the NASCAR events, the Trucks or anything, I think that’s a good thing.

Is it too much, too soon? Well that’s going to be hard to tell, I guess we’re going to have to see. If it’s happened before that an 18-year-old, and I don’t think that it has, has gotten a ride — ya know it’s rare that they get a ride at that age in the Cup Series — but to get a Championship caliber ride that’s what’s so very different this day in time versus things that have happened in the past.

Again, it’s very rare that someone would come along with that kind of talent that someone’s willing to take that chance, that soon, on them. But to put them in that level of competition and a ride with the opportunity to literally be going to his first races, especially if he gets in the next year, to be considered a contender because he has the equipment is pretty rare.

Because everyone is different it’ll be interesting to see how Joey handles everything that goes along with being a Sprint Cup race driver in a high profile situation. He’s shown nothing but class so far and I think that’s probably a tribute to his parents bringing him up that way. And he seems to have a really good head on his shoulders, but he’s really getting ready to be thrown to the wolves so to speak and he’s going to be under the microscope. So it will be interesting to see.

To say that it’s too much, too soon, again, people handle different situations differently and it will be interesting to follow this. There is going to be a lot of times that he’s going to be in a situation to probably receive a good bit of criticism for something but he’s also going to be in the situation for success to come to him very quickly and see how he handles that. And I believe that if anyone can do it, by what I’ve seen so far, he will be able to handle it.

Me: So what are the biggest changes that you’ve seen in terms of the drivers that are coming to the sport, in to NASCAR in general? It seems like the drivers are getting younger and they’re more groomed for the sport, they know kind of what to expect in the landscape of the sport. So what’s been the change that you’ve seen from your career, from when you started out to now?

Jarrett: I think that you hit on it, the age, that’s the biggest thing. We’re talking about an 18-year-old young man here, someone who is literally just out of high school that’s having the opportunity to get in with a first-class organization with a top-notch ride. Before, that was unheard of, you just didn’t see something like that happening, the opportunities that are available now.

These young people, as you said, are being groomed now. Their parents are getting them opportunities because our sport has become such a big entity that they see opportunities out there now. It wasn’t like that before. Not many parents twenty years ago would be setting their kids up, saying ok, you have talent here whether it was driving a go-kart or whatever we’re going to start you on a fast pace here, basically like college or a different type of schooling.

Just like we see young people going to tennis schools and golf schools to where literally at 13-, 14-years-old they’re going off to school to not only get their education but to learn the game or the sport that they want to make a living at and NASCAR is becoming a lot like that. Even though there’s no schools, these parents are taking the opportunity to groom these young men and women to become race drivers.

I think that you see them, they’re much more polished and ready and much more experienced when they get here now to handle these type of situations. To me that’s been the biggest change. Obviously media has had a lot to do with that, not only with helping young people come along but to give our sport the recognition that it’s been trying to get for a long time. There’s a lot of opportunities there and a lot of changes that have taken place but to me that’s the biggest thing, the ages that we see, these young people coming along and getting opportunities.

It wasn’t just a pleasure, it was a freaking honor to talk to this man. I’ve always liked him and I’ve always respected him as a driver. He’s a legend in NASCAR and if you told me a year ago that I would actually get the chance to talk to him I would have told you that you were crazy, but also that I liked your imagination.

So talking to him was fun and it was great to hear his opinion on the topics I brought up. He isn’t one to be closed up and cocky. He exudes niceness and this sort of regular Joe normalcy that I love. Plus he just talks, ya know? He doesn’t lead you around and give you nothing, he’s real.

So without further hubbub here’s the first of five posts devoted to my interview with the awesome Dale Jarrett.

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Me: What has the transition been like from racing to being a sports analyst?

Jarrett: Really everything has gone pretty smooth from my side of it. The biggest thing has been going from competing to trying to learn a new vocation basically. That’s been my biggest challenge. But it hasn’t been to me that big of a challenge because of the people that ESPN has in place and that they’ve surrounded me with.

So, do I miss the competition side? Occasionally but not a lot because we’re still extremely busy in the broadcasting side of it and I’ve really enjoyed the new challenge of literally looking at the sport in a totally different way than what I did for over twenty years.

When I was driving a racecar I just had only one thing on my mind and it was making my racecar go as fast I possibly could and beating as much of the competition as I could. Didn’t really look at anything else going on around it. I certainly knew how the sport was progressing and growing and things that were happening in it, but now I find myself, and literally need to, keep up with everything that’s happening in the sport. I used to not really be that concerned with news and notes and what other people were doing and things like that. But that’s what my life’s about now, so it’s been a fun transition and I’ve really enjoyed it. I like going to races, the people that I work with and so it’s actually made it a lot of fun.

Me: Has it made you look at drivers in a new way since you’ve become a member of the media?

Jarrett: It does make me look at it a lot differently and appreciate for what a lot of them go through, and looking back on it how I might have been a little more cooperative at times with the media because I’m on that side now.

But I also have the understanding of, I think, what they’re going through and so I try to respect that as much as I possibly can. I’ve been fortunate that I have a lot of good friendships and relationships with the majority of the drivers. I think they feel very comfortable in talking with me and sharing information with me. I think they know that anything that I’m talking to them about is strictly to help me, to help the fans understand a little bit better. The conversations are different than what I used to have with them but I feel very comfortable in the way that we’ve been able to handle things to this point.

Me: So when you’re calling a race and things are going on on the track, has there ever been a moment where you find yourself having to bite your tongue? Or you feel like you want to say something but you can’t? Do you ever have a moment like that?

Jarrett: Not really. I think that the only reason that I hesitate is that I always try to give the drivers the benefit of the doubt for something that we’re watching on TV because I’ve been there before and I know how totally different things look from a TV perspective and a viewing perspective than what they do actually inside the racecar. How things are so magnified and how quickly they happen, and so I don’t want to be too judgmental.

But I don’t have a problem when I can see something that is very clear and I have an opinion on it and in calling someone out on it or expressing my opinion. And I’ve had that discussion with a number of the drivers too. Hey, I know that things look totally different and there are going to be things that I’m going to say on TV that they’re not necessarily going to agree with but I’ve tried to let them know that I do give them the benefit of the doubt as much as I possibly can.

But again, we’re not always going to agree on what I say and maybe what I see and if they have a problem with that, just as when I was driving a racecar and competing with them, if we have a problem then I want them to come to me. Just as I would go to them if we were in a situation that happened on the racetrack. So I think that the way that I handled my racing career is also helping me in that respect to handle my broadcasting career with these guys.

Me: In the situation with Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch at Bristol, was Carl in the right for bumping Kyle at the end of the race to make the pass? Or is there a lot of grey in terms of what you can do in a situation like that? Or is there any time when it’s just black & white? Because it seems like there’s a lot of grey area where it’s good for one guy at one time versus another and I think even David Poole of the Observer said that there’s a lot of guys doing the same thing all around the track but you don’t always see it on TV, so it’s not what you think it is.

Jarrett: Yea, you’re definitely seeing that a lot and is there any certain rule? No. It’s kind of how you want to be raced. It’s how you race other people and it depends on which end of that bump that you’re on as to who’s going to be happy about it and who’s not.

And that’s something that’s been going on since the inception of this sport. You’re always going to have differing opinions and views on what is the right thing to do there and each of those drivers is trying to win the race and they’re doing what they think they need to do. And drivers are going to go about it differently. There are some drivers that don’t mind doing exactly what Carl did and say that that’s part of this and I think that you see probably a lot more of that in racing in this day in time because the cars are so equal it makes it difficult to pass and a little bump is sometimes what you have to do.

Again, it depends on which end of that bump that you’re on as to what you think is right. There’s just no written rule, other than, there is a lot of grey area there and people are going to interpret it differently depending on certain situations. It’s not only happening for the lead, it’s happening at times for fourth and fifth and even for fifteenth and sixteenth and a lot of times that doesn’t make it on TV and we don’t cover those instances as much as we do something that happens for the lead.

So again it literally goes back, and you heard Carl Edwards say this, basically that he felt like that Kyle had used that against him even though it was in a Nationwide race at a point in time and that’s the kind of thing that drivers remember. That’s kind of the way that the majority of them race now, I’m going to race you the way that you race me and Carl felt like that’s the thing that Kyle would have done to him in that situation and had done to him. So he didn’t have really any remorse about it, he never said he was sorry and [I] don’t know that he needed to. I think that he knew that was his intention and he stood by that, and what it’s going to do is make fans watch for that next time when the roles are reversed and see what Kyle may do to try to take that victory away from Carl.