Dale Jarrett to Retire
Tuesday, October 16th, 2007
Past champion and current Michael Waltrip Racing driver Dale Jarrett announced last week that he would retire as of the 2008 season. Before retiring, Jarrett will start the first five races of the year for Michael Waltrip Racing in the #44 car to hopefully get the team into the top 35. If the team is not in the top 35 at the end of the 2007 season, Jarrett will use his 5 available champion provisionals in order to start in the first five races of the season. After his provisionals have run out, he will give up the ride to David Reutimann for the remainder of the 2008 season. Dale Jarrett will also pilot the #44 UPS Toyota in the Bud Shootout at the beginning of speed weeks in Daytona in February, and his final race will be the All-Star race at Lowe’s Motorspeedway in Charlotte at the end of May.
Dale Jarrett fans won’t get the opportunity to miss him too much, though, as he plans on staying front and center in NASCAR but this time from behind the microphone instead of the steering wheel. Dale has signed on with ESPN to be a commentator and broadcaster for their NASCAR coverage.
His evacuation from the #44 car and David Reutimann’s taking over leaves the #00 Toyota open for a new driver. No name has been announced, although rumors have put either David Stremme or Jeremy Mayfield in that seat. The sponsorship of the #00 is still up in the air as well with Burger King and Dominos not resigned as of yet.
NASCAR, Dale Jarrett, Michael Waltrip Racing, Dale Jarret Retiring
As expected, Carl Edwards and his crew chief were both fined after failing post-race inspection after “The King of Concrete” Carl won the Nextel Cup race at Dover. He was fined 25 driver points, dropping him to 6th in the point standings (but still only 28 points behind leader Jeff Gordon) and his crew chief Bob Osbourne was fined $25,000 and put on probation until December 31st. Rousch Fenway Racing was also fined 25 owner points for the right rear of the car being too low. The organization will appeal the penalty with the argument that a 25 point penalty is too harsh during the Chase for an infraction that actually impairs the performance of the car.
During a pit stop in the Nextel Cup race on Sunday, a tire from the #44 car hit the #55 gas man and sent him to the hospital. The tire, being changed by Dale Jarrett’s crew during the fourth caution, rolled away from the pit and was hit by David Ragan in the #6 car. It flew across pit road and knocked out gas man Art Harris. Harris was awake and alert at the track, but transported to a nearby hospital immediately. He was released quickly and was able to fly home with the rest of the team. His status for the Kansas race is still unknown at this time.
And we thought the biggest mess of this matchup was on the track! After Denny Hamlin and Kyle Petty got together on the track during lap 204 of the Nextel Cup race in Dover, the war of words began. Kyle went to visit Denny at his car in the garage as he was sitting in it waiting for it to be repaired. At that point, Kyle slapped Denny across the helmet, which prompted Denny to take off his gloves and climb out of the car. No other physical confrontations occurred, but there are 
