Ned Jarrett Speaker & Booking Information

Jarrett was best known for his calm demeanor, and he became known as "Gentleman Ned Jarrett". Yet he was an intense competitor when he put his two hands on the steering wheel of a NASCAR Grand National stock car.

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. Ned started working for his father's in the sawmill by the time he was 17, but racing was what he wanted.

Ned drove in his first race in 1952 at Hickory Motor Speedway's (North Carolina) first race. He drove a Sportsman Ford that he co-owned with his brother-in-law, 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 his brother-in-law was sick for one race and he ask Ned to fill in for him. Ned used his brother-in-laws name and came in second in that race. That worked out so smooth that Ned went and drove in a few more races under an assumed name, 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.

In 1959 he was looking to pursue a career in Grand National, now Sprint Cup, series. He purchased a Junior Johnson Ford for $2,000. He didn't 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 and took the championship over Rex White in 1961. He was among the top five drivers in 22 races and missed being among the top ten drivers only 12 times out of 46 races, with one win.

In 1964, Jarrett joined team owner Bobby Long and with the support of Ford won 15 times but lost the championship to Richard Petty. Jarrett picked up his first superspeedway win at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

In 1965, Jarrett became a super 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 tragically died in 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 Ned Jarrett by 14 laps, which is the largest margin of victory in NASCAR history.

In 1966 Jarrett was in the run for another championship when Ford announced that they were withdrawing from NASCAR. With that Jarrett decided that it was time to retire at the young age of 34. Jarrett is the only driver to retire as the NASCAR champion.

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 promotor for Hickory Motor Speedway.