Dale Jarrett #32 White Rain Ford

    I can't think of a driver I disliked more than Dale Jarrett~ He was, in my opinion, one of the most boring drivers in the history of the sport~ If you take away his time with Todd Parrott, you aren't left with much, not to mention he was a notoriously awful teammate, and a Ford driver~ Now that I've got that out of the way, we'll look back at his time in the Busch series, in the #32 White Rain Ford~

    Jarrett's first race with sponsor White Rain came at the start of the 1997 Busch Series season, in the Gargoyles 300 @ Daytona~ Jarrett was the owner/driver of the team, and qualified the car in 11th spot~ This was the last Busch series race with a 45 car field, and Jarrett was caught up in the first caution of the day, barely 10 laps into the event~ He was the only driver involved that didn't continue the race, which resulted in a 45th place finish~ He rebounded in the following race, the Goodwrench Service 200 @ Rockingham, with a runner up finish, his best finish in the White Rain car, and his last top 5 of the season~

    Dale's next top 10 came in the GM Goodwrench/Delco Batteries 200 @ Dover, 15 races into the season, where he finished 6th~ He followed that up with an 8th place finish in the Lysol 200 @ Watkins Glen, a fine finish for Jarrett, considering his troubles on road courses~ He picked up his final top 10 of the season in the All Pro Bumper to Bumper 300 @ Charlotte, where he finished in the 7th position~ He finished the season with 13 starts, 1 DNQ (Moore's Snacks 250 @ Bristol), 0 wins, 1 top 5, and 4 top 10's, while finishing 36th in the BGN final points standings~

                                                     Dale Jarrett White Rain promo card~

    Jarrett was back with the White Rain sponsorship for the 1998 BGN season, but skipped the first 2 races of the year~ In the 3rd race of the season, the Sam's Town Las Vegas 300 @ Las Vegas, Jarrett qualified the car 23rd, and finished 5th~ His next race in the car came 3 races later, in the Moore's Snacks 250 @ Bristol, where bad luck plagued him the entire race, and he finished in 30th position, 37 laps down~ His luck would come back to him in the 13th race of the season, the MBNA Platinum 200 @ Dover, where he finished 4th~ 10 races later, in the Food City 250 @ Bristol, Jarrett managed to pick up a 3rd place finish~

    Following the Bristol race, was the Dura-Lube 200 @ Darlington, where Jarrett would pick up his final top 10 for the White Rain team, with a 7th place finish~ In his final race with the team, the Stihl 300 @ Atlanta, Jarrett qualified 8th, but a sour engine ended his day on lap 37, and he finished 42nd in the 43 car field~ He finished the season with 12 starts, 1 DNQ (Hardee's 250 @ Richmond), 0 wins, 3 top 5's, and 4 top 10's, while finishing 41st in the BGN final points standings~

                                                     Dale Jarrett #32 White Rain Ford~

                                                               Click pics to enlarge~

                 Added bonus: Very bad Photoshop custom I did on Jarrett's #32 Nestle Crunch car~

    Although I do like this car's paint scheme, I have several problems to address here~ The first one being the big tires~ I can't stand them~ I despised them on the Premier cars, and I despise them on these regular issue cars even more~ I wish they would have left the smaller tires on these regular release cars, and left the fat tires on the rich kid Premier cars~ Big tires is the main, and basically only reason I detest Matchbox/White Rose cars~ I have some in my collection, but dang.. those tires are just hideous~

    Another issue I have with the later RC releases, is the yellow border around the cards, and the black sticker on the stand~ I wish they would have left the cards alone, and kept the white border, as well as the silver sticker on the stands~  I was pleased when RC started making more BGN cars, I gotta give them credit on that~ One of my personal favorite BGN schemes is Dennis Setzer's #43 Lance car~

    For what it is, and the year it came out, I still enjoy this car, and I'd give it a C+ on the Racing Champions quality scale~ It could be a B- if it wasn't for that paint smudge, and the card kinda looks corny~ I never was much of a Ford fan, and Dale Jarrett was one of my most despised drivers, especially when he went over to drive for that prick Robert Yates.. but I can still enjoy the RC cars for what they are, a reminder of the past, a glimpse back into NASCAR history~

   The bonus car is of his #32 Nestle Crunch Pontiac, Photoshopped onto a Rob Moroso #20 Oldsmobile body~  I did a bad job on it, and it took forever, so I just decided to add it to this post instead of making the other picture I'd need to make a post of its own~ I would have loved to have a real version of this car~ It was one of my favorite BGN schemes~ Below I have added some videos from Dale Jarrett's BGN career~ Thanks to everyone that stops by the blog,  and goodnight Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are~ :)

                                              1998 BGN Bristol Night Race restart/finish~

                                           1998 BGN Bristol spring race Jarrett interview~

                                         1997 Gargoyles 300 highlights - Jarrett interview~

                                                     Shane Hmiel flips off Dale Jarrett~