Ned Jarrett, 'NASCAR's oldest living champion,' dies at 93

Ned Jarrett, a two-time champion and member of the NASCAR Hall of Fame who was among the first drivers to make the transition from the track to the television booth, has died at the age of 93, his family said.

According to the family statement posted on NASCAR.com, Jarrett died peacefully of natural causes on Thursday at his home in Newton with his family by his side.

"Our father was a devout Christian and a devoted, loving family man. He was a friend to everyone he met and NASCAR's oldest living champion," Jarrett's family said in a statement. "By all accounts, he was a true NASCAR legend. While we mourn his passing, we celebrate the remarkable life of an amazing man and truly the best father anyone could have wished for. Rest in Peace, Dad."

Jarrett is the third driver to win at least 50 NASCAR premier-series races. He won championships in 1961 and 1965 in what is known today as the NASCAR Cup Series. He's also a two-time Sportsman champion, claiming back-to-back titles in 1957 and 1958 after finishing second to Ralph Earnhardt in 1956.

He holds the record for the premier series' largest margin of victory when he won the 1965 Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway by an impressive 14 laps.

His 50 career wins came in just 352 starts during a career that lasted from 1953 through 1966. However, he ran more than half the scheduled races only six times. During that short span, Jarrett collected 185 top-five finishes and 239 top-10 results.

"Despite his calm demeanor, ‘Gentleman' Ned Jarrett was as fierce a competitor as NASCAR has ever seen," NASCAR CEO Steve O'Donnell said in a statement. "His on-track accomplishments speak for themselves with wins and championships across several NASCAR divisions. But it was his off-the-track persona that separated Ned from his peers. He was as kind as his nickname indicated. And his endearing personality helped him excel in his second career as a broadcaster. Ned was an outstanding ambassador for the sport for more than six decades, and he will be dearly missed."

Jarrett won his championships with two team owners: the 1961 title came for shipping heir B.G. Holloway, while the 1965 championship was with owner Bondy Long.

It was also in 1965 that Jarrett broke his back in a crash at Greenville-Pickens Speedway. That injury, and the temporary withdrawal of Ford from stock-car racing the next year, hastened Jarrett's retirement at the age of 34.

"With the help of a lot of good doctors and a lot of people, we were able to keep going and finish out the season and went on to win the championship," Jarrett said during his NASCAR Hall of Fame acceptance speech in 2011. "I'm very grateful for that."

Jarrett was named one of NASCAR's 50 greatest drivers in 1998, and his 43 victories in Ford-made cars remain tops for that manufacturer.

After Jarrett retired, he found more fans through "Ned Jarrett's World of Racing," a daily radio news show. He worked with Motor Racing Network as a pit road reporter before moving to television and working for CBS and ESPN. His call for CBS of the final laps of the 1993 Daytona 500, in which his youngest son, Dale Jarrett, held off then-five-time series champion Dale Earnhardt for the victory, remains one of the most memorable calls in NASCAR.

"C'mon, Dale, go baby, go," the elder Jarrett said as the final lap unfolded, urging on his son while a national television audience listened and watched. "… Don't let him (Earnhardt) get to the inside of you coming around this turn. Here he comes, Earnhardt. It's the Dale and Dale show as they come off of Turn 4.

"You know who I'm pulling for, it's Dale Jarrett. Bring her to the inside, Dale, don't let him get down there. He's gonna make it! Dale Jarrett's gonna win the Daytona 500! All right!"

Ned Jarrett was born Oct. 12, 1932, near Newton and grew up working on his family's farm and sawmill. When talk of a new race track, Hickory Speedway, became hot news in the community, Jarrett began making plans to compete when the track held its first premier series event in 1953. Jarrett said he won half interest in his first race car in a poker game.

When he began running in the Sportsman Series full-time and winning regularly, he started to consider moving up to the premier series, where he could try to race for a living. But no car owners came calling, leaving Jarrett in Sportsman races. After one particularly stressful night, Jarrett said he told others he needed a change. "I need to get in a car that will win a race for me or run up front on a consistent basis," he said.

What followed remains one of the more interesting stories in NASCAR, which he told after his induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2011

"There was a 1957 Ford for sale, being maintained in my hometown," Jarrett said. "Junior Johnson was winning on a fairly regular basis in that car. They were building Junior a new Dodge to run at Darlington that year, 1959."

The owners wanted $2,000 for the car. Jarrett didn't have $2,000, but he did have a plan to write a check for the car after the bank closed on Friday, meaning it would be at least Monday before the money could be drawn out of his account.

"There was a 100-mile race, pays $950 to win Friday night at Myrtle Beach," he said. "There was another race on Sunday afternoon in Charlotte that pays $950 to win. That's $1,900. I can cover that check on Monday morning.

"You can't be foolish enough to try that, but I did. I had no doubt in my mind. I was cocky enough to believe if Junior Johnson could win races in that car, I could, too."

Jarrett won a career-best 15 races driving for Long in 1964, but finished second to Richard Petty. That year, in the running of the World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Jarrett helped pull a critically injured Fireball Roberts from his burning car after a crash. Roberts suffered third-degree burns, while Jarrett was treated for minor burns.

Roberts, one of NASCAR's first superstars, died two months later.

Besides a driving and broadcasting career, Jarrett also took a turn as a track promoter, running Hickory Speedway from 1968 through 1977. He was named Promoter of the Year twice.

All three of Jarrett's children have NASCAR ties. Dale Jarrett won the NASCAR premier-series title in 1999 and retired with 32 career victories. He was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2014.

Glenn Jarrett competed in both the Cup Series and NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series before embarking on his own broadcasting career, while his daughter, Patti Makar, is married to Jimmy Makar, who was senior vice president of racing operations for Joe Gibbs Racing.

Ned Jarrett was preceded in death by Martha, his wife of 67 years, on Feb. 5, 2023.

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