New chapter in DJ's career

After 668 points-paying races in NASCAR's top series - a journey that ended with a 37th-place finish behind winner Jeff Burton at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday - Dale Jarrett is moving on to the next phase of his life.

GREG LAUDICK / Cox News Service After 668 points races in the Cup Series, Dale Jarrett is moving on to the next phase of his career. He plans to stay busy with his broadcasting schedule with ESPN and spend extra time at home in North Carolina.

It has been a long road for Jarrett since that first start in the spring of 1984 at Martinsville. The Sovran Bank 500 wound up being significant for several reasons besides Jarrett's connection. It was the first-ever Cup victory for Geoffrey Bodine and for car owner Rick Hendrick. Bodine won 17 more Cup races, and Hendrick has 167 as a car owner.

But the 1999 Cup champion has run up some pretty impressive numbers, too. He has won 32 Cup races and 11 more in the Nationwide Series. He has 163 top-fives in Cup, 260 top-10s and 16 poles.

He said he thought about making his final start at Martinsville in two weeks, but his sponsor, UPS, thought the transition to David Reutimann as driver of the No. 44 Toyota would be smoother if Jarrett ran his last points race before the Easter break and Reutimann was in the car when racing resumed.

Jarrett will be back in the car one more time for the All- Star race in May at Lowe's Motor Speedway, and he hints that the long-running saga of whether he'll drive the UPS truck - the theme of many a TV commercial - may finally be settled.

"We're talking to NASCAR and Lowe's Motor Speedway about something special prerace at Charlotte," he said. "It might have something to do with driving the truck there."

If so, it would be the final step in a retirement process that has seen Jarrett, 51, basically make the decision about when and where to hang up his helmet.

"I'm appreciative that everybody has given me the opportunity to go out the way I wanted to," he said, adding that it's not like he's headed for a life on the porch.

"I've got something [his ESPN job] that's going to keep me pretty busy," he said.

"This cuts me back from 38 weekends to 28 and gives me 10 more weeks than what I've been having at home.

"I'm looking forward to that. I've got kids to keep me busy, and golf. I'm looking forward to doing a lot more with both of those."

And he has his car dealerships and a fantasy sports game, paythefan.com, to work on as well.

"The stuff I have in place right now is enough to keep me busy," he said.

Jarrett also said he'll still play a limited role with his current team, Michael Waltrip Racing.

"It'll be more in the role of a consultant," he said. "I'll still be talking with them on a weekly basis about what's going on and who they're looking at hiring. A big part of it will be talking with and helping develop young drivers like Josh Wise and Michael McDowell and evaluating other talent that's out there."

For that, his ESPN role will come in handy.

"I'll be in position to watch all the Nationwide races and see who's out there," he said.