Spouse: Kelley Kids:Jason, Natalie, Karsyn, Zachary Hometown: Conover, NC Birthdate: November 26, 1956 Hobbies: Golf, All sports, Family

Dale Jarrett discovered in his Winston Cup title defense in 2000 that it's a fine line between waltzing to a championship and simply struggling to keep up.

The Conover, N.C., native's final year in Robert Yates' No. 88 Quality Care/Ford Credit Taurus pointed out the sheer cruelty of that razor's edge. Jarrett, who ended up fourth in points, had as many top-10 finishes, 24, as champion Bobby Labonte and he had more top-5s, 15, than runner-up Dale Earnhardt.

But as simple a miscue as five finishes worse than 30th doomed Jarrett's hopes of a second title. Despite a string of 15 straight top-10 finishes in the middle of the season, the ugly specter of three finishes of 31st, 32nd and 40th in three out of the next five races erased any advantage he had gained with his extraordinary streak.

Jarrett started his season in true champion's fashion, becoming the fourth driver to win at least three Daytona 500s and doing it from the pole for emphasis. The victory was his second in a Winston "No Bull 5" event worth a $1 million bonus. At Speedweeks 2000 he also won the Bud Shootout qualifying race and the Bud Shootout special event.

Jarrett's fortunes ebbed and flowed throughout the season. When he started his string of 15 top-10s at California Speedway, he was sixth in the point standings. When it ended at Darlington on Labor Day, he was second. He managed only four top-10s the rest of the season, and while he only dropped out of one race, his results, including six finishes of 15th or worse in 12 races, caused him to fall to fourth. He ended the season with two wins, three poles and winnings of $5,934,475.

Jarrett will start his 17th Winston Cup season with the colors of UPS on his Ford, wrenched by redoubtable crew chief Todd Parrott.

Jarrett began racing in 1977 in the Limited Sportsman Division at Hickory Motor Speedway, where his father, two-time Winston Cup champion Ned Jarrett, was once the track promoter.

He began his Winston Cup career in 1984 while still competing on the Busch Series, in which he began competing in 1982, the series' first year. His first Winston Cup win came in his 129th start at the 1991 Champion 400 at Michigan International Speedway, in a Wood Brothers car following a fender-banging duel to the finish line with the late Davey Allison.

The win that truly launched the current phase of his career came in 1993 with Joe Gibbs Racing, in the Daytona 500. That season he would finish fourth overall in series points. He stumbled a bit the following two years, finishing out of the top-10 in both 1994 and 1995, but since 1996 only Jarrett has finished in the top-4 in points every year, establishing himself as one of the true elite in the sport, with 24 career victories.

Jarrett earned 2000 "True Value Man of the Year" honors for his charity work, including his position as national spokesperson, with wife Kelley, for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. It was the second time he has been cited with the award.