“I’ve played with pros on good courses” - When Dale Jarrett revealed what made him turn to racing after a promising golf career

NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett’s shift from a potential golf career to racing is an interesting story. At an early age, Jarrett was more drawn to golf than racing, but he followed his father, Ned’s footsteps, to pursue a NASCAR career. Jarrett once revealed what made him choose racing over golf, despite playing with several professional’ golfers on well-known courses.

In 2022, during an interview, Dale Jarrett revealed why he picked racing over golf as a career. Jarrett didn’t opt for golf as a career because he felt that achieving professional success in golf was difficult compared to his success in racing. He described golf as an exceptionally challenging sport to master.

“That’s a possibility, but I don't know if I would ever have gotten to that level. I’ve played with pros on good courses (among the pros, Phil Mickelson and Arnold Palmer), and I doubt I would have reached their level. I’ve seen how good they are, how they do things that 99 percent of us can't do. Golf is a very, very hard game to master. I doubt I would have succeeded in golf like I did in racing,” Jarrett said as quoted by autoweek.com.

Along with golf, Dale Jarrett played football, basketball, and baseball as well during his school days. He once led his high school's golf team to three conference championships and was named the school’s athlete of the year.

After completing his graduation, he worked at Hickory Motor Speedway and had a golf scholarship offer from the University of South Carolina, but he declined it.

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Dale Jarrett reflects on the moment he discovered his passion for racing

Dale Jarrett made his first professional race debut with a 25-lap Limited Sportsman feature at Hickory Motor Speedway in 1977. He started last and finished in ninth place, and it was the moment when he realized he wanted to race for a living.

Describing how he found his passion for racing, Jarrett said (via autoweek.com):

“I told Dad, ‘Look, I don’t know how I’m going to do this, but this is exactly what I’ve been looking for. That was after one 25-lap race. I’d done everything in high school sports, but nothing felt as good as driving that race car. It was the most exhilarating thing I’d ever done.”

Jarrett made his NASCAR Cup Series debut at Martinsville Speedway in 1984, where he finished 14th behind the wheel of the #02 Chevrolet for Zervakis Enterprises.

In his 24-year-long NASCAR Cup Series career, he racked up 32 wins, 260 top-10 finishes, and clinched the NASCAR Cup Series championship in 1999. He also earned 11 wins and 173 top-10 finishes at the Xfinity level.