NASCAR Hall of Famer Ned Jarrett dies at 93

Former NASCAR driver and broadcaster Ned Jarrett died Thursday. He was 93.

Jarrett, a NASCAR Hall of Famer, won 50 Cup Series races across 352 starts from 1953 through 1966. He then became a revered TV analyst after he retired from driving and his call at the finish of the 1993 Daytona 500, when his son Dale beat Dale Earnhardt, is one of the most iconic broadcast moments in NASCAR history.

"Our father was a devout Christian and a devoted, loving, family man," a statement from the Jarrett family said. "He was a friend to everyone he met and NASCAR's oldest living champion. 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."

Ned won Cup Series titles in 1961 and 1965. His first title came despite winning just once across 46 races. Jarrett finished in the top 10 in 34 of his starts and beat Rex White for the championship.

In 1965, Jarrett won 13 races across 54 starts and had 45 top-10 finishes. He cruised to the championship by more than 3,000 points over second-place Dick Hutcherson. Darel Dieringer in third was over 14,000 points behind.

The year before Jarrett's second title, he won 15 of the 59 races he started and finished second in the standings to Richard Petty.

Jarrett's media career began while he was still driving. Jarrett started hosting a radio show in the 1960s and joined NASCAR's MRN radio in 1978. He was an analyst with CBS for 17 years from 1984 to 2000 and called Dale's other two Daytona 500 wins in 1996 and 2000.

When Dale Jarrett won the 1999 Cup Series title, the Jarretts joined Lee and Richard Petty as the only father-son combinations to win Cup championships. That group now includes three families as Chase Elliott joined his father, Bill, with his title in 2020.

The Jarretts are also just one of five families with fathers and sons in the NASCAR Hall of Fame for their careers as drivers, along with the Pettys, Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Dale Earnhardt Jr., Buck and Buddy Baker, and Bobby and Davey Allison. Ned Jarrett was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2011 as part of the hall's second class, and Dale Jarrett joined him in 2014.