BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Dale Jarrett said Friday that he most likely will retire after the 2008 season.

"Right now, I've pretty much made up my mind that I'm going to run through 2008," Jarrett said. "Hopefully, that's going to be where I'm at [with Robert Yates Racing], but that hasn't been decided yet.

"We're working on [a contract], but there have been other conversations, so we have to explore all the options. When that's up, my gig is pretty much done ... move on, let someone else get in [the car]."

Jarrett, the 1999 Cup Series champion, has 32 wins in 19-plus full seasons. He made his debut April 29, 1984, at Martinsville, the first of three races he started that year. He ran once in 1986 before joining the series full-time in 1987.

He has finished in the top 10 in points eight times, including seven years in the top five.

The son of 1961 and '65 series champion Ned Jarrett, Dale picked up his first Cup victory on Aug. 18, 1991, at Michigan -- a memorable victory in which he bested Davey Allison by less than a foot at the stripe.

Jarrett's second victory was even more memorable. He held off Dale Earnhardt by 0.16 seconds to win the season-opening Daytona 500 on Feb. 14, 1993 -- a final lap which lives in NASCAR lore because Ned was behind the mic calling the race for television.

"As for staying with a team -- whoever that team may be at that time -- when I'm finished I'll help bring on my replacement and I'll work with some sponsors," Jarrett said.

"I want to stay around the sport. That's been some of the conversations, and that may be more appealing to me than even if I get some type of TV work."

Jarrett, 49, enters Bristol ninth in points. He has two top-10 finishes and is coming off a season-best finish of ninth at Atlanta.

He won a career-high seven races in 1997, the first of six consecutive seasons with a top-five finish in points. The highlight of that stretch was the '99 Cup championship, which he won by 201 points over Bobby Labonte.

Jarrett's title season featured four wins, and career highs with 24 top-five finishes and 29 top-10s.

"I don't want to overstay my welcome," Jarrett said of his retirement timeline, which he hopes to have finalized by the end of May. "Some of it has to do with family issues. My son, Zach, will be getting ready -- if I drive through that '08 season -- he'll be finishing up grade school and getting ready to go into high school and I'd like to watch that.

"Both of my girls [Natalee and Karsyn] will be in college by then, so that's kind of what I've looked at and that has a little something to do with it.

"Again, the other part of it is you're not wanting to be here longer than what I should be. I think that trying to extend it any longer than that would be taking a chance as far as my competitive spirit and my body holding up and really wanting to do it as much as you have to want to do this because of the length of the schedule and the season." -www.nascar.com

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