Jarrett

Dale Jarrett wasn't exactly struggling with his car during the early goings of last weekend's race at Martinsville Speedway. He was able to stay with the top-10, so he was running well.

But his car felt a little loose, and he believed if he let it stay that way it could get worse -- or just plain prevent him from making a challenge for a top-five finish, or even a victory.

The team made an adjustment and put on a second set of tires. The car got extremely tight -- the first sign of bad things to come. Then, somebody got into the back of his No. 88 Ford. The second sign of what was to come. Last, he made contact with John Andretti's No. 43 Dodge and the impact damaged the toe of Jarrett's car -- which severely hurt the handling.

A day that started out OK went down hill in a hurry and Jarrett finished 20th. It was the perfect illustration of his year, which started out nicely with a top-10 in the Daytona 500 and a victory at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham but has sputtered recently.

The team is struggling so much, in fact, that before the Martinsville race Jarrett's general manager at Robert Yates Racing -- Doug Yates -- announced that Jarrett's crew chief, Brad Parrott, and team manager, Todd Parrott, were leaving the team.

But, as is his sense regarding the season, Jarrett feels positive.

"I think we showed we had a good car, so all of that went well," Jarrett said. "The guys made good adjustments and there was good communication, so we can go from here. It wasn't like we ran 20th all day. If we would have done that, then I'd feel different, but we drove ourselves up into the top 10 and that was encouraging."

Is Jarrett crazy or does he really see reason for so much optimism? He says he's not overly positive. He's realistic. Sure, sitting 13th in the standings with no crew chief or team manager isn't exactly great, but his optimism stems from the belief that his team can use the coming weeks to improve and get back on track.

Just like in last weekend's race, he might finish in the middle of the pack come season's end, but he'll deal with that if the larger, deeper problems are handled and next season allows him to get back in contention.

"I think, certainly, as far as expectations, that now we're looking at week-to-week at what we can do to improve and what direction we're going to go," he said. "It's not the best thing. I think last year when we had a shakeup at the beginning it took us a while, but we rebounded from that. I still feel that we have the people who are very capable of making this a very successful program."

	Jarrett is currently 13th in points.

The main problem, as Jarrett sees it, is that there isn't a true answer guy. Jarrett said guys were asking him what to do with the car after qualifying. To which he replied, not intending to be too smart, that at the top of his contract is written "driver."

Also, the cars that his team has built, he says, haven't been very competitive for a while. In fact, the most competitive No. 88 chassis is the product of Michael "Fatback" McSwain's smarts.

McSwain, who was the topic of Robert Yates' problems last year, was crew chief for Ricky Rudd. McSwain and Rudd didn't get along. Rudd and Yates conflicted. The result was Rudd and McSwain both leaving the organization. But before that occurred, McSwain helped Jarrett's team build the car that won for them last season -- the same car in which Jarrett says he's put forth all of his strong runs over the past year and a half.

"I haven't felt like my cars, not just this year but for the last year-and-a-half or so, aero-wise have been what I need to compete with," Jarrett said.

Jarrett's belief spread through the organization after the Rockingham win, given that the team hasn't revisited the top-10 since.

"When you start off the year you come together with a plan that you think you're going to need to give your team them best chance to win a championship and win races," Yates said. "We started out in a positive way by finishing 10th at Daytona and won Rockingham, but ever since then it's kind of like the wheels have come off.

"It hasn't been heading in the direction that we feel it needs to in order to give our team and Dale Jarrett what he needs to be competitive on a weekly basis."

Things had gotten so tense around the shop that Jarrett started feeling down. That's why the changes were made when they were. Brad Parrott has now been picked up by Roush Racing and Todd Parrott is still on indefinite leave -- meaning both he and the team are free to pursue any opportunity either wishes.

Meanwhile, the team is being run by committee -- with its first outing as such being that Martinsville race. And though it finished 20th, Jarrett points to the time he was running in the top-10 and says improvement is eminent. One day, he knows, he'll be back in championship form.

"Yeah, I do," he said. "I know that over the last five or six months in particular that we've hired some really good people. Doug has really done a fantastic job of giving us what we need and then realizing when changes need to be made. I do have a lot of confidence."

Rupen Fofaria covers NASCAR for The Raleigh News & Observer and is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached at rfofaria@newsobserver.com.