Rockingham, N.C. ? The months since Dale Jarrett’s win at North Carolina Speedway have been filled with disappointment.

Now he and his racing team are back at the Rockingham track, hopeful that one of Jarrett’s favorite ovals will help them turn things around as the long season nears its end.

“Rockingham is a welcome sight for this team,” the 1999 Winston Cup champion said. “We’ve obviously went through a lot of changes since the last time we visited, and it seems like it’s been a lot longer than eight months.”

Jarrett has managed only seven top 10s in 34 races this season and goes into Sunday’s Pop Secret Popcorn 400 at “The Rock” 25th in the standings.

He also had a disappointing season in 2002, finishing ninth in the standings — his worst since finishing 13th in 1995, his first year with Robert Yates Racing.

But there was little indication he was heading for trouble when he started out this season with a 10th-place finish in the Daytona 500 and followed with the win here, the 31st of his career, in February.

He held off Kurt Busch at the end.

“We had adjusted on the car all day in the spring and it was at its best during the final 50 or 40 laps, which is the ideal situation especially if you’re running up front,” he said.

Jarrett hasn’t run up front much since then.

Dale Jarrett raises the trophy in victory lane after winning the Subway 400. The race was Feb. 23 in Rockingham, N.C. The months since Jarrett's win at North Carolina Speedway have been filled with disappointment. He is back at the Rockingham track, hoping that one of his favorite venues will help turn things around as the season nears its end.

After leaving Rockingham, he went nine races before breaking into the top 10 again. There have been crashes, engine failures and some bad luck, but Jarrett said he still believed his team was capable of being a championship contender. To prove it, he recently agreed to a contract extension through 2006.

Now, Jarrett would like to see some positive results before the season is over.

“It does feel good going back to a track where you’ve had success and where you have won recently,” Jarrett said. “We’ve got the same car we won with in the spring and, if we can duplicate the success we had in February, it would help out morale as we head into the offseason.”

Coming back to Rockingham for this race is a little sad for Jarrett, though, knowing it will be the last fall race at the track in the North Carolina sandhills.

NASCAR and International Speedway Corp., which owns or has a stake in 12 of the 23 tracks at which the Winston Cup series runs, are shuffling the schedule a bit in 2004 to add another race in a major market. The sanctioning organization and ISC are controlled by the France family.

Rockingham will lose its fall date to Darlington Raceway, which in turn loses its traditional Labor Day weekend slot to the newer and bigger California Speedway — 60 miles east of Los Angeles. That gives ISC’s California track a second Winston Cup race and leaves Rockingham with only its spring event.

For Jarrett, not being able to race twice a year here is another blow. His Rockingham record shows 12 top-fives, including two wins, and only three finishes outside the top 10 since joining the Yates team.

“It is kind of sad to think it’s the last time we’ll be racing there twice in one season, but I understand why that has to happen,” Jarrett said.”

A big reason why Jarrett likes the track known as “The Rock” is that tire wear on its worn asphalt racing surface makes it more of a driver’s track than most.

“Rockingham is one of the few tracks we still visit that it is more on the driver’s shoulders than it is necessarily on the car,” he added.

“Don’t get me wrong, you have to have a good handling race car, but you also have to have patience and the ability to conserve your tires.

“Tire wear doesn’t last long here, but that’s what I like because it puts the race in the drivers’ hands and the crews’ hands.”