Ned drove in his first race in 1952 at Hickory, NC, driving a Ford in the Sportsman class finishing tenth. However, his parents were not pleased with him racing and his father told him he could work on cars but not drive them. So Ned continued to work on racecars.
But Ned’s opportunity to drive came up yet again. The driver Ned wrenched for, came up sick for one race and Ned was asked to fill in for him. Using the drivers name, Ned went on to come in second in that race. It worked so good that Ned drove in a few more races under an assumed name. Finally Ned’s parents caught on, but this time his father told him if he was going to drive to at least use his own name.
1956 saw Ned come in second in the Sportsman class and by 1959 he was looking to pursue a career in Grand National racing. He purchased a Junior Johnson Ford for $2,000, but waited until the bank was closed to write the check. Ned then went out and ran two races, winning them both and covering the cost of his new car.
In 1960 Ned won five races. In 1961 he posted 22 top-5 finishes, 12 top-10’s, and 1 win to take the championship over Rex White. In 1964, Ned won 15 times, including his first superspeedway win, but lost the championship to Richard Petty.
In 1965, Ned Jarrett became a super star. He won 13 races including the Southern 500, and had an astounding 42 top-five finishes out of 54 races run culminating in another championship. In '66 Ned was in the run for another championship when Ford announced that they were withdrawing from NASCAR. With Ford leaving racing, Ned decided it was time to move on also, retiring at the young age of 34.
Ned Jarrett has been elected to eight different Hall of Fames:
International Motorsports Hall of Fame
National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame
North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame
Oceanside Rotary Club Stock Car Hall of Fame
National Auto Racing Hall of Fame
Jacksonville, Florida Speedway Hall of Fame
American Auto Race Writers & Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame
Motorsports Hall of Fame of America
