By Jacob Seelman, SWN News Editor

NEWTON, N.C. (June 5, 2026) – The motorsports community was dealt its latest tough blow with the announcement Friday of the passing of NASCAR Hall of Famer and two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Ned Jarrett.

Jarrett was 93.

The news was made official via a statement from the Jarrett family, which said that Jarrett “died peacefully [Thursday] of natural causes at his home in Newton, North Carolina, with his family by his side.”

“Our father was a devout Christian and a devoted, loving family man,” the Jarrett family statement continued. “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.”

Born Oct. 12, 1932, and later earning the nickname ‘Gentleman Ned’, Jarrett was one of the early dominant forces of NASCAR’s first quarter century. He won 50 premier series races in just 352 starts, with all of his victories coming in a seven-year period between 1959 and 1965.

Jarrett won his first Cup Series title in 1961, driving a self-owned No. 11 Ford for his first two starts that year before stepping into B.G. Holloway’s machinery for the balance of the campaign and switching predominately to Chevrolets.

He only won once that season, but his consistency across 46 of the season’s 52 points races carried Jarrett to an 830-point margin over runner-up Rex White.

By November of 1962, Jarrett was back in Blue Oval equipment, one of Ford Motor Company’s early manufacturer-backed drivers at that time.

Jarrett’s second Cup crown in 1965 came thanks to his efforts in Bondy Long’s No. 11 Ford, with James Hylton on the wrenches, though he did drive one event at Nashville (Tenn.) Fairgrounds Speedway in Jabe Thomas’ No. 25.

Thirteen wins and a staggering 42 top-five finishes in 54 starts in that ’65 campaign lifted Jarrett to a whopping 3,034-point advantage over championship runner-up Dick Hutcherson.

Of those 13 victories, though, none stood taller than Jarrett’s score in the 1965 Southern 500 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, where he won by a mind-blowing 14 laps at the 1.366-mile, egg-shaped oval.

By both laps and distance (19.124 miles), it’s a margin-of-victory record that remains unmatched in the Cup Series record books to this day and likely will never be touched.

Jarrett retired from driving midway through the 1966 season, just 34 years old at the time, after losing manufacturer support from Ford as it dueled with then-NASCAR head Bill France Sr. over engine regulations.

He remains the only driver in Cup Series history to retire as the defending champion. However, despite that, Jarrett didn’t go far from the sport he loved and made his mark in.

In fact, Jarrett built an equally Hall-of-Fame worthy resume as a broadcaster in NASCAR, joining the fledgling Motor Racing Network in 1978 before advancing to pit reporting duties for CBS from 1979-’84.

Jarrett joined the television broadcast booth starting later in 1984, spending time with both CBS (1984-2000) and ESPN (’88-’00) as a color analyst until the end of the 2000 season, when FOX Sports and NBC Sports took over NASCAR’s television broadcast rights beginning in 2001.

During his tenure in the booth, Jarrett was part of some of NASCAR’s most memorable finishes, perhaps none greater than his final-lap call of the 1993 Daytona 500 – when his son, future NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett, bested Dale Earnhardt to win his first of three Harley J. Earl trophies.

“C’mon, Dale. Go baby, go,” Ned Jarrett said on the CBS broadcast. “I know he’s got it to the floorboard; he can’t do anything more. Don’t let him (Earnhardt) get to the inside of you coming around this turn. Here he comes – Earnhardt, it’s the Dale and Dale show as they come off of turn four.

“You know who I’m pulling for; it’s Dale Jarrett. Bring her to the inside, Dale, don’t let him get down there. He’s gonna make it! Dale Jarrett’s gonna win the Daytona 500!”

And of course, in a show of the demeanor and respect that earned him his famed nickname, Jarrett apologized to Earnhardt on the grid the next week at Rockingham (N.C.) Speedway.

Earnhardt’s response? “Ned, I’m a father too.”

Jarrett’s 50 Cup wins were, at the time, second only to Lee Petty and rank 14th all-time nowadays on NASCAR’s all-time list. His 35 Cup poles sit 21st-best, tied with another recently-lost legend in fellow two-time champion Kyle Busch.

Prior to that, Jarrett was the Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway track champion in 1955 and earned back-to-back titles in 1957 and ’58 in the NASCAR Late Model Sportsman division, the predecessor of the modern-era NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. Those years catapulted him toward Cup Series stardom.

It’s a brilliant ledger that was built, at all times, on courtesy, respect, and appreciation for the room.

“Despite his calm demeanor, ‘Gentleman Ned’ Jarrett was as fierce a competitor as NASCAR has ever seen,” said NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell Friday. “His on-track accomplishments speak for themselves, with wins and championships across several NASCAR divisions. But it was his off-the-track persona that separated Ned from his peers. He was as kind as his nickname indicated. And his endearing personality helped him excel in his second career as a broadcaster.

“Ned was an outstanding ambassador for the sport for more than six decades, and he will be dearly missed. On behalf of the France family and all of NASCAR, I offer my deepest condolences to all of Ned’s family and friends on the loss of a NASCAR legend.”

Jarrett was enshrined in the NASCAR Hall of Fame as part of its second-ever induction class in 2011.

He is survived by sons Glenn and Dale, both of whom eventually became broadcasters themselves, and daughter Patti, who is married to longtime Joe Gibbs Racing executive Jimmy Makar.