It's hard to tell whether Dale Jarrett is more excited about the opportunity to win a third Daytona 500 or trying to extend the momentum he developed last season.

Jarrett, who won NASCAR's most prestigious event in 1993 and 1996, would join an elite group by winning again Sunday at Daytona International Speedway.

Richard Petty won the Daytona 500 seven times and Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough each won it three times. Those three, all retired, are in several racing Halls of Fame.

"It's something just to be mentioned in the same sentence with those great drivers," said Jarrett, the son of another Hall of Famer, two-time Winston Cup champion Ned Jarrett. "I'm appreciative of winning it two times. There's some great racers who've never won it.

"But, that's the goal. We're out here to try to win races and championships, and winning the Daytona 500 Sunday would give us a nice start toward the championship."

Jarrett blossomed as a true series star last season. He turned his second year with car-owner Robert Yates and his work relationship with then new crew chief Todd Parrott into a run at the series title.

"We won some races (four), we finished third in the championship and we finished the season running second (to Bobby Labonte) at Atlanta," Jarrett said. "As tired as we were from the long season, there wasn't anybody on this team who wouldn't have liked to just keep racing."

The winter break apparently has not hurt the team's chemistry.

Jarrett started Speed Weeks at Daytona by running the third fastest qualifying lap during time trials. He followed that by finishing fourth in the Busch Clash, then held off teammate Ernie Irvan and rookie Daytona pole-winner Mike Skinner to win his 125-mile qualifying race.

That earned Jarrett the third position in Sunday's 42-car lineup.

"It's a good car," he said. ``We've been trying all week ... to see if the car was wanting something different chassis-wise. Todd and I talked about it for 2½ hours the night before the 125s, then he came knocking on my door first thing that morning with some other ideas.

"That win goes to Todd Parrott. ... He's incredibly smart. He pays attention to detail. And he's the guy who won that race (Thursday). He put a car under me that I could drive out there. I expect we're going to have a good car on Sunday, too."

The last time Jarrett was the defending champion in the Daytona 500, he had a terrible time, using a provisional start to gain the 41st position and finished an undistinguished 35th.

Asked if there was any pressure on him this week because he won last year, Jarrett said, "The only thing that I see that is different is that I feel like we have less pressure than many others, even though there is a lot of pressure on everyone to perform in the Daytona 500."

"But we have won the race and there are a lot of people who haven't," Jarrett said. "Other than that, this is a new year and everybody is at point zero. We're just trying to get off on the right foot, like everybody else.

"I don't know that there is any advantage of having won last year, other than that we feel like we know how to win the race and what it takes. But there are a lot of people who haven't won who feel like they know what it takes."