and the second Michigan race. Jarrett finished third in the final point standings behind Hendrick Motorsports teammates Terry Labonte and Jeff Gordon. Jarrett's kissing of the bricks at Indianapolis started a tradition that has been used by every NASCAR team at the race since then and in the Indianapolis 500 since 2003. The following season, he won a career-best seven races but lost the championship to Jeff Gordon by 14 points, who by Jarrett's own admission on August 25, 2012, was "eleven hundred times the driver I ever dreamed of being". In 1998, Jarrett won three races, and finished second in the last two races of the year, ending up third in the final point standings to Jeff Gordon, despite suffering gallbladder problems, which made him miss the exhibition race in Japan. After an offseason surgery, Jarrett returned in 1999 and took the points lead after his first win of the season at the Pontiac Excitement 400 and held it for the rest of the season, when he won The Winston Cup title by 201 points over Bobby Labonte with four wins (Richmond, Michigan, Daytona, and Indianapolis), 24 Top 5's, a then Modern Era record 29 Top 10's, and an average 6.76 finish. He also retired from the Busch Series to become a part-time owner, partnering with National Football League quarterback Brett Favre to field the No. 11 Rayovac-sponsored Ford for his son Jason, Yates teammate Kenny Irwin Jr., and Steve Grissom. He had 11 wins in the Busch Series when he retired. 2000–2005 Following his title in 1999, Jarrett won the Daytona 500 for the third time in 2000; however, after only winning one other race and dropping to fourth in the standings, Ford elected to withdraw as the primary sponsor (although Ford Credit remained as the secondary). United Parcel Service (UPS) was signed as the primary sponsor for Jarrett and shortly thereafter, UPS began a multi-year promotional campaign involving the company trying to convince him to drive their trademark "Big Brown Truck" in a race. In 2001, he won three of the first eight races of the season (Darlington, Texas, and Martinsville) and traded the points lead with Jeff Gordon, with the two of them having the same point totals for a few different weeks, but won only once more at New Hampshire in July and faded back to fifth in the standings. In addition, Jarrett suffered a