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NASCAR America: Dale Jarrett’s son Zach follows new path for racing family

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Dale and Zach Jarrett share a strong bond that stretches far beyond a race track and a baseball diamond.

Zach Jarrett grew up around the racetrack with a generation of NASCAR drivers’ kids who essentially never left.

So the youngest son of 1999 Cup champion Dale Jarrett naturally questioned whether taking a swing at another professional sport was the right move.

“I was wondering if that’s something that was sort of expected of me, because you see so many drivers get into it,” Zach said in a NASCAR America feature about his father’s support of his career. “You see Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney, kids I grew up with, all racing now and doing great.

“But there’s something about baseball that really stuck out and I grew a love for and wanted to see how long I could play.”

NBCSN analyst Dale Jarrett said his son always loved being at the racetrack, but Zach’s passion for baseball was evident.

“I can remember once after a race I was tired, and he wanted to hit a baseball, so that’s what we did,” Dale said. “This was something he wanted to do.”

Having learned baseball through time spent with his maternal grandfather, Jack Spears, who played in the Brooklyn Dodgers organization, the 23-year-old Zach is an all-star this season for the Delmarva Shorebirds, a Single-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles that is based in Salisbury, Maryland.

“You have to have a tremendous passion to want to do this,” Dale said. “That’s where his heart has taken him and he’s following that.”

Watch the video above from Monday’s NASCAR America.