MOTOR SPORTS : JARRETT SEEMS TO WIN ONLY BIG EVENTS.

Byline: Mike Harris Associated Press

Just call him Jackpot Jarrett.

So far this season, Jarrett has won three events - the Daytona 500, the Coca-Cola 600 and the Brickyard 400. They are not only three of the five most important races in the Winston Cup series, they are also the three richest.

Jarrett started the season by winning $362,775 at Daytona. He added $165,250 for winning the Coca-Cola race at Charlotte. Last Saturday, he came up with the biggest payoff of the season, winning $564,035 in the Brickyard race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

That adds up to $1,092,060, which provides the biggest part of his series-leading $1.7 million in earnings so far this season.

For Jarrett, who only has seven victories in his Winston Cup career, the proclivity for winning big events, including the 1993 Daytona 500, is mostly a matter of competitive spirit.

``I think it goes back to the challenge, the competition,'' Jarrett said.

``When you get to the bigger events, you know that everyone brings their very best equipment and they are the best prepared that they will be. I get up for that, knowing that everybody is going to be at their best.

``And, obviously, these big events pay well, and that's incentive, too.''

Jarrett also knows the best competitors rise to the level of the big events.

``You see it in other sports,'' he said. ``Someone who is a good example is Hale Irwin on the PGA Tour. Not that he wasn't a good player all the time, but he could really play the difficult courses well and was already around for the majors. I like that scenario, too. Whenever there's big money and lot of prestige on the line, I enjoy that scenario.''

That being the case, Jarrett should really have a ball three weeks from now in Darlington, S.C., where he will try to win his first Southern 500. Winning the oldest Winston Cup superspeedway event would not only be prestigious, it would also give another big boost to the checkbook for Jarrett, who can earn a $1 million bonus by winning at Darlington.

He would become only the second driver and first since Bill Elliott in 1985 to take the bonus by winning three of what used to be NASCAR's Big Four events before Indy came upon the scene three years ago - the Daytona 500, the Winston Select 500, the Coca-Cola 600 and the Southern 500.

By the way, Jarrett finished second in the Winston Select 500, losing by 0.12-seconds - about 3 car-lengths - to Sterling Marlin.

Killer car: Rusty Wallace has brought a ``Killer'' to Watkins Glen International this weekend.

That's the name Wallace and his Penske Racing South team have given to the Ford Thunderbird he will race in Sunday's Bud at the Glen. It's the same car that won the race earlier this season at Sonoma, Calif., at the only other road course the Winston Cup series races on each season.

``Our tradition has been to name cars after we won with them, so it was only natural that this car became our Killer after we killed the competition out there,'' he said.

``We debuted this car at Watkins Glen last year and feel like maybe this place owes us (a win). We were sure headed in that direction before we got caught up in a crash on pit road. The car was killer all day until the crash.''

After that race, the car was fixed and used in the race at Sonoma.

``We went out there, led the most laps, kicked major butt all day long and won us the first road course race that we've won in a long time,'' Wallace said.

Wallace, known as one of NASCAR's best road racers, has six victories on the courses with both right- and left-hand turns, including two at Watkins Glen. But, until June, he hadn't won on a road course since 1990.

Hot hand: Ernie Irvan, Dale Jarrett's Robert Yates Racing teammate, is on a tear of his own right now.

Irvan, driving his first full season since his near-fatal crash in August of 1994, appears to have left his early-season inconsistency behind, finishing the top five in six straight races.

That string has brought him from 16th to seventh in the Winston Cup standings.

Considering his past record at Watkins Glen, there appears to be a good chance the streak could continue this weekend.

Irvan won at the Glen in 1991, finished third the next year and second in 1994. He missed last year's race while recuperating from his injuries.

Toy time: NASCAR's recent marketing blitz continues with the announcement this week that it will move into the $2 billion toy vehicle market through a licensing agreement with Toy Biz Inc.

The three-year agreement includes action feature mini-vehicles, radio and remote controlled vehicles, ride-ons and motorized vehicles, as well as action figures and interactive education CD-ROM products.

This is only the most recent of the stock car sanctioning body's licensing agreements, taking advantage of its continuing popularity and growth. During the past year, NASCAR has announced deals to open, among other things, theme restaurants, amusement parks, souvenir and memorabilia stores.