ESPN analyst Dale Jarrett enters NASCAR Hall of Fame tonight

Dale Jarrett has known since May that he was going to be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame tonight, but the ESPN analyst still hasn’t felt the full impact of his sport’s highest honor.

“I don’t really think that it’s totally sunk in but it’s certainly opened my eyes and jogged my memory a lot as I prepare for this,” said Jarrett, the 1999 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion and winner of 32 races during his career in NASCAR’s premier series. “I think that the reality of it will come when it all happens.”

Jarrett, who started with ESPN in 2007, and retired from driving in 2008, was elected into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. In the Charlotte, N.C., Hall, he will join his father, two-time NASCAR top series champion Ned Jarrett, who also was a longtime ESPN analyst, and fellow analyst and former NASCAR champion Rusty Wallace.

“As I’ve gotten to that point of putting things down and getting ready and prepared for my speech, it has allowed me to kind of look back and reflect on my career a little bit, and quite honestly it’s probably the first time I’ve actually done that,” Jarrett said.

Competitors, he believes, don’t spend a lot of time reflecting.

“We kind of live in the moment and take things as they come, and figure there will be time for that later on,” he said. “And so in doing that, and in thinking about what I’m going to say and who I’m going to thank, it’s brought up a lot of really, really fond memories, and it’s been nice in that respect.”

Always one of the more talkative drivers during his career, Jarrett nevertheless says NASCAR won’t be needing a red flag to get him off the stage.

“I’ve been put down on a hard count,” he said. “My years with ESPN have made me understand and appreciate the world of live TV certainly more than I ever had before. People have heard me talk enough. But I can tell you that parts of my family will be left to the end because that’s going to be an emotional time.”