Dale Jarrett to Make Debut as ESPN NASCAR Analyst at Texas

NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Champion To Work 10 ESPN Telecasts in 2007

Dale Jarrett will begin the transition to what may be the next phase of his career this weekend when he joins ESPN2 as booth analyst for live coverage of Saturday’s NASCAR Busch Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Jarrett, the 1999 NASCAR Cup champion and one of the founding drivers of the NASCAR Busch Series in 1982, will appear on 10 of this season’s Busch telecasts while continuing to race fulltime in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series in Michael Waltrip Racing’s #44 UPS Toyota.  The 50-year-old Jarrett, winner of 32 NASCAR Cup and 11 Busch races in his career, has indicated that 2008 will be his last year of driving and has hinted that a more expanded television presence may be in his future.

“Over the last few years, TV was something that I have taken more interest in and looked more at because I want to stay involved in the sport,” he said. “This is the perfect chance that ESPN is offering me to see if it’s something that I really want to do and want to look at after 2008 to do maybe closer to full time. And to find out if it’s something I can do and if ESPN would be interested in having me.”

Jarrett drove fulltime on the NASCAR Busch Series from 1982 through 1987 and was part of its growth from short track roots to the major status it enjoys today. He looks forward to working on telecasts of the series that he helped build and that propelled him to his NASCAR NEXTEL Cup career.

“Personally the biggest thing for me was the Busch Series to come along and let me show the Cup owners that I could drive on the same race tracks against their drivers in the Busch Series,” he said. “I don’t know that I ever would have made it if it wasn’t for the Busch Series. And now having this opportunity to look at the Busch Series in a different way, and look at these drivers and talk about what is happening and giving people an idea of a perspective from my standpoint, is something I want to do.”

Both broadcasting and racing are in his family as his father Ned, a two-time NASCAR Cup champion, was an analyst on ESPN’s NASCAR racing coverage from 1988-2000. Jarrett got a taste of television several years ago as a guest analyst on a Busch Series race. 

“It’s worked out to be a perfect scenario,” Jarrett said. “I enjoy talking about the sport and I enjoy being able to give fans out there an idea from a drivers’ side of it, and one that’s still involved right now in driving these cars. So, I am looking at it down the road and to what extent, we’ll have to see where this all takes us.”

Jarrett’s schedule of racing and testing during Toyota’s first year in NASCAR’s top series has kept him busy but he has been working to get ready for his first weekend with ESPN.

“I’ve tried to prepare some, especially with a lot of the cars and drivers changing, and I’ve tried to keep up with the Busch Series more,” he said. “I’ll hopefully be well-prepared when I get to Texas. I look forward to Saturday, and what a great place to start because the races there are always exciting and the guys there in the Busch Series put on a great show.”

Jarrett will share the booth at Texas with lead announcer Marty Reid and analyst Andy Petree, a two-time NASCAR champion crew chief. Saturday’s race coverage will begin at 2:30 p.m. with the pre-race NASCAR Countdown program.

About NASCAR on ESPN:

ESPN and ESPN on ABC will have comprehensive, multi-platform coverage featuring telecasts of the final 17 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup races including the 10-race “Chase for the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup” championship on ESPN on ABC. Additionally, ESPN2 will be the home of the NASCAR Busch Series all season. For the first time in the history of televised motorsports, all programming will be produced totally in High Definition. ESPN’s comprehensive, multimedia NASCAR coverage will extend to ESPN.com, ESPN Deportes, ESPN Deportes Radio, SportsCenter, ESPN The Magazine, ESPN Classic, ESPNEWS, ESPNRadio, ESPN360.com and ESPN International, among other ESPN platforms. ESPN aired 262 NASCAR Cup Races over a 20-year period starting in 1981. The network's award-winning, live flag-to-flag coverage on ESPN was honored with 17 Sports Emmy Awards, as well as many industry honors. It is widely credited for helping to popularize the sport nationwide. NASCAR races have appeared on ABC for decades, beginning with broadcasts on the award-winning Wide World of Sports program in the 1960s.

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