CONCORD, N.C. -- Dale Jarrett admitted the feelings grow stronger as he headed toward his final NASCAR Sprint Cup start in tonight's all-star race.

Although he's been out of the car since the race at Bristol in March, there was always this night, one more time to race before a career that began in 1984 at Martinsville ends. After tonight, he'll focus on his duties for ESPN.

And, no, the 51-year-old former champion doesn't plan to come back even though he's received calls from other owners.

"I've told this to my family and I've told it to the fans and I think that whenever you tell them things like this, you need to hold to that,'' Jarrett said of his decision to retire.

The son of a series champion, Jarrett's career started slowly. He didn't win his first Cup race until 1991. His next victory came in the 1993 Daytona 500, starting a streak of 11 consecutive seasons with at least one series win.

He finishes with 32 series victories, including three Daytona 500s, and a series title.

"When somebody says who's the best 20 drivers, you never hear his name, and I don't think that's fair,'' Jeff Burton said. "It took Dale longer to have success for one reason or another.

"He had to go earn it. You think about when he went to drive for Yates, you know people were saying he can't do it, he can't do it. Well come to find out he could do it and he persevered through that and I have a lot of respect for him for that.''

It's more than wins that stand out to Dale Earnhardt Jr. about Jarrett. He helped make Earnhardt's July Daytona victory in 2001 -- NASCAR's first race there after Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s death -- even more special.

"I had won and we were standing down in the motor home lot, it was one or two in the morning,'' Earnhardt Jr. said. "We had a circle of us all drinking beer, about 20 of us. I looked around and I knew everybody, it was mostly team members and some friends of mine in town, and I looked to my right and standing next to me was Dale Jarrett.

"I asked him what he was still doing there, why aren't you on your way home? He said, 'I wouldn't miss this. That was the coolest thing I have ever seen you do.' That was just, I don't know, it showed me a lot about his character right there.''

Jarrett said that when he looks back upon those moments and many others he considers himself fortunate. That will make tonight tougher when he climbs into his car for a final time.

"It's the right thing to do,'' Jarrett said. "It's just difficult in knowing that when I get out of the car Saturday night that that's the last time I will ever compete at this level.

"You can do a lot of fun things ... but nothing will ever match the kind of excitement that you get from driving the race car and being able to compete at this level. It's tough ... but it's the right decision.''

Busch's new car

Kyle Busch said he's working on testing a Formula One car after this season. He said plans are to take a Cup car to Japan to drive in an exhibition and he wants to test an F1 car at the same time for Toyota.

Contract updates

Greg Biffle reaffirmed that he plans to be back with Roush Fenway Racing after speculation this week that he might replace Tony Stewart if Stewart left Joe Gibbs Racing.

"I doubt very seriously that I'll end up someplace other than Roush,'' Biffle said.

Also, Bobby Labonte said he's about two or three weeks away from announcing his plans. He's expected to remain with Petty Enterprises.

On the pole

Kyle Busch won the pole for tonight's all-star race, beating second-place Jeff Gordon by half a second. Each driver had to complete a pit stop and three laps in their qualifying attempt. Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr. and Greg Biffle complete the top five.

Jimmie Johnson will start 21st after his time was disallowed for an infraction on his pit stop. The field will expand to 24 cars with the top two from the Sprint Showdown and the fan vote winner advancing to the all-star race.

Pit stops

Car owner Richard Childress was inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame on Thursday. ... Clint Bowyer on if he'll drive any differently in tonight's race, "It's a million to win. That's a lot of cash.''