Since he unexpectedly retired from NASCAR after the 2016 season, Carl Edwards has been the white whale that the league’s television partners have sought to put in front of the camera — overtures he’s long declined. But nine years after walking away and just weeks after being inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, Edwards is making the leap into the television studio.

Edwards is joining Amazon Prime Video as a pre- and post-race studio analyst when the streaming platform begins its five-race Cup Series broadcast schedule May 25 with the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, a NASCAR crown jewel event.

“The thing I’m excited about, and I feel like I can hopefully accomplish, is to get to talk a little bit about — especially since I’m not competing anymore, I got nothing to hide — there’s no trade secrets I don’t want to talk about,” Edwards said in an interview. “I want to share with the fans what might be going on inside of that helmet, inside of that car. I want to ask the drivers, before, after, maybe away from the track, ‘What’s going on? What is really driving you? What are your fears? What are your hopes? What are the difficulties? What are the things that you’re so good at that maybe aren’t obvious for someone just watching the racing?’”

Prime Video signing the notoriously private Edwards is seen as a coup. The 45-year-old was considered one of the most articulate and insightful drivers during his career. He won 28 Cup races during his 12 full-time seasons and twice finished runner-up in the championship — including losing the 2011 title on a tiebreaker to Tony Stewart. Upon retiring, he could’ve had his pick of networks to join but instead opted to drop out of the spotlight to focus on his family.

Carl Edwards poses with his Hall of Fame exhibition. He’ll join Prime Video’s crew for their five-race schedule, from the Coca-Cola 600 through Pocono. (David Jensen / Getty Images)

How did Prime Video persuade Edwards to become an analyst? He certainly made them work for it.

Even after some initial conversations between the parties, Edwards still wasn’t committed. The turning point came when two Prime Video executives said they wanted to sit down with Edwards face-to-face and insisted on traveling to Missouri to meet with him. After agreeing to the meeting, Edwards told them if they really wanted to get to know him, they should attend a jiu-jitsu practice he was attending.

“I just threw this out there and I thought, ‘This is crazy,’” Edwards said. “I said, ‘If you guys want to come meet, we’re going to jiu-jitsu and then my wife will cook us some lunch. What do you think?’ They were like, ‘This is great!’

“They actually showed up, put on the gi, we had a great class and (his wife) cooked us a great meal. And afterward, I was like, ‘These are my people.’”

Finding the right fit was a priority for Edwards as he contemplated taking a television role. The focus was less on the “nuts and bolts” of what he’d be doing, he said, and more on who he’d be working with.

During this deliberation, he sought the feedback of Dale Earnhardt Jr., another star-driver-turned-TV-analyst who Prime Video had already signed to have in its booth. What Earnhardt conveyed resonated and was the final nudge Edwards needed.

“Dale’s involvement in this is key,” Edwards said. “I didn’t get anything out of my mouth and the first thing he said to me was, ‘Hey, l want this to be a good team. We are going to support each other; we will build each other up.’ Hearing this I thought, ‘Man, this is just perfect.’”

Carl Edwards and Dale Earnhardt Jr. talk during a qualifying session at Texas Motor Speedway in 2010. The two will team up on Prime Video’s crew. (John Harrelson / Getty Images for NASCAR)

Edwards will partner in the on-site studio with host Danielle Trotta and fellow analyst Corey LaJoie, an active Cup Series driver. The other members of Prime Video’s team include Earnhardt, Adam Alexander (play-by-play), Steve Letarte (booth analyst), and pit reporters Trevor Bayne, Kim Coon and Marty Snider, the latter trio announced Tuesday along with Edwards.

Among this group, Edwards and LaJoie are the television newbies. They’re joining an endeavor that marks the first time NASCAR’s premier Cup Series has aired exclusively via a streaming service, which Edwards believes fans should see as a benefit as it allows he and the rest of the crew to thoroughly flush out stories post-race without fear of being restricted by the hard time constraints of traditional television.

As Edwards embarks on his new career, he does have some trepidations. One of them is something many athletes who transition into broadcasting face: how to offer criticism when warranted.

“That actually is one of the things I’m most worried about,” Edwards said. “I’m hopeful that I have relationships with people in the sport where I’m able to objectively say, ‘Hey, this is what I see without judgment.’ I hope that that’s acceptable to them. I hope I can do it in a way that respects how difficult it is to be a competitor. Because, for me as a competitor, it would piss me off when people would have all sorts of judgment and critiques without actually maybe A) understanding or B) giving me a chance to tell my part.”

Thus begins the crash course for Edwards on how to be an effective analyst. But any angst Edwards might feel is largely stifled by the excitement he has returning to NASCAR after being away for so many years. For someone who essentially disappeared after retirement, this new experience has served as a rekindling of his passion for racing.

“It’s really cool for me to be excited about racing again in this way, the way I was excited about racing 20 years ago,” Edwards said. “It’s just neat. It’s fun. It’s exciting and I get to share it with people. It’s a great opportunity.”

(Top photo of Carl Edwards during his Hall of Fame induction speech in February: Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)