The Halfway Driver, Kyle Petty

Kyle Petty said: "They've always said I'm kind of a halfway driver, and this time I really am — half-driver, half-analyst."

Kyle will be calling the race from inside his car this weekend at the Toyota / Save Mart 350 because, A: he refused not to drive in the race because road courses are fust plain fun, and B: perform a TV first by reporting on the race from in the race.

But he expects to become a raconteur during caution flags: "Cautions for us are like timeouts in other sports. I can talk about what I saw or give fans a better idea of why I ran off the track."

But Petty's hybrid role Sunday raises the possibility of some unprecedented on-air commentary. Drivers, even if they've banged off walls and flipped, are expected to dutifully mention their sponsors on TV if they're still conscious, but TV analysts are supposed to avoid blatant hype.

See the details at USAToday.com.

If you are interested, other tidbits at this link are:
Breaking ground: Woman to call Cup race on DirecTV: Wendy Venturini will be calling the race.
NBC takes risk on these reporters: NBC will be using action sports athletes with no TV experience to call the AST Dew Tour's season kickoff event.
New TV channel will offer equal coverage, Big Ten says: The Big Ten Network, a channel devoted to that conference and debuting in August