Petty to replace Benny Parsons in booth
02/07/07 Kyle Petty figures driving in a Nextel Cup race while he calls it on TV won't be that big a deal. So TNT will formally announce Wednesday that Petty will be an analyst on its six Cup races this summer, and call one — the June 24 Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma, Calif. — as he races in it. "There's constant communication between drivers and their spotters and crew chiefs anyway," says Petty, 47. "Really, just pushing another button and talking to millions of people won't be a ton different. Maybe I'll have to clean up my language." Petty told TNT he didn't want to miss that race because he likes road courses. And, in planning to run all Cup races except ones he'll call for TNT, he says it's "still my No. 1 priority to drive cars. Or maybe I'd be begging for a seat in the (TV) booth." Kyle kept the idea of working on TV "at arm's length" and says he only appeared on some TNT Busch Series races this summer because TNT analyst Benny Parsons— whom Kyle says he's known "forever" — needed an occasional fill-in. Parsons was diagnosed with lung cancer in July and died last month after months of treatment that seemed to have been going successfully. Kyle says he's not a replacement: "I'll be really clear about this: Nobody can fill Benny's shoes. I'm not taking his place. I'm in his seat, but Benny will always be there." As an announcer, Petty says he'll avoid "guessing what drivers are thinking" and remember TV announcers "are just there for decoration." And, he says, he might want to pursue future TV work because it fits with his overall goal in life: "If I can float through and say I never had a full-time job, I'll see myself as successful." USA Today