Multidigits
06-25-2007, 08:27 PM
Petty in-car analyst...oops: In what was billed as the first time a driver in a top-tier NASCAR race simultaneously served as a TV analyst on race coverage, TNT's #45-Kyle Petty took viewers a little too close to the action in Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350. After early glitches — TNT's other announcers initially couldn't get through to Petty and when they did he said they were breaking up on him — the multitasking seemed promising. Said Petty, at the green flag, "Everybody is a passenger today." Too true. Driver #17-Matt Kenseth and Petty collided in the second lap in an accident that included driver #91-Marc Goossens. TNT analyst Wally Dallenbach speculated Petty "had no clue" Kenseth was nosing in on him. On a replay of the view out of Petty's windshield, the driver-analyst seemed to confirm that: As Kenseth came into view, viewers heard a clear exclamation of surprise that seemed to come from Petty — "What the f—-!" TNT's Bill Weber immediately apologized "for that language," and Petty, who stayed in the race and finished 39th, came back on-air to say that "was not the kind of excitement I wanted" and later apologized on-air for the accident. All 43 cars in NASCAR races are miked, TNT spokesman Jeff Pomeroy says, and the audio that pops up on-air can't always be identified: "We can assume that audio came from one of the three cars in the accident. But we can't be sure it was Kyle."(USA Today (http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2007-06-25-hiestand-weekend_N.htm))(6-25-2007)