Kyle Petty will be in the announcing booth for five of the six Nextel Cup races TNT will air as part of the new NASCAR television package, the network announced this week.

Petty will join Bill Weber and Wally Dallenbach to announce races at Pocono on June 10 and Michigan on June 17.

He’ll drive the No. 45 Dodge at Infineon Raceway on June 24 – he said he enjoys road-course racing too much to skip that event – but do extended commentary from the car. He will go back to the booth for July races at New Hampshire, Daytona and Chicagoland.

Petty Enterprises will enter the No. 45 with another driver in the five races Petty will miss.

Petty told the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer he thinks he knows why some drivers turn into pretty fair television analysts.

“It’s how we make a living anyway,” he said. “Instead of talking to 75 fans at a Dodge hospitality gathering, when you’re in the booth you’re talking to a couple of million of them. (Being in the booth is) just like you’re talking to the fans.”

Petty said he hopes his experience in NASCAR will serve him well. His grandfather, Lee, and father, Richard, are in every significant racing hall of fame, and Kyle has 785 Cup starts and eight career victories.

“Darrell Waltrip was an incredible champion, but more people know him now for ‘boogity, boogity, boogity,'” Petty said. “In some ways, that’s a little bit sad, but to have somebody like D.W. talking to you about what’s on the race track, that’s phenomenal.”