So you're getting ready to sit down and watch 400 miles of NASCAR Sprint Cup racing from the Pocono Raceway, right? You're going to get yourself an ice cold Coca-Cola and a snack of some sort, grab the remote, and kick back for some terrific stock car racing action, right? And to watch it, you're going to tune into Fox Sports like you have for the first 13 races of the season, right?
Wrong!
Starting this afternoon, TNT takes over coverage of NASCAR Sprint Cup racing, kicking off its six-week "Summer Series." The other races that Turner Sports - entering its 30th season as a NASCAR partner - will carry this year are next week's 400-miler at the Michigan International Speedway, the first road course race of the year at Sonoma, the second-annual race at the Kentucky Speedway, the Coke Zero 400 at the Daytona International Speedway, and the 301-lapper at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
TNT's broadcast team features longtime MRN Radio pit reporter Adam Alexander on play-by-play. Former Sprint Cup drivers Kyle Petty and Wally Dallenbach Jr. serve as analysts. Pit reporters include Marty Snider, Matt Yocum, Ralph Shaheen, and Chris Neville. Alexander will host the pre-race show with Petty and Larry McReynolds, who also served as analyst on the Fox broadcasts.
Georgia's favorite sporting son, the legendary Bill Elliott, will play a role in TNT's pre-race broadcasts as part of the "NASCAR Generations" roundtable discussion. Other participants are NASCAR Hall of Famer Ned Jarrett, five-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, two-time Daytona 500-winning crew chief Larry McReynolds, and Petty, the third generation of NASCAR's most famous family and an eight-time race winner in the Sprint Cup Series.
Be sure to check your listings to find out where TNT is on your provider. Before this week, I could simply say "Tune into Fox 5 Atlanta" for those of us in and around the metro area, but for every TV provider there is a different lineup of cable channels.