After Kyle Busch died at 41, NASCAR’s Cup Series broadcast on TNT on Sunday, June 28 shifts with a new replacement in the Coca-Cola 600 and a familiar booth trio—Adam Alexander, Steve Letarte and Dale Earnhardt Jr.—ready to bring the in-season challenge’s $1 m
By the time Austin Hill steps in for Kyle Busch in the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte, North Carolina, the NASCAR Cup Series will already feel different in one important way: the voices in the broadcast booth are still the same, but the week’s loss has changed the tone.
Kyle Busch passed away suddenly this week at the age of 41. The announcement from Richard Childress Racing that Austin Hill will replace Busch in the Sunday, June 28 race means fans will see a different driver behind a different wheel at a race the Cup Series treats as a centerpiece.
In the broadcast booth, though, the sport’s most recognizable rhythm remains intact. When NASCAR returns to television on Sunday. June 28. the channel and presentation will be different—moving to TNT from Amazon—but the trio calling the action for the past five weeks is still there: Adam Alexander. Steve Letarte and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Alexander handles play-by-play as a steady veteran presence. Letarte, a former crew chief for Jeff Gordon and Earnhardt at Hendrick Motorsports, provides race strategy and technical detail. And Earnhardt brings a particular kind of visibility into the booth—his excitement. his love for racing. and the way it carries through to the broadcast.
“With Dale. we’re very fortunate in NASCAR that the biggest NASCAR fan in the world is also the most popular guy to have ever competed. He’s officially both and it’s infectious,” Letarte said. “I think Adam and I truly just kind of lean off his enthusiasm and, man, we just have fun. I wish it was more complicated. I wish there was a secret sauce. But I’ve learned that when you’re having fun. you’re a whole lot more fun to be around. and you’re a whole lot more fun to watch on TV.”.
That “fun” isn’t framed as a gimmick so much as a working style—something the booth leans on as NASCAR’s schedule keeps tightening into the season’s big stretch. TNT’s five-race slate begins with Sonoma, the iconic road course that has become a signature stop on the Cup Series calendar.
The start of TNT’s coverage also lines up with NASCAR’s in-season challenge. For the second consecutive year. drivers will face off in a bracket-style competition over five weeks for a prize of $1 million. Alexander. Letarte and Earnhardt will be in the booth for all of it. essentially turning their Sunday call into the opening soundtrack for the tournament.
Letarte is already thinking about the kind of night Sonoma can create. “I love kicking the in-season tournament off at Sonoma because I think we’ll have some upsets,” he said. “What I don’t think we talk about enough is just the variety of venues. While the race is the star, the venue and the area is really kind of what makes it special. When I look at Sonoma. up in the Napa Valley. just north of San Francisco – we’ve been consistently coming here for years. so there’s a built-up fan base.”.
Sonoma first hosted NASCAR in 1969, with Ray Elder taking the checkered flag. Aside from 2020, the Cup Series has gone there annually since 1989. Letarte’s connection to the track is personal too: as Gordon’s crew chief, he got a win there in 2006.
NASCAR, meanwhile, is arriving at Sonoma with momentum off track as well. The Cup Series has notched five consecutive sellouts for races alongside strong ratings. and Letarte expects the atmosphere won’t miss a beat. “I know Sonoma is going to be electric. It always is. It has a very different feel, but it’ll be full of fans,” he said. “What a beautiful place in the country. I feel like the track really matches the area, right?. You go wine tasting up in the hills. and then we have this beautiful picturesque road course that goes up and down there in Sonoma.”.
There’s another milestone tucked into this weekend. The Sonoma event also marks the final race of the season contested on a road or street course. Last weekend, NASCAR raced on an active military base for the first time ever, and 23-year-old Corey Heim recorded his first win in the Cup Series.
Even as Letarte talks up Sonoma’s excitement, he isn’t pretending NASCAR’s schedule design is perfect. He said NASCAR has about the correct amount of non-ovals. but would like to see one moved closer to the postseason. “You could argue four or five is the right number,” he said. “I don’t love that this is our last of the season. I wish we had one closer to the Chase, if not in the Chase. … I think NASCAR is doing a good job moving the schedule all around. I think it lets every broadcast partner find their own identity and I think that’s important as well. It’s almost like a mini season.”.
Road-course focus has recently centered on Shane van Gisbergen. Before crashing out at Naval Base Coronado midway through last Sunday’s race. the New Zealand native had won six of the last seven road-course races. He is two Cup Series victories away from tying Gordon’s all-time wins record on road courses—nine. Despite his day ending early last weekend, Letarte still believes van Gisbergen is the man to beat at Sonoma. “If we’re turning right. he has to be the favorite until somebody can outright beat him on speed consistently. ” Letarte said of van Gisbergen. “He is not superhuman, but man, he currently is the elite road course racing talent in the garage. No one would dispute that. Maybe SVG would. His humility shines through at times. He doesn’t like to have the bullseye, but that’s what he has. He brings the most speed.”.
Kyle Larson is also on Letarte’s list of contenders. Larson won at Sonoma in 2021 and 2024. Letarte pointed to 19-year-old rookie Connor Zilisch as well. calling Sonoma a possible turning point—though he also acknowledged the hard stretch Zilisch is in. Zilisch has won at seven road courses in the second-tier O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. but hasn’t finished inside the top 20 in the past six weeks. Zilisch was taken out in the same wreck that collected van Gisbergen last weekend.
“I don’t think I would ride in a rental car with him at this point,” Letarte joked about Zilisch. “I think he would get hit by a meteor. His luck has been so awful.”
The broadcast itself is changing in smaller, practical ways too. TNT’s coverage will feature two-box ad breaks during green-flag racing so fans won’t miss a moment of the action. In addition to Alexander and Earnhardt. Letarte will join TNT’s pre- and post-race coverage alongside 2010 Daytona 500 winner Jamie McMurray and longtime ESPN motorsports reporter Marty Smith. who joins as the host.
Full coverage of practice and qualifying races will be available on truTV and HBO Max, while in-car cameras during the races will be available on HBO Max. NASCAR Hall of Famers Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Burton will also join the studio coverage as special guests.
After Sonoma, TNT’s slate continues with Chicagoland, Echopark Speedway just south of Atlanta, the historic North Wilkesboro Speedway in the hills of North Carolina, and then one of NASCAR’s crown jewels, the Brickyard 400.
Letarte is especially excited for the Quaker State 400, NASCAR’s second trip of the year to Atlanta. He described the track’s repave and reconfiguration as a big part of what makes the racing there unpredictable. “It is one of the must-find tickets of NASCAR. The racing there is unbelievable. I think that’s one of the races that is going to shock everybody in the summer. because it could upset the standings and could upset the in-season tournament. ” Letarte said. “There’s a lot of things that can change when we go down to Atlanta. That new configuration – it looks like fighter jets in a punch bowl.”.
In the end, the booth’s approach seems built around a simple pairing: preparation and joy. Letarte said joining forces with Alexander and Earnhardt has shown him a “recipe for success,” built on the idea to “Prepare hard and have fun.”
“I think when you put hard work in during the week and you do all of that preparation, when you go to the booth, you literally are just talking about a race that’s on TV,” Letarte said. “It’s like you’re sitting around with your buddies drinking a beer.”
It’s a message that lands differently after the news from this week. But on Sunday, as Hill takes Busch’s spot and TNT opens its in-season challenge slate at Sonoma, the booth trio’s enthusiasm is set to become part of how NASCAR absorbs both loss and the next lap.
NASCAR TNT Cup Series Sonoma Coca-Cola 600 Kyle Busch Austin Hill Dale Earnhardt Jr. Steve Letarte Adam Alexander in-season challenge $1 million Shane van Gisbergen Kyle Larson Connor Zilisch Quaker State 400 Atlanta Motor Speedway