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October 18, 2024

Leigh Diffey brings versatility, energy and distinctive voice to NBC Sports’ NASCAR booth


In just one calendar year, Leigh Diffey has covered IMSA’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, the Indianapolis 500, the Summer Olympics in Paris and his current assignment for NBC Sports as the lead play-by-play voice for the NASCAR Playoffs. The variety is as rich as his frequent-flyer odometer is long.

“I like to say I’m in the club of one,” Diffey says with a laugh, acknowledging the level of exclusivity, but also how far the French capital city is from say, Talladega or Bristol. Diffey has deftly navigated both the globe and those transitions this year, and his journey continues with this weekend’s racing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. In three weeks, he’ll call the Cup Series’ championship race in Phoenix for the first time as the broadcast booth’s primary anchor.

“I mean, if you’re a motorsport commentator, that’s the stuff that dreams are made of,” Diffey says. “I haven’t stopped pinching myself.”

RELATED: Weekend schedule: Vegas | Cup Series standings

Diffey has been a fixture on NBC Sports’ roster of broadcasters since joining the network in 2013, but this year has been his first as the outlet’s lead NASCAR announcer. Though the 53-year-old veteran still jokingly refers to himself as “the new guy” on the broadcast team, he’s drawn on his experience working alongside analysts Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte to make his move to the main chair a seamless one.

Diffey has already earned raves for his energetic calls of several memorable moments in the second half of the Cup Series campaign. His fellow broadcasters have thrived off that natural enthusiasm, seeing him visit some of NASCAR’s iconic tracks for the first time.

“Look, Leigh’s passion, and you’ve heard Leigh call races and other sporting events …,” Burton says. “Everybody is very much aware of what Leigh is capable of that has listened to him.”

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Funny enough, Diffey’s career could have taken a far different turn had some friends in a motorcycle club back in his home country of Australia not invited him to handle public-address announcing duties at a local meet. Diffey had long been a fan of two-wheeled racing, a passion handed down from his father, and he competed alongside his older brother from the age of 6 well into his teenage years. “I was OK. I wasn’t great,” Diffey says in reflection, noting how some of his friends went on to championship-caliber careers.

“I didn’t grow up dreaming of a career in motorsport broadcasting or sports broadcasting at all,” Diffey says. “At one stage of my career or one stage of my life, I thought I was going to be a farmer or work in agricultural economics because I studied agriculture at high school.”

A career in teaching was also on the table. Diffey earned his bachelor’s degree in education and briefly worked as a physical education teacher. “As my part-time job, I didn’t work at McDonald’s or an ice cream store. I worked on a farm,” he said. “I picked tomatoes and grapes and zucchinis and hung out with a farmer. So that’s where I thought my life was going.”

From left: Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe on the pre-race call at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Joe Skibinski | Penske Entertainment

Though his dirt-bike racing days were behind him by then, Diffey had kept in touch with his friends in those circles. Taking the microphone for that PA-announcing gig changed his outlook.

“I think I was about 20 years old or something like that and just never expected that,” Diffey says, “and I’m sure glad that it happened.”

Doors eventually opened with the Australia-based Supercars circuit, and assignments for motorcycle and rally racing events followed. Diffey came to America more than 20 years ago to cover IndyCar and other forms of racing, and he served as the voice for U.S. broadcasts of Formula 1 events for a number of seasons.

Diffey’s IndyCar ride ended this season with the news that FOX Sports would become the series’ broadcast home in 2025. He called that transition “bittersweet” but that there was little time to dwell on that chapter of his 27-year career in television closing.

“I never dreamed that I’d be fortunate enough to call the Indy 500, and I got to do six of them. So I feel incredibly blessed and just very fortunate that that happened,” Diffey says. “… When anything comes to an end that you’re passionate about, it’s always difficult. But what helped was that my attention and my bandwidth was consumed with the Olympics, doing a great job, it’s all-encompassing, it’s all-consuming, I should say. And then I knew that I had this 7,000-pound gorilla waiting at the end of the year that is NASCAR. So I had to kind of compartmentalize my year. I had to go through it in blocks.”

A big block came this summer, calling track and field events at his sixth Olympic Games on the worldwide stage. “No disrespect to any of the other host nations or cities, but that was the best,” Diffey said, describing the mood in Paris as unmatched. His lodging for his time there was within walking distance of the Stade de France, providing the opportunity to intermingle with spectators and supporters in an on-foot commute.

“Just walking with the masses, with the fans, everyone’s laughing and joking, and there was music and cheering, and they had their nation’s colors on,” Diffey said. “It was just … it was great to go to work every day.”

Just a scant two weeks after the Closing Ceremonies, Diffey was in the booth at Daytona International Speedway to helm coverage of the penultimate race of the NASCAR Cup Series’ regular season. Diffey said the trust that the network has placed in him to cover such a dizzying blend of sports — from luge, bobsled, track and rugby to big-league stock-car racing — can be traced back to the influence of Sam Flood, NBC Sports’ executive producer and president of production.

“We’re going to throw a variety of things at you and see what sticks,” Diffey recalled Flood telling him early in his NBC tenure. “And he said, ‘So you’re going to call different kinds of racing for us, so are you up for that?’ And I said, sure. I mean, I was hired by NBC primarily to do Formula 1 and IndyCar, and then he said, but we’re going to put you on the Olympics as well. Sam is the same gentleman who had the foresight and also the commitment and the belief in me to put me on track and field and also to put me on NASCAR, so I owe a lot to Sam and his belief in me to be able to be flexible enough and to adapt and get on with it.

“Whatever his ideas were and are, then I have to go and execute it, and so far, so good. It’s been a fun ride.”

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Leigh Diffey says he doesn’t really read his own reviews, save for some interactions on social media. “They’re either going to love you or hate you,” he says. “It’s kind of like politics, really. There’s no middle ground. It’s a massive swing.”

On one side are the kudos that glow with praise. “We’re convinced NBC’s Leigh Diffey can narrate a Monday morning commute to work and make it sound thrilling and history-making,” the Associated Press wrote during the Pyeongchang Winter Games in 2018, when Diffey delivered the play-by-play call of the skeleton competition.

On the other side are those who might be surprised to hear an accent in the NASCAR broadcast booth that’s not plucked from the American South. Most of the reception, however, has been a warm one, with Diffey winning over any skeptics with his engaging, upbeat style.

“It has absolutely blown me away. They have been so lovely,” Diffey says of the welcoming spirit. “Of course, I’m not going to be everybody’s cup of tea. I’m not silly enough to not acknowledge that or know that, and look, NASCAR has been around for 75 years, and there’s never been a non-American voice in the play-by-play position. So Jackie Stewart and David Hobbs did it — one from Scotland, one from England — they did it back in the day as analysts. There’s never been a foreign-voiced play-by-play for the American audience on the Indy 500, and I got to do that, and then on NASCAR, and I’m doing that now, and I’m very proud of that.

“But also you’ve got to remember, too, I’m an American — even though I don’t talk like an American. I’m a proud naturalized American citizen, and I have been for 13 years. My children, our two sons, were born in Atlanta, Georgia. I chose to become an American citizen, and I’m really proud of that. Of course, I’ll always be proud of my Aussie heritage, of where I grew up, but this is where my career has been defined. And I love this country, and it’s done so much for me and to me, giving back and becoming a U.S. citizen, I feel really fortunate, and I feel really passionate about that.”

From left, the NBC Sports NASCAR coverage team of Leigh Diffey, Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte
NBC Sports

Diffey has been here long enough that he hasn’t had to worry about much Aussie slang slipping into his broadcast patter. That said, the breadth of his vocabulary has occasionally produced double-takes from some of his colleagues — in particular Letarte, who lightheartedly admits to limiting himself to a two-syllable maximum as an analyst.

During a recent broadcast, Diffey characterized a driver’s maneuver as “dodgy,” which stopped Letarte cold. “He goes, ‘Oh, you’ve got to run that by me again,'” Diffey recalled, saying that both Letarte and Burton have poked good-natured fun at some of his descriptions. That levity comes with a measure of respect, and Letarte effortlessly mentions Diffey alongside legendary broadcasters who have earned Hall of Fame recognition.

“I will say that it never ceases to amaze me the words that Leigh can find,” Letarte says. “It reminds me of some of the greats that we’ve had. You know, Mike Joy has that signature ability to put something in context. Barney Hall had that same ability. Ken Squier, for sure. The Squier-isms are as famous as the man himself. That’s the thing is the calls are not just energetic and not just accurate, but they are poetic and colorful, and they make for a bigger moment than the moment itself already is.”

Diffey had a doozy of a moment and a call to match it with his arrival in the Daytona booth two months ago, when he heralded Harrison Burton’s first Cup Series win as his father, Jeff, watched alongside him. Diffey captured the high drama, noting how close Kyle Busch was to ending the longest skid of his career until Burton’s compelling charge on the backstretch ultimately proved victorious, sealing a milestone 100th win for the Wood Brothers team.

“Jeff, your little boy has done it!” Diffey exclaimed, setting the tone in one of NASCAR’s biggest recent upsets.

WATCH: Final lap of Harrison Burton’s breakthrough win

“Watching Harrison come off Turn 4 and seeing Jeff’s excitement when he went to Victory Lane and to hear Leigh’s call is a moment I’ll always remember,” Letarte said. “It’s up there with Jimmie’s seventh championship or some of the other great races I have been a part of. We all have our own skill sets, but finding those words in those moments really adds to it. It’s a lot of fun.”

All three boothmates mentioned the chemistry bonds that have grown through the season, but that awareness of each other’s responsibilities has made it all click. When pit stops, strategy or officiating rules crop up during the course of a race, former crew chief Letarte takes a more prominent role. When crashes or driver situations arise, Burton tends to become more vocal. Setting the stage and depicting the climactic action as an on-air quarterback is where Diffey makes his mark, and Letarte and Burton are more than happy to leave that obligation to him.

“We enjoy the opportunity to get the hell out of his way and let him do it,” Burton said. “It’s important to know that there’s a time that I for sure need to shut up and let him roll. So, yeah, it’s been fun. He’s had some big moments on top of that.”

Diffey says he’s savored soaking up the atmosphere as he navigates this portion of his busy year, calling the NASCAR experience “the epitome of Americana.” His increased stock-car workload has brought him to new venues, but it’s also put him in touch with new fans who have been eager to receive his insights.

During last weekend’s track walk at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, one fan shouted for him from the campground area. The Aussie transplant — at home here in the cradle of stock-car racing — walked over to have a conversation, melting away the fencing that separated the two.

“That’s where you get the pulse and the heartbeat of the sport,” Diffey says. “That’s what it’s all about.”

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