NBC’s NASCAR Lead Announcer Leigh Diffey Opens Up About His “Accidental” Broadcasting Career

Leigh Diffey is all set to return to the Cup Series commentary booth, with NBC Sports taking over broadcast duties from the upcoming race at Iowa Speedway. He received rave reviews for his work last season and is set to excite the fans once again with his beautiful wordplay. In a recent interview with Frontstretch, he spoke about how he got into the world of broadcasting.

Diffey grew up in Queensland, Australia, where he was involved in motorcycle racing. From the age of six to sixteen, that was his sport. But after a while, he lost interest in it and turned his attention to other things. His first job in motorsports broadcasting came when he was 19 years old. He had been working as a P.E. teacher at the time for the Ipswich Grammar School.

He narrated, “I went down the commentary road, but I didn’t grow up dreaming of that. It was kind of an accidental career because when I stopped riding myself, I focused on school.

“I didn’t go to school to become a journalist or I didn’t study journalism or communications or arts or anything like that. I was a teacher, and I still hung around the motorcycle scene.”

When he was still at college, the local motorcycle club had asked him if he wanted to be the commentator for a race. All the competitors were his friends and people he grew up with. Diffey accepted the challenge and from there, he never looked back. Today, as a well-known voice across the world, he is nothing but grateful that he accidentally fell into this line of work.

Who will be alongside Diffey in the NBC Sports booth?

Diffey will be joined in the booth by the NASCAR icon, Jeff Burton. Burton has been a NASCAR analyst for NBC since 2015. He will be providing pre-race and post-race insights along with the former crew chief, Steve Letarte. The 1999 Cup Series champion, Dale Jarrett, and Hyak Motorsports co-owner, Brad Daugherty, will join them too.

After a less-than-impressive stint by Fox Sports at the beginning of the season, NASCAR fans were relieved to have Amazon Prime Video and TNT Sports take over coverage duties. With NBC Sports, the biggest fish in the pond, returning with Diffey on its roster, the expectations are sky high. Hopefully, the season will transform into a much more entertaining one from here on.