“He Paints a Picture Better Than Anybody”: Freddie Kraft Slams Criticism of NASCAR Broadcaster Leigh Diffey’s Accent

After a long wait, Leigh Diffey returned to the NASCAR broadcast booth as the play-by-play announcer for NBC Sports. Fans loved his wordplay last season, when he was tasked with covering the Cup Series playoffs after a successful stint at the Paris Olympics, and have showered him with rave reviews. But not everyone is a fan of him or his heavy Australian accent.

John Kernan is a former pit reporter who has a longstanding association with ESPN. He wrote on X recently, “I think I’m done with NASCAR. After further review, stage racing SUCKS! And I’m sure Leigh Diffey is a great guy, but if I want to hear that accent, I’ll watch Formula 1. Sorry, guess I’m xenophobic.” 

There are others who express a similar opinion when it comes to Diffey. But how rational and ethical is it to criticize a professional based on his accent? Not much, if you ask Freddie Kraft.

Kraft is the spotter for 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace and a co-host of the Door, Bumper, Clear podcast. He lashed back stingingly at Diffey’s disparagers with some lessons on conduct.

He said on the podcast, “Leigh Diffey is fantastic at his job. One of the best in the business, and if you’re going to say you don’t like the guy because of his accent, that says more about you than it says about anybody else. 

“Obviously, his accent is fun for us. We’ve had him on the show before. It’s fun to give him s**t about it, and the people mix up. They are like, ‘Oh, this British guy,’ and he’s obviously not British. I don’t care what he sounds like. The guy does a great job there. He paints a picture better than almost anybody in our sport.” 

Fortunately, this is how most of the fanbase reacts when it comes to Diffey. People have loved his work more than anybody else’s over the past year. He has been with NBC Sports since 2013, but it wasn’t until last year that he got into NASCAR as a play-by-play announcer.

He was previously the lead announcer for the IndyCar Series and has also called races in Formula 1, IMSA, and MotoGP. A native of Brisbane, Australia, he worked for Network 10 in the land down under before moving to the United Kingdom to work with the BBC. He later moved across the pond to work for the SPEED Channel in the United States.