The NASCAR Cup Series underwent a big change a while after the 2024 Summer Olympics break. NBC Sports replaced Rick Allen with Leigh Diffey in the booth and it announced in August that the Australian-American commentator would be the new play-by-play announcer for the series. Since then, Diffey has called some of the most thrilling race moments in history.
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He was the voice behind the biggest wreck in Talladega ever, he announced Harrison Burton’s win in Daytona, he was in the booth when all the Martinsville fiasco went down in the final race of the Round of 8, and was a part of more such events. But the one that particularly stands out to him is Burton’s unexpected win in the Daytona summer race.
He said on WCNC recently, “It’s actually pretty easy to pick a favorite. And it was that win by Harrison Burton. To have Jeff standing right here in between Steve Letarte and myself, and for him to see his boy…”
“I don’t know where those words came from. Maybe because I’m a father and when Harrison crossed the line, I looked at Jeff and just said, ‘Jeff, your little boy’s done it.’”
Burton made it to the playoffs courtesy of the win, which marked a key achievement in his racing career. Jeff Burton is a colleague of Diffey’s on NBC and serves as an analyst for the network.
Diffey’s work has received widespread acclaim in such a short term with reason. Denny Hamlin was one of those impressed with him and asked for NASCAR to cast him in the role through all 36 races of the season.
How Diffey came to work in NASCAR full-time
The ongoing stint is not his first venture in stock car racing. He made his broadcasting debut in the Cup Series back in 2015 and continued to make sporadic cameos through the years. He’d known that his employer was going to ask him to foray into NASCAR full-time a few months prior to his re-entry.
He said, “So I had a few months to prepare, but, you know, doing my normal workload and then of course, having to get my head wrapped around my sixth Olympic Games in Paris. The summer games and doing track and field.”
“That’s, you know, that’s a super big task. So I had to kind of compartmentalize and then get ready for NASCAR once Paris was done. It’s been amazing. It’s been a privilege.”
Diffey has known Burton and Letarte for a long time. He mentioned that they have come together well in the booth and that they enjoy working with each other. Hopefully, this is only the beginning of an interesting time ahead.
