Going from Paris to Daytona Beach, Fla., may not sound like the most glamorous voyage. For Leigh Diffey, though, it’s a trip he’s eagerly awaiting as he steps into the role of NBC Sports’ lead voice for its NASCAR Cup Series coverage beginning with Saturday night’s race at Daytona International Speedway.
Diffey joins NBC’s NASCAR team this week after handling play-by-play duties calling track and field for the network during the recently completed Paris Olympics. This transition has the Brisbane, Australia, native thoroughly excited — a word Diffey used multiple times during an interview with The Athletic — as he returns to covering motorsports, something he’s covered extensively throughout his career, including on television in the U.S.
Diffey replaces Rick Allen, who will continue to call Xfinity Series races on both NBC Sports and the CW Network for the remainder of the season.
Diffey spoke with The Athletic about a variety of topics, including his experience covering the Paris Olympics, his new job with NBC, and how he blends calling two distinct, yet somewhat similar, sports.
(This interview was edited for length and clarity.)
The last time we chatted was coming off the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which was both COVID-impacted with no fans in attendance and also your first Olympics as NBC’s lead play-by-play announcer for track and field. What was this Olympic experience like for you in Paris compared to Tokyo?
Just amazing. I’ve been fortunate to call national championships, Diamond League events, World Championships, etc., but there was nothing like this experience of having an almost 70,000-seat stadium at capacity, both morning session and night session, and an atmosphere that was crazy. And when we experienced the first session, Ato Boldon, my teammate, looked at me and he just said, “I haven’t seen anything like this since London 2012. I’m so excited for you to get to experience this.”
So it was amazing. I think we’ll remember Paris as those games that kind of reignited the passion and the interest for everybody and kind of got everybody to fall in love with the Olympics all over again.
When you’re inside the stadium with 70,000 people intently focused on this big Olympic event about to fire off, is there a motorsports equivalent in terms of the energy and atmosphere?
There isn’t one as acute because you don’t have the noise of the cars or motorcycles to compete with. Maybe Supercross in Anaheim; A1 (the first race of the season) is comparable. But again, you’ve got the noise of the bike, whereas you don’t have that in track and field as you’ve just got that pure, raw explosion of human emotion from the fans. And especially when there were French athletes in the mix — not even in a medal race, like just even in some of the prelims. That nationalistic pride and the volume was just amazing.
GO DEEPER
Q&A: NBC Sports’ Leigh Diffey on his Tokyo Olympics experience and IndyCar’s youth movement
Regarding the 100-meter finish, in that moment where everything is happening quickly and it’s so close, how challenging is it to decipher what’s transpiring?
You have to trust yourself and you go with your instinct. And I’ve had a good track record of trusting myself, my instincts and my eyes, and I just did exactly the same as what I’ve always done. Lo and behold, it turned out to be the closest finish in Olympic history. As I said publicly, I got it wrong by five-thousandths of a second. I could have taken a conservative route and just said it’s too close to call, but I honestly thought that Kishane Thompson of Jamaica had won; Ato Boldon thought the same. The world-feed cameras went to the Jamaican, and obviously it was Noah Lyles who won.
It was one of those moments that I didn’t feel great after the fact, but I just followed my normal procedure, and obviously it went the other way. It’s a whirlwind. I had other close finishes throughout the rest of the Games, and I don’t think I changed what I did in those moments. There was a close one in the women’s 100 hurdles and there wasn’t something definitive to my eyes, so I didn’t call it. But there were other close ones where I did call it — the men’s 400 finish. You have to have that faith in yourself, or that trust in yourself. And the majority of the time, I’ve been fortunate enough to get it right; that time I got it wrong. I don’t hide from that fact. It doesn’t change that after the fact it doesn’t feel great to get the men’s 100 at the Olympics incorrect, but I have to live with that.
When we talked in 2021, we discussed how NBC naming you its lead play-by-play announcer for track and field was really a big opportunity because often motorsports announcers get pigeonholed a little bit. You’ve really broken out of that stereotype. How does it feel to be able to overcome this perception and earn recognition beyond motorsports?
I think anytime that you are challenged to do something different, it helps you grow. It helps you grow as a person. Helps you grow as a broadcaster. It makes you think a little bit differently. And, at the same time, I’m still in my lane, so to speak, as far as racing.
But I really appreciate and I’m very, very grateful that NBC has given me these opportunities. I’ve been with the company for 12 years now, and they’ve thrown lots of different things at me. And even back in 2021, I think I told you that being a motorsport commentator has made me a better track and field broadcaster, and being a track and field broadcaster has made me a better motorsport commentator as well. So I like the crossover. I think that I can bring a little bit of motorsports to track and field and vice versa. And I really enjoy that. I enjoy being allowed to grow into the track and field role as well. And I have awesome teammates on both sides. There’s more crossover between the two than you think.
Have you pulled anything from track and field and incorporated it into how you call a race on the motorsports side?
The common denominator is the strategy. Be it an IndyCar race, a sports car race or a NASCAR race, it’s that tactical strategy that’s similar to some of the most experienced middle and distance runners where they’re not going to be at the front straightaway, they might stay at the back and slowly work their way forward and they show their experience. And it’s something like, “Don’t panic too quickly, let’s settle in.” And then that kind of moment draws you to that athlete or that driver or that rider, where they’re playing the long game. So I think that for me, that when I’m in one of those situations on the motorsports side, occasionally I would think about how that transpired in the track and field world.
Leigh Diffey, already part of NBC’s IndyCar broadcast team, now steps into the play-by-play role in their NASCAR Cup Series booth. (Jonathan Tenca / Cal Sport Media via AP Images)
A new challenge awaits you this week: Starting at Daytona, you’re stepping into the lead play-by-play role for NBC’s NASCAR Cup Series coverage. How are you feeling heading into this new assignment?
Excited. I’m really, really excited by it. I’ve done a variety of NASCAR races over the years; way back, in my former life in Australia, there’s only one banked oval in Australia, and way back at the beginning of my career, in ’95, ’96 I want to say, I did the Australian version of NASCAR. Then here in the States, when I was with Speed Channel, I would do some practice and qualifying shows. And then when I joined NBC for a long time I would be one of the hosts rotating on NASCAR America (studio show), and I got to do some Xfinity races at Mid-Ohio, Dover and Kansas and a variety of places. Then in 2017, I called two Cup races at Watkins Glen and Michigan.
For me, that was kind of like a toe in the water in between then and now. But I’m really excited to rely on the memories of that, but those great memories also make me super excited about making my return at Daytona.
Is this something you expect to continue full-time next year?
Given the fact that IndyCar is moving to a new home (next year), that certainly opens up the opportunity for me to do more NASCAR. And, obviously, in collaboration with Supercross and IMSA and the other properties that I work on at the network, I think it looks optimistic for the future, for sure.
This isn’t your first endeavor calling races for NBC, but there will be a lot of new experiences for you over the next 12 weeks. Is there something particular that’s upcoming on the NASCAR schedule that you’re looking forward to experiencing for the first time?
Darlington (on Sept. 1). I’ve never been to Darlington. For me, I’m looking forward to bringing that freshness. And hopefully that freshness and newness will be heard in my voice. I’ve been so fortunate to live and work all around the world and been to so many different tracks around the world, and of course, here in North America, but still at this stage of my career to experience something new to me, that’s really exciting.
My list of firsts is long, but I am excited by that.
Since you’re going to Martinsville for the first time, you do know that you have to eat a Martinsville hot dog, right? That is the tradition.
I am happy to wear that rookie stripe and do all the things you have to as a rookie. (Laughs.)
You’re probably going to regret it.
We’re going to find out.
(Top photo of Leigh Diffey at the 2024 U.S. Olympic track and field trials in June: Kirby Lee / USA Today)
