NASCAR insiders heap praise on NBC broadcast, Leigh Diffey after Darlington

Two NASCAR insiders loved what they saw and heard from the NBC broadcast team during the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic talked about the broadcast led by Leigh Diffey and both agreed the call was fantastic.

“I thought they were great. They had a great broadcast. Leigh Diffey continues to be phenomenal. Really enjoy his addition, the explaining what was going on in the race,” Gluck told Bianchi on The Teardown podcast. “[Steve] Letarte‘s all over it. At the end, they got the triple box going. That was prefect for all the action. It really made it feel like a big moment. They got Michael Jordan interview mid-race and he was great. He had some emotion. It just felt like they were all over the storylines. Great coverage.”

Diffey joined the broadcast team after calling track and field at the Paris Olympics. He replaced Rick Allen who will continue to call Xfinity Series aces for NBC Sports and the CW Network for the rest of the year. Last month, Bianchi spoke to Diffey about his new role.

Leigh Diffey talks calling NASCAR races for NBC

“Excited. I’m really, really excited by it,” Diffey said. “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.”