Story by Ken Willis, Daytona Beach News-Journal
The final 14 races of the 2025 NASCAR season mark the second go-round for Leigh Diffey as NBC’s lead voice in the network’s Cup Series booth.
One of the highlights of 2024 was the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona, where he called Harrison Burton’s upset victory — Burton’s first in the Cup Series — with dad Jeff Burton, an NBC color commentator, sitting alongside in the booth.
Diffey returns to Daytona this weekend for the 2025 version of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 as his second season calling Cup racing continues.
While the Cup Series might still be rather new to Diffey, Daytona isn’t — he’s been lead commentator for numerous Rolex 24 sports-car races as well as the annual SuperCross in March. He’s also called motorcycle racing in his native Australia, Formula One and sports-car racing worldwide, and the IndyCar Series.
Leigh Diffey, left, with some of his NBC mates: Jeff Burton, Dale Jarrett and Steve Letarte.© Getty Images
Ahead of yet another Daytona visit, he answered a few questions from the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
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Leigh Diffey on his first NASCAR trips — and first Martinsville hot dog
DBNJ: You saw some of these NASCAR tracks for the first time last year. How was that experience?
Diffey: “I really enjoyed it. It was so much fun. Nobody has experienced everything. It’s why international travel is so important. I’ve been lucky to visit some of the most famous tracks around the world.
“To hit some of those key, legendary NASCAR tracks I haven’t been to, it was a real joy. Talladega — how enormous it is. The nuances of Darlington. It was a really fun year.”
DBNJ: Did you get to eat a Martinsville hot dog?
Diffey: “That’s a bit of a funny story. I went back to the TV compound and they had some in a box. But I think they’d been sitting there a bit too long. So my first bite, it was cold. I wanted to video it, so I had someone taping it for me, and I went through with it. It wasn’t all that great.
THE VOICE OF NASCAR: Leigh Diffey learns to accentuate the positives
“I think I said something about it on one of the broadcasts, and before I know it, there was Chip Wile from NASCAR, knocking on the door of our broadcast booth, and he had a handful of hot Martinsville hot dogs. So I got to try one and I’m glad I did it.”
Leigh Diffey on broadcasting NASCAR races at Daytona
DBNJ: A “plate race” at Daytona is a different animal than other tracks. Do you feel you have to pay more attention at a race like that?
Diffey: “The Cup Series has a variety of tracks, and each race has its own nuance. The superspeedways are beasts unto themselves. My first Daytona (NASCAR race), almost a year ago now, that was a thrill. For any of your readers who haven’t been, I would highly encourage them to go, because there’s nothing like seeing it in person.
“The dynamic of the group (in a draft) is spectacular. It’s like a living organism. It moves and it changes shape, all at nearly 200 miles per hour. It’s nothing short of spectacular.”
Leigh Diffey on Shane van Gisbergen and NASCAR road courses
DBNJ: Shane van Gisbergen is from New Zealand but was a racing champion in Australia, so he’s as close as you have to a fellow countryman in NASCAR. What do you make of his rookie Cup year and road-course dominance?
Diffey: “Amazing. Flat-out amazing. I’ll go back to something he has said many times. He has the utmost respect for the NASCAR racers.
“He says, ‘Hey look, if I grew up racing ovals, that’s what I’d be used to. But I grew up racing road courses, and that’s what I’m used to.’”
DBNJ: It’s hard to imagine a NASCAR racer making a similar move to all road courses.
Diffey: “Pretend there were never any road-course races in NASCAR, ever, then take one of those drivers who’d never been on a road course, ever, and put them on a road course. That’d be the SVG story in reverse.
“Kyle Larson said in the past few weeks, ‘We better hope Shane van Gisbergen doesn’t learn how to race on ovals. If he does, we’ll all be in trouble.’”
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Q&A with NBC’s lead NASCAR broadcaster, Leigh Diffey, approaching Coke Zero Sugar 400
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