Denny Hamlin reacts to Leigh Diffey's 'fantastic' call of Daytona finish

Leigh Diffey’s debut as the full-time play-by-play voice of the NASCAR Cup Series on NBC this past Saturday received widespread praise from the racing community.

Diffey’s call of the final lap of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona, in which Harrison Burton outlasted Kyle Busch to win his first career Cup Series race, will be remembered as one of the great calls in the history of the sport.

Denny Hamlin especially loved the call, calling Diffey’s addition to the NBC booth “fantastic” during Sunday’s “Actions Detrimental” podcast. If Hamlin had it his way, Diffey would be on the call for all 36 races on the calendar.

HARRISON BURTON WINS AT DAYTONA! #NASCAR | NBC and Peacock pic.twitter.com/cEEClLuHi9

— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) August 25, 2024

“Fantastic, oh my gosh,” Hamlin said. “Can we sign him up for 36-of-36 races? Can we just make that executive decision at NBC or NASCAR, just say, ‘Non-exclusive. Let him do all the races.’ He is just fantastic, he knows how to match the moment, he brings — I don’t know what it is, but the great ones know how to match the moment to their voice. They change their tone, they change the speed at which they’re calling a race. That’s why he was tabbed to do the 100 meters in the Olympics. Like because that’s what he does and what he’s really, really good at.

“He’s just a fantastic addition.”

Leigh Diffey praised for performance in NBC booth

As Harrison Burton crossed the start-finish line as the winner, his dad, Jeff Burton, let out a fist bump in the booth. It was a great moment in itself, made even more special by Diffey’s words in that moment.

“Jeff, your little boy has done it!” Diffey passionately said. “Harrison Burton wins at Daytona and does what his uncle [Ward Burton] and dad did.”

Hamlin said that what made the call so special was that Burton and Steve Letarte didn’t talk over Diffey. They let the long-time motorsports announcer go to work, and he delivered an all-timer.

“You know what was great about it? They let him have it, they let him have the moment,” Hamlin said. “Steve [Letarte] and Jeff [Burton] — they didn’t get in it. They knew that this guy is the play-by-play, let him call it and then we will react to what we just saw after the checkered flag.

“That’s a little bit of chaos I feel like you have at FOX, is everyone’s trying to call the last lap and it’s just a little messy sometimes. But man, they nailed it. They nailed the finish. It had me standing up on my chair on the last lap and I didn’t have a dog in the Harrison Burton-Kyle Busch fight.”