Latest / Kenny Wallace Media / Leigh Diffey Discusses His Amazing Broadcasting Career | Lights Out With John Roberts

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Leigh Diffey Discusses His Amazing Broadcasting Career | Lights Out With John Roberts · Kenny Wallace Media

• 0:04
  And it is time to go Lights Out with the one and only Lee
• 0:09
  Diffie. Lee, it is so great to see you
• 0:11
  mate. It's been way too long.
• 0:12
  Just for a little history lesson for people.
• 0:14
  You were the first ever guest on Lights Out and since then a lot,
• 0:19
  a lot has happened. But what have you been up to?
• 0:21
  I know you're doing some world travelling.
• 0:24
  Yeah, always busy, Johnny. And thank you for asking me back
• 0:28
  on the show again too. And Congrats on all the episodes
• 0:30
  that that you've had between then and now.
• 0:34
  NBC Sports always keeps me busy. I've been doing IMSA sports
• 0:37
  cars, supercross, Monster Energy Supercross.
• 0:40
  I've been doing track and field all in the lead up to NB CS
• 0:45
  portion of the NASCAR Cup Series starting in Iowa on the first
• 0:48
  weekend of August. So even though I haven't been on
• 0:52
  on any NASCAR coverage since the championship finale last year,
• 0:56
  there'll be plenty coming up and I'm still being still being
• 0:58
  super busy. What do you think, Lee, so far
• 1:01
  about what's gone on this season?
• 1:03
  I know a lot of people have been really excited about the prime
• 1:06
  coverage. We've had more last lap passes
• 1:10
  it seems like a lot of rear ends and seats and a lot of eyes on
• 1:12
  the TVI. Think it's great.
• 1:15
  I think in addition to everything that you just
• 1:19
  described, I think there's so many storylines to pique our
• 1:22
  interests, whether you may be a first time viewer or a lifetime
• 1:26
  fan. I mean, Kyle Larson has shown,
• 1:30
  you know, even with his three wins this season that he is
• 1:32
  human. You know, he is fallible.
• 1:34
  He's not Superman. It has an all gone to plan.
• 1:37
  I think it's tremendous as far as the for the more experienced
• 1:42
  drivers, you know, in that category that Denny is back.
• 1:46
  Great to see him have multiple wins after, after some
• 1:49
  frustration in the past. I, I'm really intrigued by the
• 1:54
  movement, the offseason movement.
• 1:57
  You, you know, that saying of like how it started and you know
• 1:59
  how it's going. I like to, I like to say, you
• 2:02
  know, what changed and what's the latest, you know, and, and
• 2:06
  the latest example of that is Chase Briscoe.
• 2:09
  So he, he, you know, got the right of his life at JGR taking
• 2:12
  over the 19 from Martin Truex junior cruise chief James Small.
• 2:17
  And so that was a major change and change of scenery, change of
• 2:21
  venture manufacturer lots, lots to get used to.
• 2:24
  But how it's going is he's in the play offs and I know he was
• 2:27
  last year as well, but he he's there a lot earlier and and he's
• 2:31
  way up the order in comparison to where he was last year.
• 2:34
  And there's there's lots of other stories like that.
• 2:37
  So, Lee, we're in a we're in a business here where people that
• 2:41
  the eyes are on us and I think we all worry about our
• 2:43
  performance and want to do a good job.
• 2:45
  But let let me read a couple things really quick that people
• 2:49
  wrote after you took over the NBC play by play role, which is
• 2:52
  a really big role. First of all, Denny Hamlin said
• 2:56
  Lee Diffie was fantastic. Is there any way we could get
• 3:00
  him to do all 36 races? And Jeff Burton said after his
• 3:05
  son Harrison, 1 Daytona, said it was a very special night, but it
• 3:10
  was made more special by the victory call that Lee Diffie
• 3:14
  made. That's got to warm your heart,
• 3:16
  mate. When you look back at that, when
• 3:17
  guys that pay attention, that know what's going on in this
• 3:21
  thing are saying stuff like that about you.
• 3:23
  Yeah, that's super kind. That's that.
• 3:25
  That's especially from one of my team mates as well, you know,
• 3:30
  because we like to, we like to give each other plenty of grief,
• 3:32
  you know, off the air and have a have a good laugh and have fun.
• 3:35
  But on that, you know, to Jeff's point, that was really special
• 3:38
  for me. Just, I felt incredibly
• 3:39
  privileged to, to have been able to call that and to be sitting
• 3:42
  alongside, you know, have Jeff in between myself and Stevie and
• 3:45
  for Danny to say that super kind.
• 3:47
  And, you know, I tried like, whatever I'm working on.
• 3:51
  I, I tried really hard. I, I did my homework.
• 3:54
  I I was really excited about the opportunity.
• 3:57
  I put a lot of pressure on myself to, to perform as best
• 4:00
  that I could, knowing full well that I'm coming into, you know,
• 4:05
  coming into an arena that I hadn't spent a lot of time in.
• 4:08
  You know, it's not like I hadn't done NASCAR before, but it had
• 4:11
  been a long time since I had and I was not going to do.
• 4:14
  I've never done this many races in succession as far as Cup
• 4:17
  Series competition. So I put a lot of pressure on
• 4:20
  myself to to do a good job and, and I'm going to do that again
• 4:23
  this year. You know, I want to want to do
• 4:25
  even better. You know, I don't just just sit
• 4:27
  around and say I'm going to do the same because I don't want to
• 4:30
  do the same. I want to do even better.
• 4:31
  And there's still, I still have a laundry list of people that I,
• 4:35
  I have yet to meet. You know what race weekends are
• 4:38
  like, it's busy. We kind of get pulled in in a
• 4:40
  few different directions and you don't always get as much time in
• 4:43
  the garage area as you would like.
• 4:45
  I can't speak more highly for the folks in the garage area
• 4:50
  that were so welcoming to me. Very, very open.
• 4:55
  And I, I have to say that that kind of took me a little bit by
• 4:59
  surprise because I've been in so many different paddocks and
• 5:01
  garage areas in America and around the world and different,
• 5:05
  different categories of motorsport are more or sometimes
• 5:08
  less welcoming. But I have to say the Cup garage
• 5:11
  was incredibly welcoming and really open.
• 5:14
  I think I was fortunate that that a lot of the crew chiefs
• 5:16
  and some of the engineers, you know, knew me from my other
• 5:20
  passages of work, whether that be F1 or IndyCar or Supercross
• 5:23
  or whatever it may have been. So that kind of helped the
• 5:27
  conversation start a little bit easier.
• 5:30
  And I can't speak enough for my team mates either Steve Letard,
• 5:34
  Jeff Burt and Marty Snyder, everybody involved who just
• 5:37
  said, come on diff, we'll go and introduce you to John Roberts or
• 5:40
  who whoever it may have been. And they were super, super
• 5:44
  helpful. So for my landing pad, that was
• 5:47
  last year. I'm really excited to launch off
• 5:49
  that again this this August. What's the biggest difference
• 5:53
  for you diff you you've done so many like you mentioned, you've
• 5:56
  done so many different disciplines of racing and
• 5:59
  they're they are so different. Formula One, yes, the idea is to
• 6:02
  go fast and and these are superstars and are heroes behind
• 6:06
  the wheel. But was that the biggest
• 6:08
  difference? Was the the open arms in the
• 6:11
  garage area and on the paddock or, or, or was there a real
• 6:14
  difference, Lee, when it comes to calling these races?
• 6:17
  Yeah, for sure there's a, there's a difference in calling
• 6:19
  the races. Just the, the cadence of the
• 6:22
  race is different. The size of the field is
• 6:25
  different. Now, you know, I've called big,
• 6:26
  big fields before at, at, you know, the Rolex 24 at Daytona or
• 6:30
  even just this past weekend in at Watkins Glen for the, for the
• 6:34
  six hours, the, you know, the classic endurance sports car
• 6:37
  race. We had 55 cars, you know, not 40
• 6:40
  cars. Or sometimes, you know, we have
• 6:42
  37 in couple what it might be. So there's lots of, there's lots
• 6:46
  of differences, the length of the race, just the way the race
• 6:50
  plays out, strategy a little bit different.
• 6:52
  We're incredibly lucky to have, I'm incredibly lucky to have to
• 6:56
  sit beside Jeff and Steve and, and how they read the race from
• 6:59
  both the driver perspective and crew chief perspective.
• 7:01
  So there's lots of, lots of areas that are different to say,
• 7:07
  call a Moto GP race or to call a supercross race is different to
• 7:10
  calling a 1500 meter track and field event.
• 7:14
  There's, there's, there's crossovers, but you know,
• 7:16
  they're all, they're all unique in a certain way.
• 7:19
  And so to to learn to have 12 consecutive weeks like I did at
• 7:24
  the end of last year, to learn that cadence of a Cup race,
• 7:27
  whether it be on a 1 1/2 mile Oval or a superspeedway or or a
• 7:30
  road course, just to learn, get get familiar with the cadence of
• 7:34
  a Cup race again, was was really neat.
• 7:37
  So Diff fortunately, it did not hurt your career at all working
• 7:41
  next to me back in the old speed channel days.
• 7:44
  But I still remember the day and and I always will that they
• 7:48
  said, Hey, you're doing speed report this weekend with Lee
• 7:51
  Diffie. And I said, oh, great, You know,
• 7:52
  I know he's a pro. I know he's one of the best in
• 7:55
  the business. Now I get to do a show with him.
• 7:57
  But I think Lee back in those days of speed channel, we're
• 8:00
  lucky to be a part of something and it it certainly made me grow
• 8:05
  a lot. Nobody at speed really cared who
• 8:08
  got what credit for what. Everybody dove in and it was one
• 8:12
  for all and all for one. I miss those days.
• 8:15
  I miss working with you. But I think, you know, looking
• 8:18
  back on those days, that they were really pretty cool.
• 8:21
  Well, think about when we got to work together on.
• 8:25
  Well, there were there were there were multiple names,
• 8:26
  weren't they? It was speed news news report.
• 8:30
  You know, there were different names, but just think about the
• 8:34
  the the different people who did that, you and me or you and Adam
• 8:39
  Alexander, me and Adam Ralph Shaheen, Bob Vasha, Dave
• 8:43
  Despaine. I mean, I'm forgetting a ton of
• 8:46
  people, but you know, so many Chris Davoda, so many people
• 8:51
  used to host that show and and we all got to intermix and, you
• 8:54
  know, quite often, you know, I wasn't working on NASCAR when
• 8:57
  you were working on NASCAR. And the only time we'd get to it
• 9:00
  to, you know, chat and hang out would be the, you know, at our
• 9:04
  home, respective homes in Cornelius, NC or, or in the
• 9:08
  studio. So I think just the way that
• 9:10
  speed was it, it was like the honeypot and it brought all of
• 9:14
  us. It brought all of us together at
• 9:15
  the honeypot. And you know, sadly, in a way,
• 9:19
  there's nothing like that anymore.
• 9:20
  There, there, there just isn't that one focal point on the
• 9:24
  sport because all the different networks have their different
• 9:28
  properties. And you know, whereas speed was
• 9:30
  was somewhat of a nucleus. And, and I think for all of us
• 9:33
  who got to walk those hallways for however many years, I think
• 9:37
  we consider ourselves extremely fortunate.
• 9:40
  Oh, there's no question about that.
• 9:42
  And also, Diffie, because the statute of limitations might not
• 9:45
  be up, we won't get too much into what went on at the homes
• 9:49
  in Cornelius, NC. We'll skip that for now.
• 9:52
  But Lee, when we did part ways and and you went off to do
• 9:56
  different things, you did some of the coolest things.
• 9:58
  I loved watching you do the Olympics in in really
• 10:03
  interesting places and the stories that you told me about
• 10:07
  what you encountered covering those different events and just
• 10:10
  how exciting they were. Starting with the Olympics diff,
• 10:14
  I've heard people that have been around them.
• 10:15
  I unfortunately have never been around Olympics, but there's
• 10:18
  just such a there's such an interesting aura about that
• 10:22
  event, isn't there? Yeah.
• 10:24
  I mean, it's if you imagine, you know, like on Daytona 500 race
• 10:29
  day or Indy 500 race day and when you're, when you're
• 10:32
  entering the facility, when you're entering the track and
• 10:35
  you just get so hyped because you know there's going to be
• 10:38
  something big happened that day. You don't know what it is that's
• 10:42
  going to happen, but you know it's going to be significant.
• 10:44
  And at the Olympics, Well, certainly if I go back to the
• 10:48
  most recent one, which was Paris last summer, calling track and
• 10:51
  field star de France, we had 70,000, just under 70,000 people
• 10:57
  in there morning and night, every single day.
• 11:00
  And we would walk from our hotel to the to the venue and just
• 11:05
  that that air of anticipation, but also excitement and
• 11:08
  everybody was in a good mood. The weather was fantastic.
• 11:11
  And it just gets you super hyped up, super jacked, because you
• 11:14
  know that it's going to be really special.
• 11:16
  And then just down the road beneath the Eiffel Tower is the
• 11:19
  beach volleyball. And you know, there was just so
• 11:21
  many amazing venues and things like that, but you know that
• 11:26
  it's a big deal. And that happens only once every
• 11:28
  four years, whether that be winter or, or, or summer.
• 11:31
  And I, I feel super lucky to have done 6 Now I'd like to do a
• 11:36
  few more. And it, it, it's, it's very
• 11:40
  different to motorsport in, in what I call is other.
• 11:44
  Actually every, every time I've done the Olympics, it's always
• 11:46
  been racing based, whether that be bobsled, skeleton or luge or
• 11:50
  rowing or track and field, It's all racing based.
• 11:53
  And so I do find there are some crossovers with motorsport and
• 11:58
  motorsport has made me a better track and field commentator and
• 12:03
  doing track and field has actually there's been some
• 12:06
  crossover back to motorsport and I've really enjoyed that.
• 12:09
  I've really enjoyed the blend. So I've just come off as I
• 12:12
  mentioned IMSA and then the weekend after next I'm back
• 12:16
  doing track and field again. So I like, I like bouncing back
• 12:20
  and forth because after doing it for so many years now, I the,
• 12:23
  the similarities are more obvious and I think the
• 12:27
  crossover works and it's a lot of fun, Johnny.
• 12:31
  You know, diff, I think whatever you what, whatever job you have,
• 12:34
  I think people need to know that there's a work ethic involved.
• 12:37
  You can you can want to be a certain thing, but if you're
• 12:40
  going to be in a certain role, you're going to have to do the
• 12:44
  homework. You're going to have to put in
• 12:45
  the work to be successful at it. Yeah, anybody can say, hey, I'm
• 12:49
  doing ATV show. But if you're going to be
• 12:51
  successful at it, you you definitely have to do the
• 12:54
  legwork. And when you go into something
• 12:57
  diff that you're not particularly particularly versed
• 13:01
  in what, what's, what kind of approach do you take in terms of
• 13:04
  doing your homework? Because I think that's what a
• 13:06
  lot of people said in the industry.
• 13:09
  And, and again, it's I'm, I'm going to be biased because we're
• 13:11
  friends, but people diff that, you know, that we're not around.
• 13:14
  You said that it was so evident that you are prepared to take on
• 13:19
  the NASCAR role, but but that just doesn't happen
• 13:21
  accidentally. Yeah, it's just like, as I tell
• 13:27
  my boys, it's just homework, right?
• 13:28
  You got to like, they're, they're still in school.
• 13:30
  They're they're in high school. And I see times when they're
• 13:35
  under stress, when they've got to, you know, they've got exams
• 13:38
  coming up and periods of assessment.
• 13:40
  And so I, you know, I'd say to them, listen, that's me almost
• 13:43
  every weekend. You know, you have to, I have to
• 13:46
  watch tape, I have to do my reading, I have to take notes.
• 13:49
  I've got to absorb it all and and my examination that is in
• 13:53
  front of, you know, the nation every weekend pretty much.
• 13:57
  And so it's just, it's just lots of the same.
• 14:00
  When they were little, I just, I would say, Dad, why are you in
• 14:02
  the office again? And I said, well, I got to do my
• 14:04
  homework and I, I kind of, I do more, I think probably now and
• 14:08
  these these years in as a broadcast than I ever did when I
• 14:10
  was at university. So, you know, I love it like you
• 14:14
  do and you've got to, you've got to have that passion and
• 14:18
  enthusiasm. I would like to say that
• 14:20
  enthusiasm always wins out. So if it was covering something
• 14:23
  that I really didn't enjoy, I think it would feel somewhat
• 14:26
  laborious. But you know, no disguise.
• 14:29
  There's, there's always a lot to get through.
• 14:31
  So it's not always fun, but it's about a topic that I love.
• 14:34
  And so it's easier, it's easier to get through the homework when
• 14:38
  you when you really do love it at times when the season's
• 14:42
  really built busy and I'm switching and changing between
• 14:44
  multiple sports, that that's when it gets really hard.
• 14:47
  But you got to do it. And look, you and I have spent
• 14:49
  enough time in our life on airplanes instead of watching
• 14:52
  movies. I use, I use that to watch tape
• 14:55
  or, or do homework there as well as here in my Home Office.
• 14:58
  And yeah, preparation. I, I think I have a healthy
• 15:01
  fear, Johnny, of going on the air and not being prepared.
• 15:04
  And that's scares you. Ever have that dream?
• 15:07
  You ever? Dream.
• 15:08
  Yeah, I have a dream. I have a dream that I miss
• 15:10
  broadcasts. All the time.
• 15:13
  All the time. So Lee.
• 15:16
  It's not. It's not good.
• 15:18
  Yeah, it's just a terrible feeling.
• 15:20
  So I think we put that into reality.
• 15:22
  But Lee, I, I told you a story a while ago and I'll, I'll share
• 15:25
  it with everybody now because it, it was interesting that you
• 15:28
  had a very similar situation. I remember this very clearly.
• 15:33
  I, I knew my father was in, in, in trouble that he was at the,
• 15:36
  but most likely at the end of his life.
• 15:38
  And, but, but we still had a broadcast to do at California at
• 15:42
  the old Fontana Speedway. And I was in the elevator.
• 15:45
  And so my phone didn't work and as I was going up and it was
• 15:49
  buzzing, I was trying to get this phone call and it was from
• 15:51
  my sister. And I just had a feeling right
• 15:54
  away, you know, here I am in this elevator in California and
• 15:58
  you know, there was a time difference from the East Coast
• 16:01
  and I was walking out to do at the time it was called Sprint
• 16:05
  Cup, but Cup Series qualifying at the racetrack.
• 16:09
  And as normal, I was, you know, it's only about 1/2 hour away
• 16:13
  from the Showtime. And so I got out of the elevator
• 16:16
  and I got the phone to work again and, and yes, my father
• 16:21
  had passed away, but there's just not people standing around
• 16:25
  to jump in and take over the broadcast.
• 16:28
  So I had to do this, you know, 2 hour broadcast, put it aside for
• 16:33
  a second, compartmentalize it and get on there and act like a,
• 16:37
  try to act like a pro, or at least as much as I could and get
• 16:41
  through that. But if I recall right, if you
• 16:43
  had a very similar story, didn't you?
• 16:46
  I did, yeah, I used to. There was a period of about five
• 16:49
  years where I called golf predominantly back in Australia,
• 16:54
  even though I was living here in the States.
• 16:56
  I would go home, this is back in the Speed Channel days.
• 16:58
  I'd go back home to Australia for the summer to spend time
• 17:01
  with family and friends. And while I was down there, the
• 17:04
  network that I started with, Network 10, said, hey, we'd love
• 17:08
  you to, to, to try some golf. And so I'd quite often called
• 17:12
  the, the Aussie summer of golf, sometimes did some tournaments
• 17:14
  in Southeast Asia. And I was calling the Australian
• 17:17
  Open with Greg Norman. And it was just a highlight of,
• 17:21
  of my life to, you know, be alongside an Aussie icon like
• 17:25
  that. And I'd, I'd seen my dad before
• 17:28
  I left from Brisbane to Sydney. And my dad, we knew that my dad
• 17:32
  was, you know, terminally ill, but he was still up and about,
• 17:35
  He was still driving his car, but really, really went downhill
• 17:39
  very rapidly. And I said, dad, I've got to go
• 17:41
  and do a couple of golf tournaments.
• 17:42
  I'll see you in a couple of weeks.
• 17:44
  And he jokingly quipped. You know, I'm not sure what kind
• 17:47
  of shape I'll be in in a couple of weeks.
• 17:49
  And sure enough, his, his dry sense of humour was correct.
• 17:52
  You know, he didn't last those two weeks.
• 17:54
  And I, I was on the air with Greg Norman came off the air.
• 17:58
  It was back in the day when we weren't allowed to have our cell
• 18:00
  phones near the, near the broadcast and there was lots of
• 18:04
  messages and texts and stuff. And, and my dad had gone into
• 18:07
  like a medically induced coma and later that night he died.
• 18:10
  But that was on the Saturday, you know, of a four day, you
• 18:13
  know, golf weekend of the, of the golf tournament.
• 18:15
  I'd done 3 days of the Aussie Open and I'm working alongside
• 18:19
  Greg Norman and I and I said to my mum, you know, Dad's not
• 18:22
  going to know that if I come home back to Brisbane or not.
• 18:25
  And I said I'm going to do what he taught, taught us as kids to
• 18:28
  do and that is finish the job. And so I went on air the next
• 18:31
  day for six hours and nobody knew, nobody knew that that my
• 18:36
  dad had passed. And I just did that as a sign of
• 18:38
  strength to him, just to say, you know, like I'm, I'm going to
• 18:41
  carry through what you taught us, you know, to finish the job.
• 18:44
  And I wrote, we were about halfway through the broadcast
• 18:47
  and I wrote Greg Norman a little note and he was sitting right
• 18:50
  beside me. And there were two other
• 18:51
  commentators. 2 two more my, my golf mates were there and I
• 18:55
  said, Greg, you're not to know this, nor does anyone, but my
• 18:57
  dad passed away last night. And it's, it's the motivation of
• 19:01
  working alongside you that's getting me through.
• 19:03
  And he kind of his head whipped around and he had the most kind
• 19:06
  of shocked look on his face and he just put his arm around me
• 19:10
  and patted me on the back and didn't, didn't say anything
• 19:12
  because we're on the air and we just powered on, you know, so it
• 19:15
  was a, it's a bizarre moment in this, in this industry that we
• 19:20
  work in, Johnny, Like it forces you to do things that, that they
• 19:24
  don't teach you in, in school, You just use your best judgment
• 19:28
  and, and, and go on. And, and, but I think, I think
• 19:32
  that's, I think that that's a sign of strength to, to our
• 19:36
  parents that they, that they raised as well.
• 19:37
  Your dad did that with you and and mine for me that you know,
• 19:40
  you can, you can compartmentalize and you can be
• 19:43
  you can be mentally strong and and and you you can power on for
• 19:49
  one of the better, a better sign because you know, it's not easy.
• 19:53
  What you went through wasn't easy nor nor was it for me.
• 19:55
  And you know, we've been you and I've been around enough people,
• 19:59
  had enough friends and colleagues that that have had
• 20:01
  adversity while we're on the road.
• 20:02
  And and you have to you have to rely on your on the road family.
• 20:05
  And that's why you know, when when people from outside the
• 20:09
  industry, they always say like, oh, you guys seem like laugh and
• 20:12
  have a great time. It's like, yeah, because we're
• 20:14
  brothers and sisters on the road.
• 20:17
  Yeah, you know, it's funny, We had a boss at Speed Channel who
• 20:20
  probably for this discussion should go, should go nameless
• 20:24
  and we're having a discussion. Things weren't, it was one of
• 20:27
  the very few times when things weren't going very well.
• 20:30
  And one of our one of our colleagues said, hey, you know,
• 20:34
  we're going down a bad road right here because this isn't
• 20:37
  fun anymore. And said president of Speed
• 20:40
  Channel at the time said this isn't supposed to be fun, it's
• 20:43
  supposed to be a job. And so Diffie, I, I, I
• 20:46
  interjected at that time and I said, you know, wait a minute.
• 20:50
  What she's saying is not that we deserve fun jobs, is that our
• 20:56
  viewers are our customers. We're selling them a product.
• 21:00
  And if we don't have that camaraderie like so many of us
• 21:03
  did, they're going to feel it. Because it's like you said a
• 21:06
  minute ago, Lee, and you hit it right on the head that we study
• 21:10
  for this exam and the exam is, is taken in front of the public.
• 21:15
  If you're not having fun and I think fans, especially race
• 21:18
  fans, will expose you pretty quickly.
• 21:21
  Yeah, and, and look, it doesn't matter what network, what period
• 21:25
  of time, you know, we've all been told a similar message is
• 21:29
  that you want to make it feel like the person sitting at home
• 21:34
  is having a coffee with you, or it's a group of guys, they're
• 21:37
  having a beer with you or, or, or whomever it is or whatever
• 21:41
  the scenario is. You want to be inclusive and you
• 21:44
  want to make the viewer feel welcome.
• 21:46
  And if you're having fun, they can have a laugh along with you.
• 21:49
  You know, like I, I, I consume plenty of television.
• 21:52
  I love watching golf. I love, I've been watching the
• 21:54
  NBA final series and I've been watching, you know, I love sport
• 21:58
  and, and I love listening to other commentary teams.
• 22:00
  And if they're having a laugh, then that makes me feel better.
• 22:03
  And so I like to try and do that in in every team that I work on
• 22:06
  because, you know, we all make mistakes that shows we're human.
• 22:10
  And if you can have a laugh, that shows, shows we're human as
• 22:13
  well, right? It's, it's just a legitimate,
• 22:16
  honest, raw human emotion. Of course, we have to control it
• 22:20
  a little bit more because because we're in a public domain
• 22:22
  and we're on television, live television.
• 22:24
  But, you know, I don't even think there's anything wrong
• 22:26
  with, with showing who you are and, and, and the occasional,
• 22:30
  you know, laugh or, or emotion sadness.
• 22:34
  We've had to deal with tough issues with accidents and
• 22:38
  injuries and sometimes deaths and, and you know, it's not
• 22:41
  always, it's not always easy or nice, but if you can show the
• 22:43
  viewer that you are actually a real person, then I think that
• 22:46
  goes a long way or it goes an extra step.
• 22:48
  And we are, Diffie. We promise.
• 22:49
  I promise. I can vouch for you.
• 22:50
  We're real people, real people out here.
• 22:53
  Diff. I had the honor in in 2012 to
• 22:57
  fill in for the awesome Chris Myers and once for the Daytona
• 23:02
  500 in 2012. And after that I thought to
• 23:05
  myself, after that I said, man, I think now, and of course
• 23:09
  there's always things you want to do, but I was pretty as I was
• 23:13
  pretty adamant at that point that I had pretty much gotten to
• 23:17
  do then at that point about anything I had wanted to do in
• 23:22
  terms of broadcasting. I'd filled out the so-called
• 23:25
  bucket list. Is there anything left for you?
• 23:28
  If you could pick, if you could do something, you go out there
• 23:30
  and do something that you haven't done yet so far.
• 23:32
  Is there anything still on your list left?
• 23:35
  Sure, The Daytona 500. Hey, maybe we could work that
• 23:44
  out. I don't, I don't know how it's a
• 23:47
  little bit, it's a little bit, it's a little bit awkward with
• 23:50
  it being on, with it being on Fox.
• 23:52
  But who knows? Never say never.
• 23:53
  Maybe one day I'll get a chance to do it.
• 23:55
  But pretty much, you know, there are some, there are some
• 23:58
  endurance sports car races like the Spa 24 hour and the
• 24:02
  Nurburgring 24 Hour that I haven't done.
• 24:04
  And I don't, I don't ever think that I'll get a chance to do
• 24:06
  those. But I really have done every
• 24:08
  other major motor Motorsports race in the world.
• 24:11
  And Monaco Grand Prix, Le Mans, Indy 500, Bathurst 1000, Rolex
• 24:17
  24 at Daytona, Sebring 12 Hour, you know, goes on and on and on.
• 24:21
  And so Moto GP Supercross motocross, you know, two wheels
• 24:27
  and four. So I've been so lucky.
• 24:29
  I mean, Johnny, this, this, this, this dream just keeps
• 24:32
  going. You know, it's, I never even
• 24:34
  imagined that it would go this far.
• 24:35
  So I'm, I'm still living the dream.
• 24:38
  But if I can be, if I can be greedy in that dream, be before
• 24:43
  I, before I turn the mic off, I'd like to call at least one
• 24:47
  daytime of 500. That'd be pretty cool.
• 24:50
  So what do you think the way things are divided up these
• 24:53
  days? I know if you could, I think a
• 24:55
  lot of broadcasters, a lot of broadcast networks would like to
• 24:58
  have more races than they do right now.
• 25:01
  But in order to fill out this package in the longest season in
• 25:05
  professional sports, I think sometimes it might be a little
• 25:09
  refreshing for the fan to see some different faces and that
• 25:13
  that the way it's divided up right now gives them that
• 25:16
  opportunity. There's some consistency, but
• 25:18
  then some differing faces along the way.
• 25:21
  What do you think about the way it's divided up right now in
• 25:24
  terms of giving the fans what what they're after?
• 25:27
  And again, it's a demanding fan that's on the other side of the
• 25:29
  NASCAR TV. Yeah.
• 25:31
  Look, I think they're probably the easiest way is that it would
• 25:34
  be on one channel for the whole year.
• 25:35
  And that's the easiest for the consumer, right.
• 25:37
  But that's not reality and the way that it is.
• 25:40
  Now, I think to your point, there's there's variety, OK,
• 25:44
  some some is on regular television, others on streaming.
• 25:49
  It's it's chopped up kind of fairly evenly, right.
• 25:52
  But Fox has 12, we have 14 and then the other two partners in
• 25:58
  in prime and and Turner have 5 each.
• 26:01
  So across the four, it's an interesting split.
• 26:05
  I'm excited that we still have the most important part of the
• 26:07
  year, which is the, you know, the playoffs and, and crowning a
• 26:10
  champion. And, you know, I don't think you
• 26:14
  know you and I don't don't determine how.
• 26:16
  It's how it's divvied up and how it's paid for.
• 26:19
  It is what it is. We can't change that.
• 26:21
  And I just think probably the point that you made is the most
• 26:24
  relevant. There's a there's a bit of
• 26:25
  variety there and the fans get to see how different broadcast
• 26:29
  partners and different broadcasters present the same
• 26:33
  sport, which is kind of intriguing in a way.
• 26:36
  Do you guys get together, Lee? But before the season starts,
• 26:39
  are you going to be together for the first time when you get to
• 26:42
  the to the weekend and when you take over at Iowa?
• 26:46
  Well, we did today actually for, for many hours today, earlier
• 26:51
  today, we had a like an all in and you know what they're like
• 26:55
  everybody who's involved is, is, is, is on like what we're doing
• 26:58
  now. And there's, there's, there's
• 27:01
  tape elements that are played, there are graphic things that
• 27:05
  are presented. There's, you know, and all, even
• 27:09
  all along going back several months, we've had lead ups to
• 27:12
  today. It's not like today was the
• 27:14
  first day when we're only 5 weeks away.
• 27:17
  Certainly not. We've met many, many times
• 27:19
  throughout the year going all the way back to basically
• 27:21
  February. But that's what makes that what
• 27:25
  that's what makes our team really so good.
• 27:30
  Our production team is is really so good.
• 27:33
  Our producers and our directors and our management and they want
• 27:37
  to make sure that every everybody is prepared.
• 27:41
  Look, I think I think one thing that that a lot of people don't
• 27:44
  know is that, you know, when you peel back the skin of the prime
• 27:46
  coverage, they were they were the majority of NBC people.
• 27:50
  Our production team produced that for prime.
• 27:53
  So, you know, the majority of our production team is already
• 27:58
  in Top Gear. Now they won't be involved on
• 28:02
  the Turner side of things. But when we get back going at
• 28:06
  Iowa, they're they're already, they're already at speed and
• 28:10
  ready to go. So we had a great meeting today.
• 28:14
  Everybody's super excited. And it's, it's, it's a, it's a
• 28:20
  smaller runway to the playoffs because you remember when NBC
• 28:23
  had 20 races, so there were 10 and 10, so 10 regular season.
• 28:29
  And then the 10 playoffs, we have 4 now.
• 28:31
  So there are 4, the, the runway's a lot shorter before we
• 28:34
  get into playoffs mode. So I'm excited about that.
• 28:38
  You know, for me, I get to do 2 more races than I did last year
• 28:42
  because I did 12 last year. I get to do 14 this year.
• 28:45
  So I, I, I'm really looking forward to it and having lived
• 28:50
  it and breathed it once, now knowing what the, what, what
• 28:55
  that feeling and that pressure cooker of the playoffs is when
• 28:58
  you get through to the, you know, from the round of 16 to
• 29:01
  the round of 12 to the round of eight, like then to the
• 29:03
  championship for having seen it, lived it, worked it, I'm even
• 29:07
  hungrier again for, for this year because that, that was
• 29:09
  pretty cool. But there were lots of black
• 29:11
  holes for me last year. You know, I didn't know what to
• 29:13
  expect. I didn't know, you know, the,
• 29:16
  the cadence or the pace of, of what the playoffs like.
• 29:19
  Now I do. So I'm even more excited for
• 29:20
  this year. So I've known you for many
• 29:23
  years, Lee, so I'd say there is no surprise to me, but I do have
• 29:27
  to say congratulations on a great first season and just
• 29:30
  being so well received by the fans and the community.
• 29:34
  I wouldn't trade the time we had together for anything in the
• 29:38
  world, whether it be on the air or off the air.
• 29:40
  I miss you, man. I can't wait to see you.
• 29:42
  I'm going to come find you at a racetrack sometime soon.
• 29:45
  But thank you so much for going lights out with us again.
• 29:48
  Again, you were the first guy, the 1st guest on this show.
• 29:52
  Good stuff that that time, time flies.
• 29:56
  But thanks Johnny, it's always great chatting.
• 29:58
  I don't know where or when we'll cross paths, but it'll happen
• 30:01
  mate. Yes, Sir.
• 30:02
  All right. Thanks, Lee.