John Kernan criticizes Leigh Diffey’s accent: ‘Guess I’m xenophobic’

Leigh Diffey is a polarizing announcer, especially in NASCAR circles.

But just like any announcer we write about at Awful Announcing, everyone has their personal preference. Some people couldn’t stand Vin Scully, while others worship the ground that Joe Buck walks on. Everyone takes their tea differently.

Diffey, for his part, knows his accent can be a sticking point. The Australian-American once said he lost out on a potential NASCAR job with TNT because of it, “Ultimately, I didn’t get the job, because the big, big boss at Turner didn’t prefer to have an accent calling the Cup races.”

Unfortunately, that mindset didn’t stop with the execs at Turner. In John Kernan’s case, it went a step further. The longtime ESPN NASCAR host and former pit reporter, who was part of the network’s original coverage through the ’90s and early 2000s, announced he was “done with the sport” after hearing Diffey call the Iowa Corn 350.

Not because of the broadcast itself. Because of Diffey’s accent.

I think I’m done with NASCAR. After further review stage racing SUCKS! And I’m sure Leigh Diffey is a great guy but, if I want to hear that accent, I’ll watch Formula 1. Sorry, guess I’m xenophobic.

— John Kernan (@John_KernanIND) August 3, 2025

There’s a difference between not liking an announcer and not liking them because of where they’re from. But Kernan didn’t bother with nuance. He just came right out and called himself xenophobic on a public forum, as if owning that label somehow made it more reasonable.

It’s a baffling stance, especially when you consider that Diffey has been a steady presence in American motorsports broadcasting for more than a decade. He’s been calling NASCAR races for NBC since 2015 and was already well-regarded for his work on Formula 1 and IndyCar long before that. If his accent was really such a dealbreaker, why wait until now to say something? This is the ninth season of stage racing, and now it’s a problem?

Maybe it’s because Diffey’s profile is growing. Or maybe it’s because Kernan hasn’t been on pit road for a NASCAR race in nearly 25 years. Whatever the case, it says more about Kernan’s discomfort with change than it does about Diffey’s ability to call a race.

And for what it’s worth, this outrage over an accent doesn’t even hold up historically. The race that helped put NASCAR on the national map — the 1979 Daytona 500 — had David Hobbs, a British broadcaster, in the booth. So if having a non-American voice is some unforgivable sin, then NASCAR’s most iconic broadcast would’ve never happened.

NASCAR’s never had a problem with voices like Diffey’s. So if an accent is where Kernan draws the line, he was never really listening in the first place. He just wanted to blame someone else for a sport that left him behind.