Former ESPN NASCAR host and pit reporter rips Leigh Diffey: ‘Guess I’m xenophobic’

John Kernan, former ESPNNASCAR host and pit reporter, is done with the stock car racing series. While watching Sunday’s Cup Series race at Iowa Speedway, Kernan assailed against stage racing before calling out NBC announcer Leigh Diffey.

Specifically, Kernan took issue with Diffey’s accent. “Sorry, guess I’m xenophobic,” Kernan wrote on social media.

“I think I’m done with NASCAR,” Kernan tweeted. “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.”

Diffey, 54, is a native of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. While he has extensive experience in American motorsports, serving as NBC‘s lead commentator for the IndyCar Series for more than a decade, this is just his second full-time season on the call for Cup races. He previously filled in for Rick Allen for a pair of races in 2017 before replacing Allen last season. Diffey is enthusiastic in the booth, which has endeared him to NASCAR fans watching from home.

Leigh Diffey reveals why he didn’t land TNT announcing gig 15 years ago

During an appearance on the “Off Track with Hinch and Rossi” podcast last year, Diffey revealed that he auditioned to be the lead play-by-play man for TNT in 2010. Diffey didn’t get the job. He said that he found at years later that the “big boss at Turner didn’t prefer to have an accent calling the Cup races.”

“I had a chance to audition for a NASCAR play-by-play job on Turner,” Diffey said, via Awful Announcing. “So, I went and did that audition. … It was myself, Adam Alexander and Rick Allen. Wally Dallenbach was there, Kyle Petty was there, Larry McReynolds was there — it was a full-on audition. We had to call the Homestead championship finale from the year before.

“… It was way more than I had ever imagined or given it credit for. I thought, ‘I’m just going to come in do like five minutes of commentary. They had their full production team there. …They made me call about 150 laps. … I learned many years later, that um… how do I say this politely? I think that I did get the job, but 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.”

Many within the NASCAR community have come to the defense of Diffey in response to Kernan’s comments. Jeff Gluck of The Athletic wrote the following on X:

“It’s a privilege to have someone as incredible at their job as Leigh Diffey, a world-class sports announcer, calling NASCAR races. Extremely disappointing to see comments like this about his accent,” Gluck tweeted. “He is one of the greats and makes the races better.”