The Announcers Thread

HoneyBadger said:
It will be interesting what Cup ratings are.

The 500 was up against the Olympics (which has drawn over 20 million viewers every single day of competition) and the NBA All Star Game on NBC.
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On X Austin Konenski (sp) posted that the 500 had a hair over 5 million viewers. Apparently Nielsen has not announced its ratings yet so Austin jumped the gun & apologized.
 
I love the placement of CW's leaderboard, but they need to bring it down to 16-20 names so they can have a bigger/wider font. It's hard to see, especially if your local CW station is SD (which is what ours is on DIRECTV). I had the LA feed at home and it was better, but still, that font is way too compressed.

Coverage is otherwise fine.
 
Breaking news: Fox added pit stop times as they happened yesterday. They seem to be trying to present a more professional presentation.
 


A decline for this week for the Cup race. Not surprised nor disappointed though. The Olympic Closing Ceremonies were happening opposite on NBC just hours removed from one of the biggest moments in the history of American sports.



IF there's a WNBA season, that's a big if, NASCAR and Versant (USA) need to use the hell out of "Spicy Sophie" for cross promotion.

Sophie Cunningham is one of the most popular players, is a pretty avid NASCAR fan from everything I've seen. And she's HOT! 🔥

MRM said:
Breaking news: Fox added pit stop times as they happened yesterday. They seem to be trying to present a more professional presentation.
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Megan Engelhart of FOX said before the Cup race that FOX is going exclusively to side-by-side coverage for Cup races here on out.
 
What's pretty useless is when they do side by side commercials during a caution. What's the point? Put on your full screen commercials during cautions and have all green flag commercials be side by side.
 
Daytripper said:
What's pretty useless is when they do side by side commercials during a caution. What's the point? Put on your full screen commercials during cautions and have all green flag commercials be side by side.
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I -think- the full-screen breaks are pre-scheduled so the affiliates will know when they can run their local ads. If that's the case, those breaks will happen at the scheduled times regardless of track activity or status.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
I -think- the full-screen breaks are pre-scheduled so the affiliates will know when they can run their local ads. If that's the case, those breaks will happen at the scheduled times regardless of track activity or status.
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Yes, I would agree that is what happens, but if they wanted to they could change that and they should.
 
Daytripper said:
Yes, I would agree that is what happens, but if they wanted to they could change that and they should.
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I'm pretty sure the affiliates pay the networks, not the other way around. They call the shots. Having the full breaks scheduled probably allows the affiliates to automate when the ads run, instead of having to pay staff to respond to on-the-fly breaks.

I'm not disagreeing with you that it would be great, just pointing out why it isn't likely to happen. But I'm old; I'm still happy I don't have to wait two weeks for an edited race to be shown on 'Wide World of Sports'.
 
Daytripper said:
What's pretty useless is when they do side by side commercials during a caution. What's the point? Put on your full screen commercials during cautions and have all green flag commercials be side by side.
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Are you referring to cautions that happen before or during the commercial? :D
 
Charlie Spencer said:
I -think- the full-screen breaks are pre-scheduled so the affiliates will know when they can run their local ads. If that's the case, those breaks will happen at the scheduled times regardless of track activity or status.
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The affiliate breaks are indeed pre designated into select time blocks, with a signal given to locals that notifies the break is upcoming.

Advertising is sold in packages. There are premium slots for those interruptive breaks that come near the end of stages and the race.
 
No matter the sport, ratings are better on network TV. Cable is dwindling and it's debatable the ratings on streaming. They can fudge the numbers.
 
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HoneyBadger said:
Also, Adam Alexander with an all-time great last lap call there.
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I think Adam Alexander is the best announcer calling NASCAR races right now. In my opinion, he beats Diffey, Joy and would at least tie with Bestwick if he were calling races right now.

Someone racing now who I think is going to be quite good for commentary in the booth some day will be Ross Chastain. I've heard him do several of the O'Reilly races and was impressed by him there.
LewTheShoe said:
This opinion-stated-as-fact reminds me of the old saying... "One man's trash is another man's treasure."

My opinion is that Leigh Diffey is absolute trash as a racing play-by-play announcer. Any kind, and every kind of race... my opinion is the same. I've seen him butcher the call in Nascar, Indycar, IMSA, Supercross and Motocross, and each is worse than the one before. Manufacturing fake excitement when none is warranted. Extreme diarrhea of the mouth... the guy just won't shut up. He has this annoying speaking style of squeezing two or three of his extraneous cue card background facts into the same sentences he uses to call the action. The result is truly cringe-worthy IMO.

Diffey has a reasonable base of racing knowledge, and that is a credit to the guy, but he's not an insider to any of the series he calls. Thus, he misses the nuances that inform Mike Joy's work. He tries to make up for that by spouting three times as many words... again missing the nuance that Mike Joy's brevity is an asset. That's my opinion and it's reasonably well educated on the topic. I'll thank you to label your opinions as such every now and again.
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I use to think that Diffey was one of the best at calling any kind of race. I especially liked him with Steve Matchett and David Hobbs on F1 (Matchett was an absolute trip doing commentary). Lately, Diffey has been just annoying me however.
 
Tumbleweed said:
I use to think that Diffey was one of the best at calling any kind of race. I especially liked him with Steve Matchett and David Hobbs on F1 (Matchett was an absolute trip doing commentary). Lately, Diffey has been just annoying me however
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Always like Diffey and still do. He impresses me with his knowledge of every sport he announces.
 
StandOnIt said:
Mike Joy has forgotten more knowledge about racing than Diffey will ever know. It's amazing how some equate an accent with intelligence or screaming hysterically with excitement. See Pavlov's dog.
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I'm not questioning Mike Joy's racing IQ, but I do think its getting to be the time he should start looking to transition out.

Who should replace him? Boy I'd really have to think about that one.
 
wi_racefan said:
I'm not questioning Mike Joy's racing IQ, but I do think its getting to be the time he should start looking to transition out.

Who should replace him? Boy I'd really have to think about that one.
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That is nothing more than an opinion. One in which you have no say in. What I posted was a fact.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Documentation, please.
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now go find me some documentation of Diffy please smart ass.

rick434343.substack.com

Mike Joy: The Voice of NASCAR and a Hands-On Historian of the Track

Mike Joy isn’t just the steady baritone calling the chaos of a NASCAR Cup Series restart—he’s a living archive of American motorsport, blending encyclopedic knowledge with the grit of a driver who’s turned wrenches and wheels himself.
rick434343.substack.com rick434343.substack.com

Auction Block Historian and NASCAR’s Memory Keeper​

Joy’s historical touch extends to the gavel. Since the early 2010s, he’s been the expert analyst for A&E’s History Channel and FYI coverage of collector car auctions—Barrett-Jackson, Mecum, Worldwide—dissecting provenance like a detective. “He’s the ultimate motorsports broadcast professional... from NASCAR to Barrett-Jackson classic car auctions,” a fan tweeted in February 2025. In a 2025 Classic Auto Mall Show episode, he unpacked 50 years of broadcasting, touching IROC revivals and vintage grids.

The Racer Beneath the Microphone​

What elevates Joy beyond the booth? He drives. An avid SCCA club racer since the 1970s, he’s notched wins at Lime Rock Park, Watkins Glen, Pocono, and New Hampshire in vintage sports cars. He’s tested NASCAR stock cars and trucks, competed professionally in the 1993 24 Hours of Daytona, and owns a slice of New England Racing Fuel (Sunoco’s regional distributor). His garage? A time capsule: Datsun 510s prepped for vintage grids, a collection blending race-bred beasts and daily drivers. “Cars have been my business for more than a half-century,” he told Autoweek in 2024, from super modifieds to the FOX booth.

Joy’s pinnacle in historical racing? The Historic Trans-Am Series—a revival of the 1966–1972 pony-car wars that pitted Mustangs against Camaros in fender-banging fury. He won a feature there in 2013 at Lime Rock, then finished P2 in 2022—edged by his son, Scott. Fast-forward to 2025: At Sonoma Raceway’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 weekend (July 11–13), Joy swapped headset for helmet, piloting a restored 1970 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 (originally raced by Jerry Thompson for Owens Corning). Teamed with Scott under “Not So Sharp Racing,” they shared the historic grid with modern NASCAR support races—classic fiberglass thunder echoing against Cup Series howls. “Ready for a fun ‘Car Week’ at Laguna Seca—vintage sports car racing with Historic Trans Am,” Joy tweeted in August 2025, hyping the Monterey Historics.

Even at Lime Rock’s 42nd Vintage Festival (September 2024), Joy’s #48 Datsun battled brake woes but hit the track, thanking legends like Skip Barber and Dorsey Schroeder. “Half-fast Historic Trans Am racer,” he quips in his X bio (@mikejoy500), a nod to his self-deprecating speed. Fans adore it: One called him a “National Treasure” after spotting him on FS1 at Lime Rock in June 2025, dreaming of shotgun rides with racing yarns.
 
I guess those that don't like Diffey because of his accent weren't around and didn't watch NASCAR when David Hobbs was the color man for CBS.
 
MRM said:
I guess those that don't like Diffey because of his accent weren't around and didn't watch NASCAR when David Hobbs was the color man for CBS.
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I never had a problem understanding David Hobbs. He had a wonderful sense of humor. He didn't scream.
 
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