“Can we sign him up for 36 of 36 races?”: Denny Hamlin in awe of Leigh Diffey’s booth work at Daytona

Denny Hamlin has recently expressed his appreciation of NASCAR commentator Leigh Diffey, following an eventful Cup race at Daytona. Diffey is a renowned broadcaster for NBC Sports and is known for his work in the Olympic Games, INDYCAR, and IMSA to name a few.

Hamlin pilots the #11 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, competing full-time in the Cup Series. The Virginia native started the Coke Zero Sugar 400 in P19, however, was involved in a multi-car wreck in Stage 2 of the race, which led to a P38 finish. This allowed Hamlin to witness all the drama that ensued at Daytona via an NBC broadcast, which Leigh Diffey was commentating on.

In a recent episode of the "Actions Detrimental" podcast, Denny Hamlin was asked for his thoughts on Diffey's inspiring work in the commentary box at Daytona. Responding to this, Hamlin said:

“Fantastic! Oh my gosh, can we sign him up for 36 of 36 races? Can we just make that executive decision at NBC or NASCAR? Just say, ‘Hey, non-exclusive — let him do all the races’," Denny Hamlin said [at 55:24]

“He’s just fantastic. He knows how to match the moment. I don’t know what it is. The great ones know how to match the moment with their voice. They change their tone. They change the speed in which they’re calling a race, right? That’s why he was tabbed to do the 100 meters in the Olympics, right? Because that’s what he does and what he’s really, really good at," Hamlin added.

Leigh Diffey took over as a commentator in the Cup Series replacing Rick Allen, who had been broadcasting for both Cup and Xfinity series. However, with Diffey's arrival, Allen will now work full-time on the Xfinity Series broadcast.

Ahead of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona, Denny Hamlin was penalized by NASCAR for a blunder made by the Toyota Racing Development(TRD) team, for making changes to his race-winning engine from Bristol. This penalty has dropped Hamlin down to P8 in the Cup Series standings table.

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"Just a huge swing for us" - Denny Hamlin opens up on implications of recent penalty by NASCAR

Denny Hamlin was issued an L-2 level penalty after TRD disassembled and reassembled his race-winning engine from Bristol. Moreover, TRD has taken full responsibility for their actions and has said that JGR was unaware of the incident.

The #11 team was docked 75 regular season points and 10 playoff points. Moreover, Denny Hamlin's crew chief Chris Gabeheart was sanctioned a $100,000 fine. In the aforementioned episode of the Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin reflected on this penalty and said,

"You can look at it and say, 'It's just a 10 point penalty.' But it isn't. Look where I'm at now. I'm 8th in points. I was battling for the regular season championship which would've paid 15 points and now the most I'm probably going to get is 3. Just a huge swing for us. It's going to be upwards of 16, maybe 17 points, per round, that we're going to miss out on and we know that these cutlines come down to the number, always does," Hamlin said during the same podcast [9:20]

Furthermore, Hamlin talks about not filing an appeal for this penalty, and setting his mind on recovering his losses in the playoffs.