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With 16 races for the 2024 Cup Series season done and dusted, NBC Sports is gearing up to broadcast the second half of the season, which includes 20 remaining races. However, fans will witness a familiar face out of the booth and new faces joining the broadcast crew.
Earlier this year, NASCAR's Most Popular, Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced that he would not return to the NBC booth and would cover the races with the new broadcasting partners, Amazon and TNT Sports, for the 2025 season.
However, the booth will feature a pre-2018 crew before Dale Jr. joined. This includes Rick Allen, Jeff Burton, and Steve Letarte with some new additions, for some select races in the next half of the 2024 season.
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Jimmie Johnson and Leigh Diffey will be on the broadcast team for NASCAR Cup Series 2024
Leigh Diffey
A renowned journalist, Adam Stern reported that Leigh Diffey is set to replace NBC's lead announcer and will call the playoff races after the Summer Olympic break. Diffey would replace the lap-by-lap commentator, Rick Allen. However, Allen would continue to cover the remaining Xfinity Series season.
In a post on X, Sports Business Journal's Stern said:
"@NBCSports is planning a switch to its @NASCAR booth for part of the 2024 season, with @LeighDiffey to take over as lead announcer for Cup races in the weeks after the @Olympics break, per sources."
Leigh Diffey broadcasted for NBC first in 2013 for Formula 1 and IndyCar. He made his debut in NASCAR as a play-by-play announcer for the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2015.
Diffey then made his debut in the Cup Series race alongside Dale Jarret for a playoff race in 2015. In 2017, he became the lead announcer for NASCAR on NBC, filling in for the current lead announcer, Rick Allen.
Jimmie Johnson
After Dale Jr. broke the news of his move to the new streaming partners in 2025, NBC announced that another NASCAR Hall of Famer, Jimmie Johnson, is set to join NBC's broadcast crew for select races in the remaining 2024 season. The part-time Cup Series driver for his team Legacy Motor Club, Johnson, will be an analyst and cover at least three races in the Cup Series.
According to a post by NBC Sports, the seven-time Cup Series champion would cover the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona on August 24, the Yellawood 500 at Talladega on October 6, and the championship race at Phoneix Raceway on November 10.
"Indy 500. Daytona. Talladega. Phoenix. Jimmie Johnson will join the NBC broadcast crew for The Greatest Spectacle in Racing and select NASCAR events."
Meanwhile, the former NBC broadcaster Dale Earnhardt Jr. will return to the booth for the new broadcasting arrangement that NASCAR revealed. The $7.7 billion seven-year media rights deal will run from 2025 to 2031, including Amazon and TNT Sports and the current broadcasting partners, FOX Sports and NBC Sports.
From the 2025 season, the 36 races will be split between the four streaming partners. FOX will stream the first 12 NASCAR Cup Series races, followed by Amazon and TNT with five races each. In the end, NBC will take over the broadcast with the remaining season.
