Above all else, Rick Allen just wants the NASCAR community at large to know that it was not his decision to leave the broadcast booth in the middle of the season and that the longtime Cup and Truck Series play-by-play voice still wants to be part of the sport.
Speaking to Dale Earnhardt Jr. on his Dale Jr Download podcast, Allen explained his history in broadcasting, starting with a career at the University of Nebraska. Allen, who was actually born ‘Rick Allen Schwieger’ detailed how Darrell Waltrip actually first teased him about there being ‘no Schwiegers in NASCAR’ and how he came up with his worked name.
He also detailed how he was a multi-sport athlete before even thinking about turning to broadcasting. He has a high school teacher who told him after a public speaking class exercise that said ‘you are going to be in radio.’
As for his NASCAR on NBC departure, which occurred right before the playoffs last season, Allen explained that he found in January and simply wasn’t allowed to tell anyone. Leigh Diffey took over as the primary play-by-play voice for NBC starting with the 2025 playoffs.
Allen said he was called into a lunch meeting and blindsided by the decision.
“Because a couple months earlier, you (Earnhardt) were in the bus with me when we were told by an executive that we were going to have long-term deals,” Allen said. “And (that) we were going to continue — that our team was going to stay together.
“And so it was very different from what I had been told earlier, that it changed dramatically. It was scary and it was weird.”
As Allen pointed out, then NBC didn’t renew Earnhardt’s contract either.
He was it ‘was a crushing blow’ because he, Earnhardt, Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte had become really close friends, a sentiment clearly shared by the former too.
“At the time, when the news hit me, it was kind of like, what am I going to do now if I don’t get to hang out with my friends,” Allen said. “It was like, ‘do my friends go away’ and that was the crushing blow.”
Earnhardt took the time that week, at the NASCAR Hall of Fame ceremony to reassure Allen of the importance of their friendship, something Allen really appreciated.
NBC told Allen not to make the news public and even after word got out anyway, Allen chose to stay quiet about it. Earnhardt said he didn’t understand that decision because it almost made it seem like Allen was okay with the decision and that he was ready to move on.
He was not.
Allen also didn’t like the public perception that he had done something wrong and said ‘it hit him like a ton of bricks’ that while at a golfing event with Michael Jordan that the sporting legend asked ‘what did you do wrong,’ because ‘you are the voice of NASCAR’ and ‘why aren’t you calling NASCAR races.’
“And I sat there and I was like, ‘oh my god,’ so not only does Jordan know who I am,” Allen says with a laugh, “Which I was like, ‘wow, okay.’ But he thought I had done something wrong and that’s why they put Diffey in.
“I was like, crushed because I thought, here’s the most famous athlete on the planet, I think one of the greatest athletes ever and knows me but is like, ‘what did you do?’
So Allen wishes in hindsight that he had been more vocal about making it clear this was not his decision. He wants to be back in NASCAR and calling races.
He also was in the running for the Prime Video and Turner Sports roles but they ultimately chose Adam Alexander. Allen had never had an agent before until partway through this process.
“I started off with a friend that was going to kind of help and because I didn’t think I was going to need an agent, and I probably had too high of an opinion of myself, because I thought I’ve been announcing at the highest level of NASCAR for 10 years and someone is going to pick me up,” Allen said. “And after the first couple of communications with people where it wasn’t a ‘yeah, we want to talk to you,’ I thought this might not happen. There is a possibility that I might not be in NASCAR.”
That’s when he accepted an agent’s inquiry but then it was too late and all the jobs got picked up.
Allen has accepted, that at least for now, he is going to have to look at other sports, which he has experience in, but having done NASCAR for the past 20 years, it was hard to accept.
He and Earnhardt half joked about Allen calling CARS Tour races, a series that the latter owns, but the former says he wouldn’t want to take an opportunity away from a younger race caller either.
For now, Allen owns his own woodworking and house building company and has just been working on those projects the past calendar year.
