“You Guys See Races Different”: How the Likes of Dale Earnhardt Jr. & Jeff Burton Helped Former NBC Play-By-Play Rick Allen Master His Craft
It’s still hard to call him “former NBC Sports NASCAR play-by-play announcer Rick Allen.” After a decade of calling NASCAR Trucks and ARCA races for both FOX Sports and the former Speed Channel (now FS1), Nebraska native Rick Allen Schweiger became NBC’s lead play-by-play announcer for both the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series in 2015.
But Allen’s tenure at NBC abruptly ended in 2024 when Allen was replaced by Leigh Diffey on Cup broadcasts and then lost his Xfinity Series gig when that series moved its broadcasts to the CW network for 2025.
Allen is a versatile broadcaster who is not just a motorsport-only voice. He’s done virtually all forms of stick-and-ball sports and, while he’s currently looking for new opportunities, his time at NBC will be fondly remembered by many.
As much as Allen is missed, he also misses being around fellow broadcasters who became close friends, confidants, and teachers of sorts to him, including Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Burton, and Steve Letarte.
While Allen was telling viewers at home what they were watching, it would be former drivers or crew chiefs turned analysts like Junior, Burton, and Letarte who would add expert explanation to complement Allen’s calling of a race.
Allen Taught Viewers, But Also Learned From His Friends In the Booth
“When you’re calling a race,” he said on Wednesday’s edition of The Dale Jr. Download, “there’s so many things happening because you have so many players on different strategies, different ideas, different agendas – and to be able to tell why somebody who you didn’t talk about most of the race finished fifth, you need to be able to tell that.
“That’s one of the things Benny (late NASCAR Hall of Famer and celebrated NASCAR TV analyst Benny Parsons) would be critical about, ‘Did you guys tell why this guy finished where he did, or why this guy won the race, or why this guy was back in a wreck,’ those types of things.
“That was the fun part, and that’s what I loved from (Earnhardt), (Jeff) Burton, (Steve) Letarte, everybody I’ve worked with. You guys see races different than a spectator would. I came from stick-and-ball sports, and I didn’t see things like when I was around Darrell Waltrip.
“He would see things that blew my mind. He would see brake dust on wheels and would say (a driver) had problems with his front brakes. He’d say all these things, and I would say, ‘How did you know that, how did you see those things?’ It made me look at things differently, look for things I normally wouldn’t look for because I was a casual viewer watching a race.
“And now, all of a sudden, I learned there’s a lot more that goes into why a guy’s loose or tight or whatever. And you could see different things, and I would learn that from you guys because you’re watching those things, and you’d point it out.
“As a viewer at home, we love that. That’s what I took on as my role is I’m a viewer watching with everybody else and learning from you guys.”
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