Richard Allen Schwieger, known professionally as Rick Allen (born June 17, 1969), is an American television personality, play-by-play announcer, and voice-over artist. He currently is at NBC Sports as the play-by-play commentator for NASCAR's Cup Series and

Xfinity Series The NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) is a stock car racing series organized by NASCAR. It is promoted as NASCAR's second-tier circuit to the organization's top level Cup Series. NXS events are frequently held as a support race on the day prior to a ...

, on an interim basis for the

International Motor Sports Association The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) is a North American sports car racing sanctioning body based in Daytona Beach, Florida under the jurisdiction of the ACCUS arm of the FIA. It was started by John Bishop, a former executive dire ...

, and for NBC Sports coverage of track & field. He previously had done play-by-play broadcasting for

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...

's coverage of NASCAR's Camping World Truck Series and voice-over work for Goodyear,

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

Alltel Alltel Wireless was a wireless service provider, primarily based in the United States. Before acquisitions by Verizon Wireless and AT&T, it served 34 states and had approximately 13 million subscribers. As a regulatory condition of the acquisition ...

, and

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

among many others.

Biography

Allen was the third of four siblings. Allen grew up in Grand Island, Nebraska, and was a walk on for the

University of Nebraska A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...

Track and Field team, where he was a letter winner all four seasons, a three-time All-American in the sport, winning two Big Eight Conference decathlon titles (1991–92). He received his bachelor's degree of communications from the university. After graduation, he worked as a public address announcer for the University of Nebraska athletic department, and later at local dirt oval racetracks including

Eagle Raceway View from the turn one grandstand. Eagle Raceway is a one-third mile dirt track located two miles (3 km) east of Eagle, Nebraska on U.S. Highway 34 in Cass County, Nebraska, often referred to by some as the "World's Fastest Third Mile" beca ...

, where Fox Sports found him. From 2003 to mid-2014, Allen worked for

, where his main duty was calling the

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and ...

Camping World Truck Series and

ARCA Racing Series The ARCA Menards Series is an American stock car series, the premier division of the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA). It is considered a minor, semi-professional league of stock car racing, used as a feeder series into the three nationa ...

SPEED In everyday use and in kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (ma ...

and later

Fox Sports 1 Fox Sports 1 (FS1) is an American pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. FS1 replaced the motorsports network Speed on August 17, 2013, at the same time that its companion channel Fox Sports ...

. He occasionally covered Nationwide Series (now

) events. On December 4, 2013, it was announced that Allen will become the lead announcer for

NASCAR on NBC ''NASCAR on NBC'' (visually branded as ''NBC NASCAR'' in logos shown within on-air graphics and network promotions) is the branding used for broadcasts of NASCAR races that are produced by NBC Sports, and televised on several NBCUniversal-owned ...

starting in 2015. In early 2014, he began his NBC duties as host of their daily studio program NASCAR America, while still working for Fox. During the Truck Series Eldora race on July 23, 2014, Allen announced that it would be his last race at Fox Sports, as he was now bound only to NBC. As most of his work was with the Truck Series, he received a standing ovation at the Truck Series drivers' meeting before the race. Allen was replaced by

Steve Byrnes Steven Patrick Byrnes (April 14, 1959 – April 21, 2015) was an American television announcer and producer. After graduating from college, he began his career as a sports producer, covering several NFL teams. In 1985, he began his involvement ...

until Byrnes died from

head and neck cancer Head and neck cancer develops from tissues in the lip and oral cavity (mouth), larynx (throat), salivary glands, nose, sinuses or the skin of the face. The most common types of head and neck cancers occur in the lip, mouth, and larynx. Symptoms ...

in April 2015. It was announced in 2016 that Allen would be joining the IndyCar Series on NBC broadcast team for select Verizon IndyCar Series events beginning at Phoenix in 2016, filling in for regular IndyCar play-by-play announcer

Leigh Diffey Leigh Diffey (born 3 March 1971) is an Australian American auto racing commentator. His career began calling motorcycle races in his home country before moving to the United Kingdom to cover other forms of motorsport. Diffey then moved to the ...

because Diffey worked with NBC's Formula One coverage.

References

1969 births Living people Nebraska Cornhuskers men's track and field athletes Track and field broadcasters People from Grand Island, Nebraska {{US-tv-bio-stub