NBC announcer rumors quashed, and NASCAR fans have the same idea

Rick Allen, the former lead announcer for NASCAR on NBC, recently spoke to former colleague Dale Earnhardt Jr. on Dirty Mo Media's Dale Jr. Download podcast about the fact that he "disappeared" from NASCAR following the 2024 Cup Series season.

Allen, who had served in the play-by-play announcer role for NBC since 2015, was replaced by Leigh Diffey before the 2024 season concluded. The 2024 season was the 10th and final year of the sport's previous broadcast rights deal with Fox and NBC.

Earnhardt himself is a former NBC announcer, having served as a driver analyst from 2018 to 2023. His departure was publicized, as he opted not to return for 2024 and later signed with both Amazon Prime Video and TNT Sports, two new broadcast partners that have joined Fox and NBC as a part of the new seven-year, $7.7 billion media rights agreement.

But Allen's departure was a lot different.

He went quietly, and nobody really knew why, exactly, NBC made the change they did, and why they went about it the way they went about it.

Regarding Diffey, bringing him in made sense. He had been the play-by-play announcer for IndyCar on NBC since 2013, so the overarching belief is that he was given the same role for the Cup Series to prevent NBC from losing him to Fox after it was announced that Fox would become the exclusive broadcast partner for the open-wheel series in 2025.

Plus, with NASCAR's own new broadcast deal to consider, it made even more sense to retain the Australian.

Will Buxton was brought in from Formula 1 to replace Diffey on the IndyCar side, with driver analysts Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe both coming over from NBC to Fox.

But Allen simply faded from the public eye, and as much sense as it made for NBC to retain Diffey, did it really make more sense for them to do so by replacing the man who had excelled in his role for the past decade?

He finally had the chance to open up about it to Dale Jr. this past week.

As Allen noted in the interview, he was initially told that he would be replaced, but not exactly when, making it that much more difficult to grasp. Diffey ended up replacing Allen several weeks after the confirmation was made, starting with the late August race at Daytona International Speedway.

In other words, NBC could have handled it a lot better, and while one could claim "sour grapes", if that were even remotely true, it wouldn't have taken Allen eight months to address it.

Allen did continue to announce Xfinity Series races for the remainder of the 2024 season, but he no longer does so after the series was moved to the CW Network as a part of the new media rights deal.

But now that Allen has addressed it, and put to bed any of the rumors that may have surfaced (rumors that Michael Jordan even got wind of) after the odd breakup, NASCAR fans are trying to persuade Fox to give Allen a comeback route.

Given the many shortcomings put on display by Fox this year, highlighted by their disastrous Truck Series coverage at Rockingham Speedway, and more specifically, the largely indisputable belief that Jamie Little should be a pit reporter rather than a play-by-play announcer, there have been calls for Fox to hire Allen.

Allen has plenty of experience calling Truck Series races, and with longtime lead Cup Series announcer Mike Joy now 75 years old, Fox could possibly take a page out of NBC's book and simply find somewhere to put Allen just so they don't lose out on the opportunity to sign him at some point down the road for the top spot.

As for Earnhardt, he is set to be joined by another former colleague – in more ways than one – in Steve Letarte as a member of the broadcast booth for both Amazon Prime Video and TNT Sports. Adam Alexander, the new lead Xfinity Series announcer on the CW Network, is set to serve as the lead announcer for both Amazon Prime Video and TNT Sports as well.

Letarte, one of Earnhardt's former crew chiefs, is reportedly set to continue serving as an analyst during Cup Series races on NBC (and USA Network) alongside Diffey and Jeff Burton. Letarte and Burton have been together in the NBC booth as color commentators since 2015.

Amazon Prime Video's five-race coverage of the Cup Series is scheduled to get underway on Sunday, May 25 with the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and TNT Sports' five-race coverage is scheduled to get underway on Saturday, June 28 with the opening race of the five-race in-season tournament at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

NBC's portion of the broadcast schedule, which was reduced from 20 to 14 races to make way for Amazon Prime Video and TNT Sports, is scheduled to begin on Sunday, August 3 with the race at Iowa Speedway.