Allen was the second of two siblings. Allen grew up in
Grand Island, Nebraska, and was a walk on for the
Nebraska Cornhuskers 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–Lincoln athletic department, and later at local dirt oval racetracks including
Eagle Raceway, where Fox Sports found him. From 2003 to mid-2014, Allen worked for
Fox Sports, where his main duty was calling the
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and
ARCA Racing Series on
SPEED and later
Fox Sports 1. He occasionally covered Nationwide Series (now
Xfinity Series) events. On December 4, 2013, it was announced that Allen would become the lead announcer for
NASCAR on NBC for the
Sprint Cup Series and
Nationwide Series starting in 2015. 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. 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 because Diffey worked with NBC's Formula One coverage. In 2024, NBC Sports announced that Allen would be replaced by Diffey as NASCAR Cup Series play-by-play announcer, but would remain on Xfinity Series telecasts for the rest of the year, which moved to
The CW ahead of the network's full-season TV coverage of the series beginning in 2025. The reason for the sudden change was unknown at the time, though Allen claimed months later that NBC had told him prior to the season that he would only do the opening set of NBC's scheduled races before moving Diffey into the booth, and was told not to say anything about it. On June 11, 2025, it was announced that Allen would be in the
CARS Tour broadcast booth for
FloRacing. On August 8, Allen announced that he got a job with the
Carolina Panthers and would work as their Entertainment
PA system announcer for the
2025 season, staying in the
Charlotte metropolitan area where most of the NASCAR industry is based. On August 27, Adam Stern from
Sports Business Journal tweeted that Allen would be returning to
The CW as a fill-in play-by-play announcer for college football games in 2025. In December 2025, The
Professional Bowlers Association announced that Allen will be the play-by-play announcer for
PBA Tour bowling coverage on CW Sports in the
2026 season. ==References==