Rick Allen is calling sports again, just not the sport most people expected.<\/p>\n
The former NBC NASCAR play-by-play voice will be the new broadcaster for the Professional Bowlers Association on The CW starting in 2026.<\/p>\n
\nIntroducing your new PBA play-by-play voice on @TheCW_Sports<\/a> \ud83d\udd25<\/p>\n
Welcome, @RickAllenracing<\/a>! pic.twitter.com\/BQatIGumAk<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 PBA Tour (@PBATour) December 15, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Allen\u2019s hiring comes after NBC declined to renew his contract<\/a> following the 2024 season, ending his 20-plus-year run calling NASCAR races. Leigh Diffey replaced him in the Cup Series booth<\/a> while Allen finished out his NBC contract calling Xfinity Series races before that series moved to The CW.<\/p>\n
The PBA gig reunites Allen<\/a> with The CW, which now airs NASCAR\u2019s Xfinity Series along with ACC and Pac-12 football and basketball, WWE NXT, and various other properties. The network announced in April<\/a> that it secured rights to 10 PBA telecasts starting in 2026 as part of a two-year deal. Fox had been the PBA\u2019s primary broadcast partner since 2018, averaging 738,000 viewers for last year\u2019s PBA World Championship.<\/p>\n
Professional bowling is about as far from stock car racing as you can get, but it\u2019s still live sports on broadcast television. The CW has turned itself into a sports network through sheer volume of lower-tier rights deals, and live sports now accounts for roughly 40% of the network\u2019s programming. Allen calling PBA events on the same network that airs NASCAR\u2019s Xfinity Series creates an interesting situation where he\u2019s technically still connected to the motorsports world, just not in the way he or NASCAR fans probably hoped.<\/p>\n
Whether this leads back to a NASCAR<\/a> booth remains unclear. Allen has made it obvious he\u2019d return to calling races if given the opportunity. The CW<\/a> relationship keeps him in the orbit, and stranger things have happened than a broadcaster working his way back into a sport after getting squeezed out.<\/p>\n
For now, though, Allen\u2019s voice will be soundtracking strikes and spares instead of late-race restarts.<\/p>\n
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