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Tucker Allen was aware of the situation, he just needed to get his steer to the ground in Round 10 and he would be the NFR Average Champion and World Champion.

He bobbled his head catch and for a brief moment, it looked like the World Title may literally slip through his hands.

“I heard everyone go ‘ohh,’” he said. “In my head, I was like ’this doesn’t actually feel that bad, I don’t know what everyone was that scared about.’”

He did get a time, 5.9 seconds, enough to win the Average by 10.4 seconds and the World Title by $64,080.

“It was super ugly, that was my worse run all week, so can’t break it down too much,” he said. “I tried to trick my mind into saying I needed to win something in the round, but as soon as I got sat back and the steer was on top of me I was like ‘okay, just tip him over, keep it simple.’ To be able to execute under that pressure was a cool opportunity.”

Allen’s ascent from No. 5 in the World Standings to NFR gold began when he won Round 2 with a 3.6-second run, his fastest time of the NFR and first of three Go-Round wins. He also claimed Rounds 4 and 8.

“I learned not to back off (at my first NFR in 2024), I kind of played it safe on one or two starts and ended up fourth in the Average and fourth kind of sucks,” he said. “I told myself being willing to fail big, but win big.”

The Round 8 win was what made the Gold Buckle start to feel very real. At that point, he led the Average by 9.8 seconds and had also taken over the lead in the World Standings from Will Lummus, who entered the NFR No. 1. Allen had risen from No. 5 at the beginning of the National Finals.

For the entire NFR, he was 4 flat or faster on four of his 10 runs.

“This is something we work for, but to be able to execute, it’s just a blessing. We all day dream about it, to be able to do it, is a whole different story,” he said.

Allen won $240,045 at the NFR, more than any other steer wrestler.