Davey Allison
David Carl "Davey" Allison was an American NASCAR driver. He was best known for driving the No. 28 Texaco-Havoline Ford for Robert Yates Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series. Born in Hollywood, Florida, he was the oldest of four children born to Bobby and Judy Allison. The family moved to Hueytown, Alabama, and along with Bobby Allison's brother, Donnie, Red Farmer and Neil Bonnett, became known as the Alabama Gang.
Early career
Growing up, Allison participated in athletics, preferring football, but settled upon automobile racing. He began working for his father's NASCAR Winston Cup Series team after graduating high school, and built a race car of his own, a Chevy Nova, with friends known as the "Peach Fuzz Gang." He began his career in 1979 at Birmingham International Raceway and won his first race in his sixth start. He became a regular winner at BIR, and by 1983 was racing in the Automobile Racing Club of America series. Allison won two ARCA events at his home track, Talladega Superspeedway, in 1983, and was named ARCA Rookie of the Year in 1984, placing second in the series title. That same year he married his first wife, Deborah.Allison continued racing in the ARCA series in 1985, winning eight races in the series, four at Talladega Superspeedway. He competed in some of NASCAR's lower divisions. In the Busch series, his crew chief was Red Farmer. In July 1985, car owner Hoss Ellington gave Allison an opportunity to drive a NASCAR Winston Cup Series car in the Talladega 500. Allison qualified 22nd In Ellington's Chevrolet and finished tenth in his first Winston Cup start. The wins earned Allison more NASCAR Cup Series opportunities in 1986, when he made four starts in the No. 95 Sadler Racing Chevrolet entry with Tom Pistone serving as crew chief. Allison later substituted for injured racer Neil Bonnett in Junior Johnson's No. 12 Budweiser Chevy, starting and finishing seventh in the Talladega 500.
NASCAR
Early Winston Cup career
Prior to the 1987 season, car owner Harry Ranier tapped Allison to replace veteran driver Cale Yarborough in the Ranier-Lundy No. 28 Ford Thunderbird. Yarborough was leaving the Ranier-Lundy team to start his own operation along with the team's sponsor, Hardee's. Ranier negotiated a sponsorship deal with Texaco's Havoline motor oil brand, a deal that was signed during the NASCAR edition of Speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway. On qualifying day, Allison signaled that he was in Winston Cup to stay when he qualified an unmarked, but Texaco-Havoline painted No. 28 Thunderbird second for the 1987 Daytona 500, becoming the first rookie ever to start on the front row for NASCAR's most prestigious event. A pit miscue which allowed a rear tire to fall off on the track ended his hopes of a good finish in the race, but success for Davey Allison would be just around the corner.May 3, 1987 would become an infamous day in NASCAR history. Earlier in the week, Bill Elliott had qualified his No. 9 Coors-Melling Ford Thunderbird at a record 212.809 mph for the Winston 500 at the unlighted Talladega Superspeedway. Allison would qualify third, while father Bobby would start second alongside Elliott in the Stavola Brothers No. 22 Miller Buick. On lap 22 of the event, Bobby Allison ran over a piece of debris, cutting his right-rear tire. The car turned sideways, lifted into the air, became airborne, and crashed vertically into the frontstretch spectator fence near the start finish line. The car landed back on the track and collected a number of other competitors. Davey was ahead of his father at the time and saw the crash unfold in his mirror. Bobby Allison was not injured, but the crash slightly injured several spectators and the race was red-flagged for two hours and thirty-eight minutes. It was this event that triggered the requirement of smaller carburetors, and later, carburetor restrictor plates on engines at Daytona and Talladega to reduce the top speeds.
When the race resumed, Allison continued to run up front and when Elliott exited the race with engine failure, his toughest competition was eliminated. With darkness falling during a late caution flag, the decision was made to end the race ten laps short of its 188 lap distance. Running second on the restart, Allison passed leader Dale Earnhardt on the backstretch and pulled away for his first Winston Cup win. In winning the race, Allison became the first rookie since Ron Bouchard in 1981 to win a Winston Cup event.
Allison would better that feat just 28 days later by winning the Budweiser 500 at Dover International Speedway, becoming, at the time, the only rookie to win two Winston Cup events. In all, Allison started 22 of the 29 Winston Cup races in 1987, winning twice, and scoring nine top-five and ten top-ten finishes He also won five poles in his rookie season.
The 1988 season started with much promise. Allison again started outside the front row for the Daytona 500, the first modern day race utilizing the NASCAR-mandated carburetor restrictor plate. While father Bobby was battling up front early in the race, Allison and his team struggled with a car that was repaired during the early morning hours following a crash in the final practice session. As the race came to a conclusion, Davey found himself running second, just behind his father. Bobby Allison would go on to hold off his son and win his third Daytona 500. Father and son would celebrate their one-two finish in victory lane.
Allison would struggle through much of the first half of the 1988 season as he ran some of the Winston Cup short tracks for the first time. The team was also suffering from engine failures and now sole-owner Harry Ranier was looking to sell the team. Crew chief Joey Knuckles was fired and engine builder Robert Yates replaced him. Then on June 19, at Pocono International Raceway came his father's near-fatal, career-ending crash.
With his father clinging to life in a Pennsylvania hospital, Allison raced on but failed to finish the next three events. The team rebounded when the series returned to Pocono in July with Allison scoring a third-place finish. Back at Talladega, the No. 28 Ford again suffered engine failure but Allison would drive his father's car later in the race when relief driver Mike Alexander was overcome by heat. Two races later, Allison would score his first win of the season at Michigan International Speedway. The win changed the fortunes for the financially strapped team and after a series of top-5 and top-10 finishes, Allison would win the inaugural race at the new Richmond International Raceway. On October 1, 1988, Ranier sold the team to Yates, who temporarily remained as Allison's crew chief for the balance of the season, before undertaking full ownership. The rest of the season was a mixed bag but Allison would finish the season with a third place finish at Phoenix International Raceway, and a second at the season ending Atlanta Journal 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He would finish eighth in the final Winston Cup standings. But the roller coaster 1988 Winston Cup season had taken a toll on Allison's marriage and he and Deborah quietly divorced during the offseason.
Initial years with Robert Yates Racing (1989–1990)
Allison's 1989 season did not start well. A year after he and his father's one-two Daytona 500 finish, Davey started at sixteenth, then was involved in an early incident with Geoff Bodine that sent his car careening into the sand bar separating the track's backstretch from Lake Lloyd. The car made one slow, complete, roll-over with Allison eventually restarting the car and driving it back to the pits. He drove the damaged, hood-less car to a 25th place finish and had a heated exchange with Bodine following the race.The team rebounded at Rockingham and when the series moved to Talladega in May for the Winston 500, Allison had scored one top-ten and three top-five finishes. Allison started on the pole at Talladega and got his first win of 1989, his second victory in Talladega's spring event. After the race, Allsion stood sixth in the Winston Cup Championship standings, but did not win again until the next restrictor plate race, the Pepsi 400 at Daytona, his last win of the season. By the end of the season, Allison had collected seven top-five and thirteen top-ten finishes along with one pole position to go with the two wins. He slipped to eleventh in the final Winston Cup standings. However, he would marry his second wife, Liz, during the season, and their first child, Krista, was born prior to the 1990 season.
The 1990 season did not start much better than the 1989 season and by the sixth race at Bristol, Allison was a seventeenth in the Winston Cup standings. A poor qualifying run had the team pitting in the backstretch pits, which usually doomed a team's chances of winning the race. But the team owner decided against pitting on the final caution flag and Allison scored his second short-track win in a thrilling photo-finish with Mark Martin, winning by just eight inches. But the win did not change the team's fortunes and after an ill-handling car at Dover required Davey to ask for relief from fellow Alabama driver Hut Stricklin, Robert Yates decided to hire "Suitcase" Jake Elder as the team's crew chief. Allison won the fall event at Charlotte Motor Speedway but finished the season 13th in the final Winston Cup standings. He again posted two wins, but only five top-five and ten top-ten finishes.
Larry McReynolds' hiring (1991)
The 1991 season began with much promise. Allison won the pole for the Daytona 500 and was in contention for the win until the final laps. After a late race restart, eventual winner Ernie Irvan passed Dale Earnhardt for the lead. Allison tried to follow Irvan around Earnhardt but could not make the pass and the two drivers battled side by side for a few laps. As the cars came off turn two, Earnhardt's car spun, collecting Allison and Kyle Petty. He was unable to continue and finished fifteenth. From there, things went downhill. Allison finished twelfth at Richmond, sixteenth at Rockingham, then crashed hard early in the Motorcraft 500 at Atlanta, finishing fortieth. He was openly feuding with crew chief Elder, and Allison threatened to quit the team if Elder stayed. After the poor result at Atlanta, Robert Yates decided that he had to make a change at crew chief.Elder was fired, and Larry McReynolds was hired away from the Kenny Bernstein team to replace him. In his first race with McReynolds at the helm, Allison finished second at the 1991 Transouth 400. A third place finish followed at Bristol, then a sixth at North Wilkesboro and an eighth at Martinsville. The team finished 22nd at Talladega due to a large accident triggered by Ernie Irvan but there was no doubt the team was much improved and was destined for bigger things.
Two weeks later, Allison dominated The Winston all-star race at Charlotte, and continued his domination by winning the Coca-Cola 600 the following week, leading 263 of the race's 400 laps. Two races later, he won his first road course event at then Sears Point International Raceway where he was awarded the victory after Ricky Rudd was penalized by NASCAR for spinning Allison out on the final lap. He won again at Michigan then finished third in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona. At the halfway point of the 1991 season, Allison had climbed to fifth in the Winston Cup point standings.
After finishing fourteenth at Pocono, the series moved to Talladega. As the race wound down, Allison aimed for yet another win behind leader Dale Earnhardt. But he was unable to get drafting help from fellow Ford Motor Company drivers, and he slipped to ninth place after attempting to pass Earnhardt for the lead. In his post-race interview, Allison stated "All we needed was three inches to clear Earnhardt, when you can't get help from a fellow Ford driver, that's pitiful." In a fit of rage after the race, Allison punched a wall in the team's transporter, breaking his wrist. The injury failed to slow him down, however, as he finished a remarkable tenth on the road course at Watkins Glen, then was second at Michigan, a photo-finish, in which Dale Jarrett scored his first Winston Cup victory. Allison scored back-to-back victories at Rockingham and Phoenix and entered the final race at Atlanta second in the Winston Cup standings. But a dead battery in that race relegated him to a seventeenth place finish, dropping him to third in the final standings, only four points behind Ricky Rudd. Dale Earnhardt won the championship. The final tally of the 1991 season for Allison; five wins, twelve top-five and sixteen top-ten finishes, and three pole positions. It was also during the 1991 season that he and Liz welcomed their second child, a son, Robert Grey Allison. With Larry McReynolds at the helm, Allison entered the 1992 season as a legitimate championship contender.