One of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history and the leader of the legendary "Alabama Gang", Bobby Allison
was born in Florida but made Hueytown, AL his home when he embarked on his racing career. He, his brother Donnie Allison, and their friend Red Farmer were so dominant racing on southeastern short tracks
that they earned the aforementioned nickname. Although Farmer was the most successful driver in the minor leagues, winning hundreds of races, he failed to win in his occasional Grand National/Winston Cup
appearances, and Bobby Allison was clearly the biggest star of the three. He had his first major participation in NASCAR's top Grand National division in 1966, when he won three races and finished tenth
in points in what was his de facto rookie season, but independent driver James Hylton won Rookie of the Year as he was more consistent, finishing second in points. Nonetheless, Allison attracted most of
the attention because Hylton rarely contended for race wins as an owner-driver. Allison won his first two races in July four days apart in the season's northern summer swing, dominating from the pole in a
Chevrolet owned by J.D. Bracken at Oxford Plains Speedway in Maine, then winning at Islip, NY after Hylton, who led much of the race, ran out of gas late in the event. He claimed his third win at
Beltsville, MD in August. The Bracken team did not have top equipment and was not as competitive on the more aerodynamic superspeedways, where Allison struggled. Nonetheless, he had impressed in 1966 and
landed his first deal with a big-name car owner, Bud Moore. Moore could not afford to compete for the entire season schedule due to a lack of funding, so he only entered the richer superspeedway races
while Allison continued to drive for Bracken on short tracks. This was similar to Joe Weatherly's 1963 arrangement when he drove major races for Moore and entered races for various owner-drivers on short
tracks to win the 1963 Grand National championship. However, Allison sought more stability and ultimately signed for early NASCAR legend Cotton Owens in his top-notch #6 Dodge team that won the 1966
championship with David Pearson. He won two short track races for Bracken and one for Owens but lost the Owens ride in July after entering the Oxford, ME race and defending his victory there in a Bracken
-owned Chevy. Officials at Dodge were not pleased Allison won in a Chevy and told Owens to fire Allison. He ran most of the rest of the schedule for Bracken, but drove for a variety of owners on
superspeedways, finally winning his first superspeedway race at Rockingham on his debut for Holman-Moody, leading his teammate Pearson in a 1-2 finish, and he won the next race at Asheville-Weaverville in
the season finale as well. Despite the instability and his inability to count on a ride from week to week, he won six times and finished fourth in the points.
Despite winning the first race of the 1968 season in addition to the last two of 1967 for Holman-Moody, the team elected only to run one car
for most of the 1968 season for Pearson, leaving Allison to drive once again for a variety of owners, landing Bondy Long's factory Ford ride for much of the season with little success. Long did not enter
short track races, so Allison missed many of them, only starting 37 of 49 races. He drove for Bracken for most of the second half of the season, and built that team up so they were now competitive on
superspeedways. He finished second at Rockingham in a Bracken car to his brother Donnie, who claimed his first career win. In 1969, he drove factory Dodges for Mario Rossi but like many other car owners
of the day, Rossi did not enter short track races and this time, Allison did not enter extracurricular short track races to compete for the championship. He only started 27 races but won five of them.
Allison, along with all the other top drivers except Bobby Isaac, boycotted the first race at Talladega because the track was considered unsafe. Allison drove for Rossi again in 1970 on superspeedways and
arranged rides in short track races for other owners, but couldn't find a ride for the spring Richmond race. That proved very costly as he finished second in the points standings to Isaac by 51 points,
and had he entered Richmond and finished 25th or better in a 26-car field, he would have won the championship. Richard Petty won eighteen races that season but was effectively eliminated from the
championship chase by missing seven races due to an injury. Allison's goal at this time was to drive for a single car owner all year, eventually deciding to start his own team. He became an owner-driver
in 1971, which at least allowed him to enter any race he wanted. However, Holman-Moody, which won championships with Pearson in 1968 and 1969, split with him over a dispute regarding appearance money.
Allison returned to the Holman-Moody team starting at Talladega that year, and finished second to his brother. He next competed at Charlotte for Holman-Moody, where he claimed his first World 600 win. He
then won the next four races at Dover, Michigan, Riverside, and Meyer Speedway in Houston, TX. Holman-Moody only entered the major races at this time, so his dominant wins at Riverside and Meyer came in
his own car. He later won at Bowman-Gray stadium in the only win for a Ford Mustang in NASCAR's top division. In the later short track races that year, NASCAR allowed cars from its faltering Grand
American division to enter Winston Cup/Grand National events, thus suddenly allowing Mustangs, Camaros, and Firebirds onto NASCAR grids. However, as those cars were not officially Winston Cup cars, NASCAR
did not count Allison's win as a Winston Cup win (meaning he is officially listed with 84 wins, when he actually won 85). Holman-Moody did not enter the race, so Allison had to find another ride, and
clearly the Grand American cars were more aerodynamic than the bulkier Grand National cars. Allison also collected wins at Michigan, Talladega, the Southern 500, Charlotte, and Macon, GA for a total of
ten (or eleven, depending on whether you count the Bowman-Gray win). Missing four short track races caused him to finish fourth in points, even though he had the second-best season to Petty who won 21
races including a five-race winning streak of his own.
In 1972, Allison got his long-time wish and finally had a steady, premier ride
for every race on the schedule. After the factories drastically cut their participation in NASCAR in the early '70s, teams were beginning to seek major sponsorship opportunities at this time. Allison
obtained a Coca-Cola sponsorship, which helped him sign for the Chevrolet team owned by then-Charlotte Motor Speedway owner Richard Howard and managed by Junior Johnson (Johnson would buy the team a mere
two years later and become one of the most successful owners ever). The team received guaranteed appearance money in every race, so Allison finally ran the full schedule, winning ten of the season's 31
races, while Petty won eight, as they annihilated the full-time competition that year. As Petty and Allison thoroughly dominated the competition in 1971 and 1972, that eventually led to what would become
the greatest feud in NASCAR history. At Richmond, Petty hit Allison to take the lead, then Allison retaliated with a punt that sent Petty into the catchfence. Amazingly, Petty bounced back onto the track
still in the lead to win the race. Even after that incident, nobody was within eight laps of Petty or Allison. At Martinsville, Allison dominated and was about to lap second-place Petty. NASCAR gave
Petty the "move over" flag but he ignored it, and then caught a break when a caution came out, putting him back on the lead lap. Petty then caught and passed Allison, hitting him so hard his
fuel cap came loose, and Allison received a black flag. He ignored the summons to pit, received a fine, and was furious that he was penalized while Petty was not, believing Petty was favored by NASCAR
officials. At North Wilkesboro they wrecked each other repeatedly in the final laps. Petty ended up winning all three of these battles, infuriating Allison. Wins at Charlotte and Rockingham late in the
season ensured that Allison led 39 consecutive races, a NASCAR record, but Petty won the big prize, narrowly claiming his fourth championship. Despite having one of the dominant seasons in NASCAR, Allison
and Howard split up after 1972, and Cale Yarborough took the ride, where he would eventually win three straight titles from 1976 to 1978. Allison became an owner-driver again, but the season was not a
success as he finished seventh in points and only won twice; he did qualify for the Indianapolis 500 for the first time in 1973 for Roger Penske but failed to finish. Late in 1974, he left his own team
late in the season to drive for Penske in Winston Cup as well. The team did not enter all short-track races to begin with, causing Allison to miss three races, finishing fourth in points, but he did win
the season finale at Ontario for Penske. Driving for Penske gave him opportunities to drive IndyCars for the team, and he made his second Indianapolis 500 start for the team in 1975. He was respectable
in open-wheel equipment, like Yarborough and his brother Donnie, who preceded him in IndyCars, but none of them were as strong as they were in stock cars. In 1975, he won three races, becoming the first
driver to win in an AMC Matador in Winston Cup, as Penske was one of the few owners to use Matadors in that era, but he did not compete for the championship as he only entered nineteen of thirty Cup races.
In 1976, he and Penske ran Mercuries the whole season but failed to win for the first time since he became a Cup regular.
In 1977,
Allison left the Penske team to drive Matadors for himself with little success, but in 1978, he returned to prominence reuniting with Bud Moore, where he won five races and finished second in points, this
time to Yarborough, who dominated the season with ten wins to claim his third straight title. He did finally win his first Daytona 500 in 1978 despite starting 33rd. He had two more good seasons for
Moore in 1979 and 1980, when he won a combined nine races and was one of the leading threats on every track. Most famously, he defended his brother Donnie in a fist-fight at the end of the 1979 Daytona
500 after Donnie and Yarborough were involved in a crash while battling for the lead on the final lap. In 1981, Allison switched to Harry Ranier's #28 car. The Ranier team ran Chevys, Buicks, and
Pontiacs depending on the track, but usually Buicks, as they dominated at most tracks. Allison was extraordinarily consistent, collecting 21 top fives and 26 top tens including five wins in 1981, and he
led the points standings for most of the season, even as Darrell Waltrip won many more races. He had a lead of 281 points over Ricky Rudd and 341 points over Waltrip at one point, but Waltrip went on a
fantastic run, beating Allison in fourteen consecutive races including seven wins and five second-place finishes. Allison still earned top fives in most of these races, but Waltrip's domination was too
much for Allison to hold off the juggernaut, and even with a season-ending win at Riverside, Allison lost by 53 points. After sixteen seasons on the tour and many strong seasons, he still had failed to
win a championship. Waltrip and Allison became bitter rivals at this time, although not as much as Petty and Allison were a decade before. This was best exemplified by Allison signing for DiGard in 1982,
the team Waltrip left acrimoniously after the 1980 season to join Johnson's operation replacing Yarborough. The team had killer engines prepared by Robert Yates, who would later go on to buy the Ranier
team that Allison had just vacated. Allison won his second Daytona 500 to start the 1982 season (the first time the Daytona 500 was the season opener). In fact, he swept both Daytona races for the first
time since LeeRoy Yarbrough in 1969 and also swept both Pocono races among eight victories in all. Despite being winless, Terry Labonte was remarkably consistent that season and led the points standings
for most of the first half. However, Labonte was less competitive after losing his sponsorship from enigmatic car owner J.D. Stacy, and Allison and Waltrip surpassed him easily after that. After a win at
Richmond, Allison led Waltrip by 147 points with seven races remaining. However, Allison blew three straight engines during a streak where Waltrip won four out of five races. Despite Allison having yet
another fantastic season, Waltrip won the title, and Allison, who had seventeen seasons without a championship was now in his mid-forties and clearly wouldn't have many more opportunities to do so. In
1983, Allison won six races, again leading Waltrip by over one hundred points at mid-season. However, Waltrip's then-traditional late-season comeback wasn't enough as Allison beat Waltrip in some races
and didn't lose much ground to him in others. Waltrip also only won six races, which was not enough dominance to make a third straight comeback, and Allison earned his long-overdue championship at age 45,
becoming the oldest champion in Winston Cup history, which he remains.
Allison would find little success in Winston Cup after his
championship. He won only twice in 1984 and went winless in 1985, falling to twelfth in the points, his first finish outside the top ten since his part-time 1975 season. He left the DiGard team after the
Pepsi Firecracker 400 in 1985 where he limped to an eighteenth-place finish four laps down while the then little-known Greg Sacks in an R&D car for DiGard shockingly won the race over the dominant Bill
Elliott. Most believed crew chief Gary Nelson equipped the Sacks car with an oversize engine, but he was not caught. Allison was furious that an R&D team car was so superior to his own, so he quit the
team instantly, driving for himself again before hooking up with the Stavola Brothers late in the season. Driving a Miller-sponsored car, he won the Stavola Brothers' first race in 1986 at Talladega,
becoming the then-oldest Winston Cup winner ever at age 47, while his teammate Bobby Hillin became one of the youngest winners ever in another Miller car at the second Talladega race. Allison finished
seventh in points, while Hillin was ninth, clearly good performance for the relatively new team. In 1987, Davey Allison, Bobby's son, joined him in most races on the circuit, driving for Ranier just as
Bobby once did. Davey claimed his first career win at Talladega, where Bobby survived one of the most horrific accidents of his career. He went an airborne in that crash, slamming into the catchfence and
ripping part of it apart, nearly entering the grandstands, which would have been a horrific tragedy. Because NASCAR felt the cars had gotten too fast to remain grounded (Elliott set the all-time NASCAR
qualifying record of 212.809 mph for that race), they reintroduced restrictor plates at Daytona and Talladega starting with the 1987 Firecracker 400, which Allison won, his only win of the season.
Clearly, the Stavola Brothers were better on the superspeedways than on other tracks, as Allison slipped to ninth in points, but did far better than Hillin. He scored his final victory in the Daytona 500
in 1988, his third Daytona 500 victory, where he led his son Davey in a 1-2 finish. Tragically, his season and career ended when he blew a tire, spun out, and got hit in the driver-side door by the road
racer Jocko Maggiacomo at Pocono on the opening lap in the tunnel turn. He fell into a coma and suffered a case of amnesia, forgetting many recent events sadly including his 1-2 finish with his son at
Daytona. He would never race again, but he did gradually make a full recovery and returned to action as a full-time car owner in 1990. Bobby and Donnie had retired, while Farmer continued to race in the
minor leagues, but the "Alabama Gang" continued to a second generation, including Davey, Neil Bonnett, a star in the 1980s, and Hut Stricklin. Allison hired Stricklin to drive most of the races
for him in 1990, and a full schedule in 1991, where he finished 16th in points. Stricklin left the team midway through the 1992, and Allison eventually hired Jimmy Spencer who had three top fives in the
last four races of 1992, and then ran the full 1993 season, finishing 12th in points. Allison had further success in 1995 with Derrike Cope finishing 15th in points, but a 1996 return proved unsuccessful
for Cope and he retired as an owner.
Despite some terrible luck in being unable to form many long-term relationships with car owners,
Bobby Allison overcame this to become one of the few drivers that could win for any owner on any track in any make of car at any age, and competed in a greater variety of cars than drivers like Petty did,
given his occasional participation in IndyCars and sports car endurance races at Daytona. He was a fan favorite for his entire life but his later years were marked with tragedy. His son Clifford Allison
was driving in the Busch Series and would have likely eventually joined Davey in Winston Cup but was killed in a practice crash at Michigan. Davey suffered injuries at Bristol, Charlotte, and Pocono that
same season. The Pocono crash was terrifying and gave Davey a concussion along with many other injuries, but he survived and continued to compete for the 1992 championship, losing it in the final race
whenErnie Irvan spun directly in front of him. Tragically, less than a year after Clifford was killed, Davey was killed in a plane crash in July 1993. After suffering such a horrific chain of events in
his later years, he became a universal sentimental favorite in addition to one of the most respected and successful drivers in NASCAR.
