"NASCAR Legend" Bobby Allison Born - December 3, 1937

December 3, 1937
Bobby Allison

Born in Miami, Florida,USA.
  Named one of NASCAR's 50 greatest drivers, he was the 1983 Winston Cup champion and won the Daytona 500 three times in 1978, 1982, and 1988. His two sons, Clifford and Davey Allison, followed him into racing, and both died within a year of each other.

Allison entered his first race as a senior at Archbishop Curley-Notre Dame High School in Miami, but was asked to quit by his father. After high school in 1955, Allison took his brother, Donnie, and some friends along on a quest for more lucrative racing than was available in south Florida. His searching led him to the Montgomery Speedway in Montgomery, Alabama, where he was told of a race that very night in Midfield, Alabama near Birmingham. Allison entered and won that race, along with two other races that week. He had found his lucrative racing. The brothers set up shop in Hueytown, Alabama with another friend Red Farmer, and they began answering to the name Alabama Gang. Bobby Allison worked as a mechanic and an engine tester, but eventually became a driver and won the national championship in the modified special division in 1962.

Allison moved to the Grand National circuit in 1965 and got his first victory at Oxford Plains Speedway on July 12, 1966. During the course of his career, Bobby Allison accumulated 84 victories, making him fourth all-time, tied with Darrell Waltrip, including three victories at the Daytona 500 in 1978, 1982 and 1988, where he finished one-two with his son, Davey Allison. In 1972 he was voted national Driver of the Year for winning ten races and taking 11 poles (including a record 5 straight) and again in 1983 when he claimed his only championship. He was NASCAR Winston Cup Champion in 1983 driving for DiGard Racing. The 1982 Daytona 500 was fraught with controversy that became known as "Bumpergate". He also won the Firecracker 400 in 1982, making Allison the fourth driver to sweep both Sprint Cup point races at Daytona in the same year. Of note, after Allison accomplished this, no driver repeated such a feat until Jimmie Johnson did it in 2013.

Allison ran in the Indianapolis 500 twice, with a best finish of 25th in 1975. His NASCAR team owners included DiGard, Junior Johnson & Associates, and Roger Penske, for whom Allison scored four of the five NASCAR wins for American Motors' Matador. The other AMC victory was accomplished by Mark Donohue also racing for Penske in 1973 at Riverside. He raced in NASCAR as a driver/owner of an AMC Matador.

Allison was involved in an accident at Talladega in May 1987, that saw his car cut down a tire, turn sideways and go airborne into the protective catch fence that separates the speedway from the grandstands. The impact, at over 200 miles per hour (320 km/h), tore out over 100 yards of fencing. Parts and pieces of the car went flying into the grandstand injuring several spectators. This was the same race where Bill Elliott had set the all-time qualifying record at 212 mph (341 km/h). In response, NASCAR mandated smaller carburetors for the remaining 1987 events at Talladega and Daytona. The following year, NASCAR mandated restrictor plates at Daytona and Talladega to keep speeds under 200 miles per hour (320 km/h). Allison won the first Daytona 500 run with restrictor plates in February 1988 by a car length over his son Davey Allison, rendering him the first driver to have won the Daytona 500 both with and without restrictor plates. He is the oldest driver (50 years) ever to win the Daytona 500. Bobby and Davey Allison are the first one-two father/son finish in the Daytona 500. As a result of permanent injuries in a crash at Pocono (see below), Bobby now has no memory of the final win of his career or of celebrating together with his son in victory lane.

On June 19th 1988, Allison crashed on lap 1 of the Miller High 500. Initially he survived a head-on hit into the outside barrier but then suddenly Jocko Maggiacomo t-boned Allison in the driver's side of the car. Allison nearly died. When he reached a local hospital he was initially declared dead. Medical assistance saved his life. Because he had to go through a rehab program from his vegetative state, he retired from driving in NASCAR. In 1992, his younger son, Clifford Allison, was fatally injured in a practice crash for the NASCAR Busch Series race at Michigan International Speedway.

Later in 1993, his son Davey was killed in a helicopter accident at Talladega Superspeedway. Three years after these major tragedies, he and his wife Judy divorced. Four years after their divorce, while attending their daughter's wedding, they reconnected. They were remarried and are still together. He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1992, the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1993, and inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in May 2011, along with Lee Petty, Bud Moore, David Pearson, and Ned Jarrett.