Davey Allison

Did You Know?

• He won his first Winston Cup race at Talladega in 1987 after the race was shortened by ten laps due to darkness.
• Allison became the only rookie to win two Winston Cup events, winning again at Dover just 28 days after his first win.
• His father Bobby Allison held him off to win the 1988 Daytona 500, giving the Allisons a one-two finish.
• Allison was named ARCA Rookie of the Year in 1984 after winning two ARCA events at Talladega Superspeedway.

NASCAR

Before the 1987 season started, car owner Harry Ranier chose Davey Allison to take over the Ranier-Lundy No. 28 Ford Thunderbird from veteran Cale Yarborough. Yarborough was leaving to start his own team with sponsor Hardee's. Ranier worked out a sponsorship deal with Texaco's Havoline motor oil, which was finalized during Speedweeks at Daytona. On qualifying day, Allison made a statement by putting his unmarked, Texaco-Havoline-painted No. 28 Thunderbird second on the grid for the 1987 Daytona 500. That made him the first rookie ever to start on the front row for NASCAR's biggest race. A mistake during a pit stop caused a rear tire to come off on the track, ruining his chances for a strong finish, but better days were ahead.

May 3, 1987 became a notorious date in NASCAR. Earlier that week, Bill Elliott had set a still-standing record of 212.809 mph in qualifying for the Winston 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, which had no lights. Allison qualified third, while his father Bobby started second next to Elliott in the Stavola Brothers No. 22 Miller Buick. On lap 22, Bobby Allison ran over debris, cutting his right-rear tire. His car spun, lifted into the air, went airborne, and crashed vertically into the frontstretch fence near the start-finish line. It landed back on the track and collected several other cars. Davey, ahead of his father, saw the crash in his mirror. Bobby was unhurt, but a few spectators suffered minor injuries, and the race was red-flagged for two hours and thirty-eight minutes. This crash led to smaller carburetors and eventually restrictor plates at Daytona and Talladega to slow the cars down.

When the race restarted, Allison stayed near the front. After Elliott dropped out with engine failure, his main rival was gone. As darkness fell during a late caution, officials decided to end the race ten laps early, at 178 laps. Restarting in second, Allison passed leader Dale Earnhardt on the backstretch and pulled away to win his first Winston Cup race. With that victory, he became the first rookie to win a Cup event since Ron Bouchard in 1981.

Death

On July 12, 1993, Davey Allison took off in his newly purchased Hughes 369HS helicopter, heading to Talladega Superspeedway. He planned to watch family friend Neil Bonnett and his son David Bonnett test a car for David’s Busch Series debut. Hut Stricklin was supposed to join him but stayed behind, recovering from an illness he’d picked up at New Hampshire. Instead, Allison picked up another family friend and fellow racer, Red Farmer, along the way. As Allison tried to land the helicopter inside a fenced area of the track’s infield, the craft suddenly pitched upward and crashed. Neil Bonnett managed to pull Farmer from the wreckage, but Allison was unconscious and trapped until paramedics arrived. Farmer eventually recovered after a long struggle, but Allison never woke up. He had suffered a severe head injury, and despite surgery to relieve pressure on his brain, he was declared dead at 7:00 a.m. the next morning at Carraway Methodist Medical Center in Birmingham.

In January 1994, Allison’s estate sued McDonnell Douglas, arguing that the crash was caused by a failure in the helicopter’s collective socket. The lawsuit sought $25 million and was filed on behalf of Davey Allison Racing Enterprises, Tommy Allison as executor of the estate, and Red Farmer. Birmingham attorney Jim Thompson presented evidence from a metallurgist who found air pockets and paint inside the cast metal part, claiming this meant it was defective from the factory. A test pilot’s reconstruction produced results identical to Allison’s crash, and the suit described the socket as a completely failed magnesium component.

The National Transportation Safety Board released its report in March 1995, placing the blame on Allison’s lack of helicopter experience and his decision to attempt a downwind landing. The board called it a poor in-flight choice to land downwind in a confined space surrounded by high obstacles, and cited his failure to properly handle the tailwind condition as a likely cause. NTSB investigator Rolf Sasser stated there was no sign of socket failure before the accident, no evidence of fatigue, and that a socket failure would not match the loss of control that investigators and witnesses observed.

Tribute

A decade after Davey Allison’s first career win, Texaco brought back the Battlestar paint scheme as a tribute to him. The throwback design appeared in only two races. In the second one, the 1997 DieHard 500 held in October, Ernie Irvan qualified on the pole position driving that scheme. Texaco later used the retro paint job on their drivers’ cars at various tracks until the company ended its sponsorship.

The R. K. Allen Oil Company, which distributed Texaco products in the Talladega area, honored Allison’s memory by creating the Talladega-Texaco Walk of Fame. Located in Talladega, this attraction let fans vote for both past and current drivers to be recognized in a special hall-of-fame style display. The event ran until 2013. In 2022, Talladega city manager Seddrick Hill brought the Walk of Fame back.

From 1994 through 2003, two drivers were inducted each year in the inactive driver category. Between 2003 and 2012, only one inactive driver was chosen by fan vote, a change from the earlier format. Starting in 2013, the Talladega Walk of Fame Board of Directors has nominated a single driver whenever an induction is needed. The board also inducted an active driver in 2000.

The induction ceremony was originally held in July, but it moved to October in 1997. In 2003, it took place in September. In 2000, fans voted Bobby Hamilton into the Walk of Fame. That same year, the board decided not to let the retiring Darrell Waltrip be inducted as an inactive driver, even though his 84 wins were the most of any driver who began his career after 1972, when the schedule was shortened to its current length. Instead, the board automatically inducted Waltrip. Waltrip was famously unpopular at Talladega during his prime because of his feuds with all three Allison brothers. The conflict started in 1975 when he replaced Donnie Allison in the DiGard race car. Ironically, Waltrip served as a relief driver when Donnie won the 1977 Talladega 500. Waltrip also had Havoline oil as an associate sponsor from 1993 to 1997 (co-branded with Sears) and again in 1999 and 2000. During that later period, Texaco was linked to Kmart-sponsored cars fielded by Carl Haas, including Newman-Haas Racing in CART and Haas-Carter Racing in 2000. In the 2010s, Waltrip’s daughter Sarah Kaitlin graduated from Samford University near Birmingham.

Legacy

Davey Allison was leading the IROC championship when he died, with just one race left in the four-race series. Terry Labonte drove that final race in his place and won the title for him. The $175,000 championship prize was placed in a trust fund for Allison's children. In the final 1993 NASCAR standings, he finished 31st and received half of the owner points fund for the number 28 team.

After his death, Racing Champions made a die-cast model of his 1989 Texaco car as a tribute, along with his standard 1993 paint scheme in its main line. The company also produced die-cast replicas of cars he drove during his career in its Premier line, including a trading card that said "Champion Forever." A special promotional die-cast of the number 28 car was released with Ernie Irvan, Allison's replacement, listed as the driver to honor the team's win at Martinsville in the fall of 1993. Only 20,000 of those were made.

Allison was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1998, announced as a NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee in 2018 and formally inducted in 2019, and entered the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2021.

A controversy arose after his death when his widow, Liz, became involved with country music star Joe Diffie. Tabloid TV shows and newspapers covered the story heavily, with some claiming the two had been lovers before Allison died. Liz has spoken openly about the relationship, most recently on the Paul Finebaum Radio Network during the week of the 2006 Talladega race. She expressed some regret, saying she and Diffie were band-aids for each other and that band-aids aren't meant to be permanent. Liz and their two children moved to Nashville, and she married physical therapist Ryan Hackett on May 13, 2000. At that wedding, Bobby and Judy Allison reunited after being divorced for four years and separated by nearly seven years of tragedy. On April 28, 2003, the mayor of Hueytown, Alabama, declared Davey Allison Day, celebrated on the weekend of the spring Talladega race.