Allison Keeps It In The Family
Reprinted from May 7, 1987 edition of Grand National Scene
By Steve Waid

Carrying on where his father left off just a year ago, Davey Allison roared to the first victory of his fledgling NASCAR Winston Cup career in the Winston 500 at Alabama International Motor Speedway.

 Although he has competed in only 14 Winston Cup events in his life, Allison, at present, the leading contender for the Champion/Sears Rookie of the Year title, drove with the poise of a veteran. He beat Terry Labonte to the finish line by 0.78-second and also conquered the massive 2.66-mile north central Alabama trioval.

 The 26-year-old Allison thus won the Winston 500 just one year after his 49-year-old father, Bobby, became the oldest driver to win a Winston Cup race when he captured this event.

 While his father’s day was marked with misfortune after he was involved in a frightening crash at the start-finish line which tore down a section of the main grandstand fence, the younger Allison became the first rookie driver to win a Winston Cup event since Ron Bouchard captured the 1981 Talladega 500 here.

 But there’s more.

 Allison’s victory in his powerful Ranier/Halvoline Ford Thunderbird — a car he has driven only five times this season — gave him a berth in The Winston on May 17 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway. By winning, Allison replaced Buddy Baker as the 20th entry in the event reserved for past winners and the victor of its companion race, the Winston Open.

 Allison also joins Bill Elliott as the only contender for The Winston Million. Any driver who wins three of four selected events — the Daytona 500, the Winston 500, the Coca-Cola 600 and the Southern 500 — will collect a $1 million bonus from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. Elliott won the Daytona 500.

 “I can’t think of a better place or time to win my first Winston Cup race,” said Allison, a resident of nearby Hueytown, Ala., who was obviously vastly popular with the record crowd of 135,000. “This car ran so strong all day and I could run along the bottom of the track. If things keep going the way they are, we’re really going to turn our luck around and I think you can look for more from this team.”

 Because his father’s accident necessitated a two-hour, 38-minute, 14-second red-flag delay for crews to replace the destroyed fence, the race was shortened to 473.40 miles, or 178 of its 188 laps.

 During the day’s ninth and final caution period, NASCAR officials declared that once the race received the green flag, it would run only 10 more laps to its conclusion because of rapidly approaching darkness.

 Although Allison had dominated the event — he ultimately led 101 laps and was a commanding 7.79 seconds ahead of Labonte’s Johnson/Budweiser Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS when the last yellow flag was displayed — he was now faced with a 10-lap scrap.

 Like his challengers, Allison was equipped with four fresh tires but found himself second out of the pits behind Dale Earnhardt, the current Winston Cup points leader and winner of six of the season’s first eight races. Behind Allison lurked Rusty Wallace, Bobby Hillin Jr. and Labonte.

 It didn’t take long for things to change. Allison quickly moved around Earnhardt on the long backstretch, assuming the position his car had held for most of the race.

 “I just kept plotting my strategy in my head,” said Allison, whose victory was worth $71,250. “I thought maybe I would follow him for a couple of laps, but then I thought, ‘No, my car has been stronger out front than it has been behind somebody else.’ So I figured I would get in front of him as quickly as I could.”

 That wasn’t much of a problem.

 “The only thing we did to our car today was take out one round of wedge,” Allison said. “I’ve never heard of anyone taking out wedge here.”

 Once ahead of Earnhardt, Allison was never headed. Behind him, Labonte moved around Earnhardt into second place on lap 171 and on the last laps, Kyle Petty’s Wood Brothers/Citgo Ford, which had come thundering out of sixth place on the restart, put Earnhardt another place down. Hillin’s Stavola/Miller American buick LeSabre finished fifth while Wallace’s Blue Max/Kodiak Pontiac Grand Prix 2+2 took sixth place. Neil Bonnett wound seventh in the Rahmoc/Valvoline Pontiac, Ken Schrader was eighth in the Donlavey/Red Baron Pizza Ford, Lake Speed was ninth in the Wynn’s/Kmart Oldsmobile Delta 88 and Morgan Shepherd rounded out the top 10 in the Bernstein/Quaker State Buick.

 “When I got ahead of Dale I was fortunate enough to build up enough of a lead that Terry couldn’t catch me,” said Allison. “Then at the end, I could see the people standing in the infield and in the grandstands cheering. I couldn’t hear them, but I knew they were cheering.

 “It sent cold chills up my spine to see them doing that for our team.”

 Labonte, recovered from a broken shoulder blade, admitted he was pleased with second place.

 “We had a good day,” he said. “But Davey just outran us.

 “I think this showed that we are coming back, though. We got behind after wreck at Darlington (where his shoulder was broken), but we’re coming back. The car ran super all day, but it is just hard to outrun a Thunderbird here. They have so much more aerodynamics and run much faster down the straightaways. I’m tickled to finish second.”

 Earnhardt also conceded that Allison had the fastest car but added he had other problems.

 “I got a pinhole in the head of our Talladega and we had to change to a Charlotte engine,” he said. “That cost us a little horsepower, but as long as I had some help in the draft behind me, I could run with ‘em.

 “When they got to racing behind me, Terry got away from me and then Kyle got by. I needed some help from behind to stay in the draft.”

Elliott, who won the pole with a world record stock car speed of 212.809 mph in his Coors/Melling Ford, was cast as a pre-race favorite and in fact led twice for 48 laps. But on lap 142, while running second to Allison, he began to slow down and retired from the race after 150 laps, finishing 22nd.

“We don’t really know what went wrong,” Elliott said. “It just kept running a little worse and a little worse, and finally it decided it didn’t want to run anymore.”

Bill’s brother and crew chief, Ernie, said that car suffered a broken valve spring. It was the third straight time that Elliott had failed to finish a race here because of engine failure.

“I don’t want to wish anyone bad luck,” said Allison with a grin, “But when I saw Bill drop back, I said, ‘Aw, darn!’”

Allison said he saw his father’s accident in his rear view mirror and was understandably frightened by what he saw.

“When I looked up in the mirror and saw Dad going into the fence, It was the emotional low period of my life,” he said. “It was especially scary seeing it in my rear view mirror. At first I saw him get in the air backwards and then head for the grandstand. I thought for a moment he might go into it.

“It was difficult because I had to keep concentrating on what I was doing. I asked the good Lord to let him stay with us a little while longer; hopefully a lot longer. And when I saw him crawl out of the car it lifted my heart back where it was supposed to be.”

His father, bruised but otherwise in good health, debated leaving the track but instead joined his wife Judy on top of a motorhome, where they watched their son’s triumph.

“This really makes up for what happened,” said a beaming Bobby Allison, who joined his son in victory lane. “Davey did a good job and I want to thank (team owners) J.T. Lundy, Harry Ranier, (engine builder) Robert Yates and (crew chief) Joey Knuckles on his behalf. I couldn’t be happier. I couldn’t be prouder.”

Allison win with an average speed of 154.228 mph in a race that took three hours, four minutes and 12 seconds to complete — not including the delay for fence repair.

“That delay didn’t change anything on our car,” said Allison. “In fact, it ran great before and it was better after.

“And I would like to start a family tradition. I would like to come back and win this again next year.

See Also:
Bobby Allison At Talladega — Breathtaking!
1987 Winston 500 Photo Gallery (coming soon)