Bobby Allison

Bobby Allison

status	not active
NASCAR Cup Series statistics
Best placement	1st - (1983)
Starts Victories Poles Top 10 718 85 59 446
NASCAR Xfinity Series Statistics
Best placement	27.- (1984)
Starts Victories Poles Top 10 43 2 - 22nd

Robert Arthur "Bobby" Allison (born December 3, 1937 in Miami , Florida ) is a former NASCAR racing driver and champion. He is one of the 50 greatest NASCAR drivers .

Career before NASCAR

Allison drove his first race at Archbishop Curley Notre Dame High School in Miami, Florida. After a couple of accidents, his father ordered him to stop racing. After high school in 1955, he went with his brother Donnie and a few friends in search of more lucrative races than those available in Florida. His search led him to Montgomery Speedway in Montgomery , Alabama . Once there, he learned of a night race in Midfield , Alabama, near Birmingham , Alabama. Allison took part in and won the race, plus two other races in the same week. So he had found his lucrative races. Bobby and Donnie opened a workshop in Hueytown , Alabama, along with their friend Red Farmer . They should then become known as the "Alabama Gang".

Bobby Allison also worked as a mechanic and engine tester, but returned to racing and won the championship in the Modified Special Division in 1962.

NASCAR career

Allison's 1983 car

In 1965 Allison switched to the Grand National Series and won his first race at Oxford Plains Speedway on July 12, 1966.

During his career, Allison scored a total of 84 wins, as many as Darrell Waltrip . Among these victories are three at the Daytona 500 in 1978, 1982 and 1988. In the latter, his son Davey Allison also took second place. In 1983 he won the Winston Cup championship for DiGard Racing. He is the oldest cup champion to this day and was also the oldest NASCAR champion at the time, until Jack Ingram broke the record two years later in the Busch Series . Allison also tried his hand at the Indianapolis 500 twice . His best result was a 25th place in 1975.

Allison was involved in an accident on the Talladega Superspeedway in May 1987 in which his car turned sideways, took off and flew into the protective fence. The impact at almost 200  mph caused the fence to be torn down over a length of about 90 meters, parts of the car flew into the stands and injured several spectators. In the same race, his eldest son Davey took his first win. NASCAR then asked for smaller carburetors for the remaining races of the season in Talladega and Daytona International Speedway . From the following season, NASCAR prescribed the use of air flow limiters (restrictor plates) on the two routes to keep the speed below 200 mph. Allison won the Daytona 500 as the first restrictor plate race in February 1988. At the time, he was the oldest winner in a Cup Series race, until this record was surpassed by Harry Gant in 1990 .

During the season, Allison nearly died in an accident on June 19, 1988 at Pocono Raceway . Allison survived, but the injuries forced him to resign from NASCAR. In 1992, his youngest son, Clifford, had a fatal accident while training for the NASCAR Busch Series race at Michigan International Speedway . In 1993, Allison was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America . That same year, Davey Allison was killed in a helicopter crash on Talladega Superspeedway. A year later, he was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame .

Allison is one of eight drivers who have made the career Grand Slam and won the four most important races.

Controversial victories

Officially, Allison has won 84 races in his career. Unofficially, he was awarded 85 wins, possibly even 86. Two races were controversial: the Myers Brothers 250 at Bowman Gray Stadium in the 1971 season and the National 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the 1973 season.

Myers Brothers 250

The 1971 Myers Brothers 250 was held on August 6, 1971 at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem , North Carolina . The first car to cross the finish line after 250 laps was driven by Allison.

The controversy in said race was that in the early 1970s combined races for the smaller Grand American Series with so-called " pony cars " such as the Chevrolet Camaro , Ford Mustang and AMC Javelin and the Grand National Series with Chevrolet Chevelle , Ford Torino Talladega , Dodge Charger Daytona and Plymouth Roadrunner were held. For this and the following race at West Virginia International Speedway, Allison drove in such a combination race in a Ford Mustang that met the specifications of the Grand American Series. Since he was not in a Grand National Series car, winning that series was not attributed to him, but the Grand American Series.

It should be noted that NASCAR has organized various combined races with other racing series in the past. In these cases, victory only counted for the series in which the driver's racing car was registered. Also affected by this rule is Darrell Waltrip, who has as many wins as Allison.

National 500

The 1973 National 500 took place on October 7th at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord , North Carolina. The first three cars to cross the finish line after the scheduled 334 laps were driven by Cale Yarborough , Richard Petty and Bobby Allison. They crossed the line in that order. The finish is not controversial, but the legality of the engines of the first two cars is.

After the race, Allison protested that the engines in Cale Yarborough and Richard Petty's cars were oversized. NASCAR tested all three engines of the top three and only Allison's engine met specifications. Six hours after the inspections began, NASCAR Technical Director Bill Gazaway announced to the press that the results would be sent to NASCAR headquarters in Daytona and the final decision would be made.

On Monday, NASCAR released a press release stating that the Charlotte facilities were inadequate and that the results of the pre-race inspection would be used, after which all three cars were legal and the result would remain.

Allison threatened two other drivers with resignation and a lawsuit. Only after a private meeting with NASCAR President Bill France Jr. a week later did Allison give in. Thereupon speculation spread that Allison had been silenced with money. Allison did not confirm these speculations, but neither did they deny them. He just said that he was adequately compensated.

The race result was not changed, but a large number of fans believe that Allison was cheated of another win.

1973 was a year of transition in NASCAR. The teams could choose between a 7-liter engine with an air volume restriction and a 5.9-liter engine without a restriction. Ten years later, Petty's oversized engine created new rules in the same race after the engine manufacturer, driver and team owner could be banned from racing for twelve weeks in such a case.

Daytona 500

After his victory at Daytona, Allison's car was examined and it was found that the rear bumper was missing. At first it looked as if it had fallen off with a slight contact with another car at the beginning of the race. However, tests were conducted on the car without a bumper and found that it was faster and easier to drive without it. As a result, it was alleged that Allison and his crew modified the bumper so that it easily fell off. NASCAR imposed no penalty and the victory remained. Allison and his crew denied the claim.

Car owner

Allison owned a car for a wide variety of drivers between 1990 and 1996, including Hut Stricklin , Jimmy Spencer and Derrike Cope .

statistics

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1967	Treadwell Ford Racing Team	Shelby GT350	Roger West	Joseph Ausburn	Disqualified

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th
1966	Robert Harper	Chevrolet Corvair	DAY	SEB	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	MUG	CCE	HOK	SIM	ONLY	ZEL
			DNF
1967	Roger West Tradwell Racing	Shelby Mustang	DAY	SEB	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	HOK	MUG	BRH	CCE	ZEL	OVI	ONLY
			DNF	DNF
1978	Randy Hoerr	Nissan 510	DAY	SEB	MUG	VALLEY	DIJ	SIL	ONLY	LEM	MIS	DAY	WAT	VAL	ROD
												DNF

Web links

Commons : Bobby Allison  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Driver statistics on racing-reference.info
• Team owner statistics on racing-reference.info
• Bobby Allison's profile on NASCAR.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jim Mclaurin: NASCAR's Most Wanted , Chapter "Fudgin 'with the rules".
2. ↑ Pushing the envelope NASCAR has a proud history of tweaking the rules ( Memento from June 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive )