| Feb. 25, 1961, (The night before the Daytona 500) David Carl Allison
(Davey) was born. If there was ever a child born to be a race car driver,
it was Davey. Davey grew up around race cars, on and off Winston Cup tracks,
with his father, Bobby Allison and his uncle, Donnie Allison.
When Davey was old enough to drive, he had to earn his seat in a stock car. Davey's father never gad anything handed to him when he was up and coming and believed Davey needed to learn the same tough lesson. Bobbie gave Davey a job in his shop and allowed him to use the shop to build himself a car. By building and maintaining his own car, Davey had a strong feel for how the car operated and and how to set it up for a race. These skills would help Davey communicate with his crew chiefs in the future. By saving his pennies to repair the car, and by missing races because he didn't have money to repair the car he tore up, Davey quickly learned not to tear up his equipment. Davey also learned that his father wouldn't stand for Davey letting his grades slip. Bobbie told Davey to get and keep the grades up, or the car will be parked. Amazingly the grades improved. |
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Davey Allison's behind the wheel career began in 1979, with his first win in only his sixth start. He raced ARCA, All-Pro, DIRT and ASA Series races, as well as NASCAR Winston West, Busch Grand National, Grand America and Dash Series, winning over 40 short track races. He won two ARCA races, finished second in points and won Rookie of the Year honors in 1984. In 1985 Davey finally got his chance to drive a Winston Cup car, at age 24, driving the Lancaster Tobasco Chevrolet owned by Hoss Ellington. Davey drove the Tobasco Chevy to a 10th place finish. Hoss Ellington gave Davey 2 other starts that year, finishing the season 71st in Winston Cup Series points. |
| In 1986, Davey drove 4 Winston Cup races in the #95 Chevy Monte Carlo for the Sadler Brothers and one race for Junior Johnson in the #12 Budwieser Chevy Monte Carlo (The great Neil Bonnet's car, Neil was injured the previous week at Pocono). Davey took the 'Bud' Chevy to a strong 7th place finish. That strong finish was a major deciding factor in Harry Raineir and JT Lundy signing Davey for the 1987 season. |
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1987 started out looking rough for Rainer/Lundy racing. Their driver from 1986 (Cale Yarborough), sponsor (Hardees) and Crew Chief (Waddell Wilson) left the team. The team managed to snag not only Davey, but Texaco, and signed Joey Knuckles as crew Chief. The #28 Davey Allison Texaco Ford showed some promise early on. Davey took the inside pole for the season opener the Daytona 500. |
| After the start of the race, the rest of the first half of the season was down hill, marred with bad lick and wrecked cars. Davey missed 3 races, after destroying his car in a fireball at Darlington. At mid season, Davey qualified third at his home track of Talladega (Dad, Bobbie was second). That was was bad for Bobbie, he tore-up the catch fence in the beginning of the race but Davey shook off the horrifying images of his dad's wreck and pulled off his first Winston Cup win, in only 14 starts. |
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