Davey Allison: The Prodigal Son

"You had to drive a leg alongside of him to see he was moving in his results," said Eddie. "But because he kept working, he finally got by that. See, he overpowered that just working. Eventually Davey knew everything on the race car there was to do.

"And Davey ended up getting the feel his daddy had. If he needed a washer in the corner of his seat, he could feel it."

One of Davey's close friends was John Bailey, whose father, Jerry, did paint and body work for Bobby Allison Racing.

"When we were eighteen," Bailey said, "we talked about girls, and we talked about booze. We were both racers, and I remember going with Davey to buy tires. Afterward we sat and talked about our futures. We were running Late Models. Davey was talking about running Winston Cup one day. I knew I'd never have the money or help to get that far.

"My daddy was a body man," Bailey said. "His daddy was Bobby Allison."

The first time Davey and John Bailey raced against each other, John won. The second time, Davey finished ahead. By the third race, Davey was winning races.

John Bailey had sought the same sponsor as Davey. Said Bailey without rancor, "His name was Allison. Mine was Bailey. Guess who got the sponsorship? He had a better car, and he had sponsorship money to buy the little extras like new tires that gave him the advantage over the others."

Davey and John would go into a bar together. According to Bailey, Davey's pickup line was, "My dad is Bobby Allison." Said Bailey, "He was enthralled that his daddy was Bobby Allison." But, Bailey said, "the line didn't mean much to those girls."

Davey didn't get new cars to race. Rather, Bobby gave him what others described as junk cars. "My dad told me I had to prove to him my ambition, dedication, and determination before he would support me in anything," said Davey. "If he was going to supply me with a race car, he wanted me to know what was going on in that car."

Bobby wanted Davey to learn another important lesson: why it made financial sense to finish races. If Davey crashed and if he didn't have the money on hand to repair the car, Bobby didn't bail him out. He would have to sit out a few races while he earned the money to fix the car. Davey learned this lesson quickly.

Davey, his brother Clifford, and a youngster by the name of Hut Stricklin began racing at the half-mile paved track in Montgomery, one of the tracks the Alabama Gang had dominated in the mid-1960s. Before, it had been the Alabama Gang-two Allison brothers, Bobby and Donnie, along with Red Farmer. Now it was two Allison brothers, Davey and Clifford, along with their friend Hut Stricklin.

When Davey started out in the Sportsman division, Bobby never put any pressure on him. People thought he had better equipment than he had, and the fans were surprised when he crashed as much as he did.

"Driving skill is not inherited," said Eddie Allison. "You have to learn how to drive a car. After a while, Davey figured out how to go faster, and he became very successful in the Sportsman division."

Bobby's plan was for Davey to move up from Sportsman and Late Model racing to the higher ARCA and Busch circuits, and then work his way up to Winston Cup. First, Davey had to get out of Alabama.

In 1983 Davey began to drive on the ARCA circuit. He won the pole at Talladega, and then the race.

In 1984 Davey was ARCA Rookie of the Year. That year he won at Talladega, Atlanta, and Indianapolis Raceway Park. He lost the ARCA racing championship by 30 points because he had to miss one of the races: He was on his honeymoon with his first wife, Deborah.

By 1985, Davey had won more superspeedway races than any other ARCA driver in history, and that year he drove in three Winston Cup races for Hoss Ellington.

Davey entered his first Winston Cup race, in his backyard at Talladega, on July 28, 1985. He was twenty-four years old, and NASCAR wasn't sure it was a good idea to let him enter his first race on the fastest speedway of them all, but NASCAR also knew that a lot of Allison fans from Alabama would flock to the track to see what Bobby's son could do. All weekend Davey was mobbed by well-wishers and reporters.

He finished the race a remarkable tenth. Dad Bobby was tickled pink.

"I thought that was really neat," said Bobby. "Here was this youngster coming along, and he had this personality that people really just loved. People would meet him, and after two or three minutes, they'd really like him. I enjoyed that part of his personality, too. Every father enjoys their children when they see special parts of their personality. When people became Davey Allison fans, that was a compliment to me, too."

Based on this performance, Hoss Ellington offered Davey two more rides. On October 6 he went to Charlotte, and he was driving in the top ten when with 30 laps left in the race, his engine blew.