He Crashed, And Crashed, And Crashed
Davey Allison was the NASCAR driver who crashed as many times as he crossed the finish line. As part of the Allison racing family, he was destined for greatness. But in the end, he had one crash too many.
Photo by ISC Archives/CQ-Roll Call Group via Getty Images
1. He Was Racing Royalty
Davey Allison (born David Carl) raced off the starting line on February 25, 1961, in Hollywood, Florida. As the eldest of four children born to NASCAR champion Bobby Allison and his wife Judy, he was destined for racing greatness. In fact, he was part of a winning team from the very beginning.
2. He Joined A Gang
When the Allisons relocated to Hueytown, Alabama, Davey found his true family—his racing family. Joining forces with his uncle, Bobby’s brother Donnie, racer Red Farmer, and driver Neil Bonnett, they formed one of NASCAR’s most celebrated cliques: the fearsome, fan-beloved “Alabama Gang”.
Davey had big shoes to fill.
3. He Built His First Car With Friends
Despite NASCAR being in his genes, growing up, Allison preferred football. In the end, however, he couldn’t deny his heritage. After graduating high school, he joined his father’s NASCAR team and built his first race car; a 1967 Chevy Nova, alongside a tight-knit crew of friends they called the “Peach Fuzz Gang”.
Before long, he was off to the races.
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4. His Got A Head Started
Allison’s first real race came in 1979 when he pulled up to the starting line at the Birmingham International Raceway, winning on just his sixth start. By 1983, he had graduated to the ARCA series, where he announced himself emphatically by claiming two victories at Talladega Superspeedway. From there, the wins came fast and furious.
5. He Debuted A Talladega
1984 was Allison’s break out year—on the track and off of it. He took the title of ARCA Rookie of the Year and wed his first wife, Deborah. After that, he dominated the 1985 ARCA season with eight victories—four at Talladega alone—before car owner Hoss Ellington handed him his first Winston Cup start: the 1985 Talladega 500, where he finished an impressive 10th.
6. He Made NASCAR History
On qualifying day for the 1987 Daytona 500, Davey Allison made history. Sitting behind the wheel of his fabled No 28 Thunderbird, he became the first rookie in NASCAR to start on the front row of the legendary event. Unfortunately, what was meant to be his happiest day almost turned into his worst nightmare.
7. He Watched His Father’s Crash
On May 3, 1987, during the Winston 500 at Talladega, Davey witnessed something terrifying. His father, Bobby Allison, who was also racing, clipped some debris on the track. The debris blew out one of his tires, sending his car sideways, and launching it into the air…directly into the frontstretch spectator fence, tearing through nearly 100 feet of it.
Davey, running ahead, watched the whole harrowing scene unfold in his rearview mirror.
8. He Won His First Cup Race That Same Day
Miraculously, Allison’s father survived the terrible crash and NASCAR officials restarted the race. However, with darkness closing in, Allison surged past Dale Earnhardt to claim the lead just as the officials ended it, claiming his first Winston Cup victory. Bill Elliott said afterward: “I don't feel like I could have beaten Davey”.
Davey gushed: “This thing’s just been awesome all day”. He was unstoppable...for a while, anyway.
9. He Made Rookie History—Twice
Just 28 days after Talladega, Allison claimed victory again, this time at the Budweiser 500 at Dover International Speedway. With the speedy win, he became the first rookie since Ron Bouchard in 1981 to win two Winston Cup races in a single season. His 1987 résumé also boasted nine top-fives and five pole positions. His best moment, however, was still ahead.
Robert Alexander, Getty Images
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10. He Had A One-Two Finish
The 1988 Daytona 500 produced one of NASCAR’s most unforgettable moments: Bobby Allison, aged 50, edged out his son, Davey to claim the cup. The nail-biting race made them the only father-son duo ever to finish 1-2 in the Great American Race. Davey laughed afterward: “Since I was a kid, I’ve dreamed about battling to the wire, finishing 1-2 with my dad. The only difference was, I wanted him to finish second”.
The moment would go down in the history books.
11. His Favorite Moment Wasn’t His Greatest Victory
In 1992, just four short years after placing second to his father, Davey Allison would go on to win his own Daytona 500. However, many years after that, Allison’s wife, Liz, and the NASCAR Hall of Fame confirmed one astonishing fact: his Daytona win was not his career highlight. Finishing second to his father in 1988 remained his most cherished memory on the track.
Before he could enjoy it, though, tragedy struck the Allison family again.
12. His Father Nearly Lost His Life At Pocono
Shortly after their iconic father-son 1-2 finish, Allison nearly lost his father for good. At the Pocono International Raceway, the elder Allison got into a “near-fatal” crash. Even though he was lucky to survive, he would never race again, wiping out the possibility of a repeat father-son performance. While his father recovered, suffering lifelong injuries, Allison raced on.
But the track wasn’t the same without his dad.
13. His Marriage Didn’t Survive The Crash
By October 1988, the wheels had come off of Allison’s racing season—and marriage. The team had switched ownership, but the relentless turbulence of that roller-coaster season put enormous strain on Allison’s personal life. He and his first wife, Deborah, quietly divorced during the offseason.
To make matters worse, he finished eighth in the standings—but was determined for a fresh start.
14. He Started The Year With A Bang
Davey Allison started 1989 under the newly formed Robert Yates Racing, debuting at the Daytona 500. Suffice to say, things kicked off with a bang, but not in a good way. An early incident with Geoff Bodine sent Allison’s car rolling through the sandbar separating the backstretch from Lake Lloyd. After the race, the two drivers had what witnesses called “a short scuffle”.
It was only the beginning.
15. He Found Love Amid The Wreckage
Amid the wreckage of his first marriage and early-season crash, Allison found one thing to be happy about: new love with a woman named Liz, a South Carolina native he had met in 1988. The two married during the 1989 season (when Allison wasn’t crashing), and their daughter Krista Marie arrived shortly thereafter.
Better times seemed to be coming.
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16. He Inched His Way To Victory
At Bristol in 1990, after a poor qualifying run banished Davey Allison and his team to the backstretch pits, crew chief Robert Yates made a gutsy late-race call. Allison, leading his team in the risky play, held on to beat Mark Martin in a photo finish—winning by just eight inches, clinching one of the narrowest victories in NASCAR history.
Even so, he was inches from parking his car and never racing again.
17. He Threatened To Walk Away From It All
Bristol’s photo-finish magic couldn’t mask the deeper problems Allison was having with the team. At Dover, his car proved so brutal to handle that he had to call in fellow Alabama driver Hut Stricklin for relief. Tensions boiled over, and Allison made an uncharacteristic public threat: he would quit the team entirely if something didn’t change.
18. His New Crew Chief Made Things Worse
To assuage his star racer, Yates brought in veteran crew chief “Suitcase” Jake Elder in July 1990. Instead of appeasing Davey Allison, however, it only made things worse. Allison and Elder clashed almost immediately, and, by early 1991, the feud had spilled over into the public, with Allison openly threatening to leave the team if Elder remained.
A shift in gears was exactly what the mechanic ordered.
Robert Alexander, Getty Images
19. He Finally Found His Perfect Team
After sending Allison to a last-place finish at Atlanta, Yates canned Elder in early 1991. The team leader replaced him with Larry McReynolds—and the change in Allison was instant. McReynolds became what those close to the team called “the third leg of the triangle,” completing a partnership built on mutual respect and shared ambition.
The stage was set for something special.
20. His Was Derailed At Daytona
At the 1991 Daytona 500, Davey Allison won the pole and ran near the front deep into the race. Victory, it seemed, was only a few laps away. Then fate intervened. In the closing laps, Dale Earnhardt’s car began spinning out, turning the track ahead into a maze of debris that Allison couldn’t avoid. With a severely damaged car, Allison could only amble along to a 15th-place finish.
His time at Daytona was coming—but not just yet.
21. His Lost His Temper At Talladega
The only thing hotter than Allison’s RPMs was his temper. Fellow Ford car drivers learned that the hard way when they refused to help him draft past Dale Earnhardt at the July 1991 Talladega race. Allison voiced his frustration, saying, “All we needed was three inches to clear Earnhardt, when you can’t get help from a fellow Ford driver, that’s pitiful”.
In his fury, he punched a wall and broke his wrist. Somehow, that did not slow him down.
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22. He Raced Through the Pain—And Won
A broken wrist couldn’t keep Allison off the track—or away from the trophy. He gutted out a top-ten at Watkins Glen, then reeled off back-to-back victories at Rockingham and Phoenix. That same season, he and Liz welcomed their second child, a son named Robert Grey. For once, things were looking up—then the sky literally filled with smoke.
23. His Plane Nearly Fell Out Of The Sky
On a flight to Phoenix during the offseason, smoke began filling the cabin of Allison’s private aircraft. Fortunately, he managed to make an emergency landing where mechanics made a truly horrifying discovery: one engine had sprung an oil leak. Even more shockingly, the mechanics confirmed that the engine was mere minutes from complete failure.
With his wheels back on the ground—and a second chance at life—he was ready to race on.
24. He Finally Won The Daytona 500
On February 16, 1992, 14 cars tangled in a massive lap-92 wreck triggered by Bill Elliott, Sterling Marlin, and Ernie Irvan. Using all of his skills, Allison threaded through the carnage, led 127 laps, and crossed the finish line first—joining his father in the exclusive club of Daytona 500 champions.
He could not, however, avoid every wreck.
25. He Won A Race On Cracked Ribs
A brutal wreck at Bristol’s Food City 500 left Davey Allison with a bruised shoulder and two cracked ribs. Most drivers would have sat out the next event, but not the newly-minted Daytona 500 champ. The following weekend at North Wilkesboro, Allison beat Rusty Wallace and Geoff Bodine and took the checkered flag, cracked ribs and all.
He wasn’t done getting bumps and bruises, though.
26. He Bruised A Lung—And Kept Going
At Martinsville, Allison had thrown caution to the wind. When he suffered another wreck, he re-injured his already-damaged ribs and added a bruised lung to his medical bill. But he kept racing anyway. Allison headed off to Talladega, where he claimed the Winston 500—his third career victory at the track—driving the very same car he had taken to Daytona glory.
His luck, though, was about to run out.
27. His Win Almost Cost Him His Life
At the May 1992 Winston all-star race at Charlotte—billed as “One Hot Night” and the first-ever night race on a superspeedway—Davey Allison surged to the lead on the final lap. He sped his way across the finish line to a stunning victory…then disaster struck. Seconds after clinching the win, Kyle Petty’s car made contact with Allison’s, sending him into the outside wall in a shower of sparks.
It would be the worst wreck of his life.
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28. He Left The Track Unconscious
The impact with Petty’s car knocked Allison out cold. He was in such rough shape that he had to be evacuated by helicopter to the hospital. Doctors catalogued a concussion, a bruised lung, and leg injuries. But the worst wreckage wasn’t to his body. His beloved car—nicknamed “007”—lay in pieces, undrivable and unfixable.
When Allison came to, he gave a harrowing account of what he experienced.
29. He Had An Out-Of-Body Experience
Allison’s Charlotte crash was devastating. When awoke, he detailed the experience, saying that he had risen above the wreckage and looked down at his own mangled car, watching the emergency workers scramble below. He described drifting toward a bright light before darkness took over—only for him to wake up later in a hospital bed.
Still, only one thing mattered to him.
30. He Just Wanted The Win
When Davey Allison came around in the hospital, crew chief Larry McReynolds stood over him. Allison’s eyes flickered open, and the first words out of his mouth were: “Did we win?” McReynolds smiled and told him yes, indeed they had. Nevertheless, the experience shook Allison to his core, and he vowed to put his faith and his family ahead of everything else.
His NASCAR fans, however, were not so eager to forgive.
31. His Fans Sought Revenge
After the Charlotte crash, Kyle Petty was the one fearing for his life, not Allison. Petter later recalled angry fans pelting him with “verbal and physical projectiles” as he walked through the grandstands to the press box. Yet when Petty called Allison in the hospital that Monday, Allison never said a harsh word.
Petty reflected: “Davey and I were competitors, but there was never a rivalry”.
32. His Competition Rallied Around Him
The true fatality of the Charlotte wreck was Allison’s beloved “007”. With the legendary car reduced to scrap metal, crew chief Tim Brewer of Bill Elliott’s Junior Johnson team stepped up without hesitation, handing Allison a backup car and telling him to keep it as long as he needed. For the entire month of June, Allison and his team hauled it everywhere—just in case.
Allison repaid their generosity with a dominant performance.
33. He Led The Championship Despite Everything
Just one week after leaving the hospital, Davey Allison finished fourth in the Coca-Cola 600. He then won the pole at Michigan and led 158 of 200 laps to claim victory. By mid-season, he held a 46-point lead over Bill Elliott and a 134-point cushion over Alan Kulwicki, dominating the standings since the first race. Then the old Allison curse returned: Pocono.
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34. He Flipped More Than An Acrobat
On July 19, 1992 at Pocono, Allison had led 115 laps and was charging back through the field when disaster struck. Darrell Waltrip’s car caught his left rear coming out of turn two and everything went topsy-turvy. Allison’s Ford speared into the infield grass, launched into the air, and barrel-rolled 11 times before slamming into a guardrail.
Nobody on the infield expected him to walk away.
35. His Fellow Drivers Feared The Worst
Allison’s crash was so devastating to watch, that everyone feared the worst. Over the radio, Mark Martin told his crew: “They should get a body bag ready, because there’s no way he survived that”. Waltrip, who went on to win the race 49 laps later, said he felt sick watching the wreckage. Miraculously, Allison survived—but left Pocono with a severe concussion, a broken right arm, a broken wrist, and a shattered collarbone.
But his drive was intact.
36. He Raced With Broken Bones
Despite his extensive injuries, Davey Allison showed up the following week to race at Talladega. However, when he stepped out of the hauler wearing dark sunglasses, a reporter had to ask him what it was all about. Allison was wearing the glasses to mask two severely bruised eyes, and coolly told the reporter, “You can see it, but it's ugly”.
Dressed in a specially designed cast and Velcro straps, Allison prepared to race. Then came news far worse than any crash.
Robert Alexander, Getty Images
37. His Brother Went Out In A Wreck
Allison’s body was battered and broken, but his spirits were high. That is, until August 13, 1992 when his younger brother Clifford lost control during a Busch Series practice session at Michigan. His car struck the concrete wall driver-side between turns three and four. The younger Allison survived the crash, but passed en route to the hospital at just 27 years old.
Instead of slowing down, however, Allison sped up.
38. He Raced In His Brother’s Tracks
Just three days after his brother’s fatal accident, Davey Allison strapped in at Michigan—the very same circuit. Undeterred, he sped his way to a fifth-place finish in the Champion Spark Plug 400. He then raced home to Hueytown to bury his brother. How he found the will to keep going was something only Allison could answer.
39. He Got Robbed By The Rain
With the Winston Million bonus in reach at the Mountain Dew Southern 500 in late 1992, Allison led 72 laps and looked set to contend for the win. That is, until rain swept in with 69 laps remaining, ending the race early with positions called as they were. Darrell Waltrip, who had gambled by skipping his final pit stop, sat out front when officials called the race.
Allison’s shot at the bonus evaporated—and his opponent gloated.
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40. He Hoped For Clear Skies
Waltrip added insult to injury. Lounging beside his car under a colorful umbrella, he joked that the rain shower was “worth one million dollars” in his eyes. Allison’s eyes, however, were fixed on the same dark sky and caustically quipped that he could see blue skies to the west. He hoped that the weather would turn, but feared the worst. It wasn’t the first time Waltrip got the better of Allison.
41. His Feud With Waltrip Ran Deep
The tension between Allison and Waltrip ran through the entire Allison clan. Waltrip had pushed Donnie Allison out of a ride in 1975, and his long-running feud with Bobby, Davey’s father, was legendary. Bobby once let off the gas mid-race just to force Waltrip into a wall after Waltrip repeatedly rammed him despite his own crew chief’s pleas.
As the elder Allison put it: “We had been friends…but he didn't want to be friends”.
42. He Lost The Championship In The Final Laps
The 1992 Hooters 500 at Atlanta carried historic weight: Richard Petty’s farewell, Jeff Gordon’s debut, and the tightest title fight in NASCAR history. Allison had been running the race, steadily staying in the top five and needed only to hold position to clinch the championship. But then Ernie Irvan’s spinning Chevrolet on lap 286 left Allison nowhere to go.
One season’s worth of heartbreak condensed into a single unavoidable collision.
43. He Saw The Bigger Picture
Thanks to Allison’s crash, Alan Kulwicki went on to win the NASCAR Cup Series in 1992. Shortly after that, Allison saw the bigger picture. Kulwicki tragically perished the following year in a terrible plane crash. Allison confided in a close friend that he understood why he hadn’t won that championship—implying that fate had intended the title for Kulwicki the year before his demise.
His own demise would be eerily similar—and near at hand.
44. His Final Victory Came At Richmond
Allison’s 1993 season got off to a slow start with a 28th-place finish at Daytona and a 16th-place finish at Rockingham. But, the following week, he kicked things into high gear with a win at Richmond—his 19th and last career Winston Cup victory. A championship win looked distant, but doable. He just had to not crash.
On or off the track.
45. He Hopped In A Bird
On July 12, 1993, Allison got behind a different kind of wheel altogether. He climbed into his recently acquired Hughes 369HS helicopter, bound for Talladega Superspeedway. His original passenger, Hut Stricklin, had fallen ill, so Allison swung by to collect his old friend Red Farmer instead. It was supposed to be a straightforward trip to watch family friends Neil Bonnett and his son run some laps.
Fate had other plans.
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46. His Flight Instructor Warned Him
Allison was a pro on the track. But, in the air, he was an amateur at best. The NASCAR champion’s flight instructor, John Corley, told the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), that Allison was “about average” for a pilot with his experience. However, Corley noted that Allison had a tendency of hovering far higher than recommended and approaching landings too fast and too shallow.
Worse yet, Corley told the NTSB that he and Allison had never once practiced landing with the wind behind them.
47. He Had Almost No Experience
When Allison attempted to set his bird down in a fenced media parking lot inside Talladega’s infield, disaster struck. The craft suddenly pitched nose-up and slammed into the ground. Investigators later established that he had logged just 54 total hours of helicopter flight time—45 of them in a smaller copter.
He had fewer than three hours in the Hughes 369HS he was flying that day.
48. His Friends Witnessed The Wreck
Allison’s friend Neil Bonnett sprinted to the crash site to render aid. He managed to pull Red Farmer free from the wreckage, but getting Allison out was a different story. The NASCAR champion was unresponsive, and it took the arrival of paramedics before rescuers could extract him, still unconscious and clinging to life.
49. He Left the World at 32
Allison never regained consciousness from the copter crash. An operation to relieve pressure on his brain had not succeeded—and nothing seemed likely to. The following morning, on July 13, 1993, a neurosurgeon at Carraway Methodist Medical Center in Birmingham pronounced the worst: Davey Allison was gone. He was just 32 years old.
Robert Alexander, Getty Images
50. He Was The One At Fault
The NTSB’s March 1995 report placed the blame squarely on Allison’s inexperience, citing his “poor in-flight decision to land downwind in a confined area that was surrounded by high obstructions”. They said that Allison had failed to account for the tailwind. Investigators confirmed there was no evidence of mechanical fatigue in the craft prior to impact.
Allison’s family, however, saw it differently.
51. His Estate Sued
In January 1994, Allison’s estate launched a $25 million lawsuit against McDonnell Douglas, the helicopter manufacturer, alleging a factory defect. The family had a metallurgist testify that the magnesium collective socket had contained air pockets and paint the minute it left the factory. A judge ultimately ruled against Allison’s estate, noting that Allison had removed other safety features.
Nevertheless, McDonnell Douglas settled for an undisclosed sum in 1996 without admitting fault. No amount of money could replace what NASCAR fans had lost.
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52. He Won The Final Race
Mario Andretti, Roger Penske, Mark Martin, Darrell Waltrip, Bill Elliott, and Rusty Wallace were among the thousands who gathered to pay their final respect to Allison. Another 4,000 mourners filed past his closed wooden casket at the Bessemer, Alabama wake with the Reverent Louis Giardino offering this to the congregation: “Davey has beat us to heaven. What a great race to win”.
53. His Fans Were His Team
Even from the grave, Allison continued setting records. He entered the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1998, the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2021, and the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2019. His widow, Liz, perhaps captured his enduring hold on people best: “He just had a way of being able to relate and the fans felt like they were truly a part of Davey—a part of his team”.
Brian Lawdermilk, Getty Images
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