Donnie Allison

posted by admin on August 23, 2011

Donnie Allison (source : www.bobbyallison.com)

Dunkiny Allison, better known as Donnie, was born on the 7th of September 1939 in Miami, Florida. He is the younger brother of Bobby Allison, the 1983 NASCAR Champion. It was Bobby who persuaded Donnie and their friend, Red Farmer to leave Florida to look for richer pickings at the race tracks in Alabama where they later became known as the “Alabama Gang”.

In 1959 the three hopefuls moved to Hueytown, Alabama in search of fame and fortune. Donnie was a natural race car driver and during his career which spanned over the 1960’s, 1970’s and the 1980’s he drove in just about every type of race car ever created. He has had ten victories in the Grand National Series (now the Sprint Cup Series) including victories in the 1970 Firecracker 400 at Daytona and the 1978 Atlanta 500. Such is his ability to drive almost anything he is considered by many to be the best and most accomplished “crossover” drivers in history. Proof of his ability came in 1970 when he finished in fourth place in the 1970 Indy 500 driving an A.J. Foyt entry and took the Chase “Rookie of the Year” honours on the lead lap of the “500″ (this accomplishment was not achieved again for twenty three years) then, that same weekend he went to Charlotte Motor Speedway and won the NASCAR World 600 event.

“I’m not much into statistics or that kind of stuff,” said Donnie, “But a couple of people told me that, and you better check it to make sure.” Other well known NASCAR drivers, including his brother, Bobby, ran in the Indy 500 but Donnie was the most successful, running it twice and finishing sixth in 1971 in his second start. A.J. Foyt, every so often, went south to compete and was well-known among the Southern faithful. “I kept saying to Foyt: ‘When are you going to let me run an Indy car? When are you going to let me run an Indy car?” said Donnie.

“He kept saying, ‘Aw, you’re a taxi driver”. “In 1970, I talked to him at Daytona, and he said OK. ‘70 was quite an experience. I crashed in practice, and it took us seven days to fix the car. Once we got the car together, I ran faster than I had all month. I liked it. I enjoyed it. The Indy cars are quite a bit lighter, more acceleration and horsepower, but I thought they drove easier. I didn’t have a problem to adapt because I ran a lot of super-modifieds. It was the first time that I started three abreast, but that didn’t seem too awkward to me. I never even thought about it. In ‘71, I wanted to run the championship. I went to Ontario and it was terrible, went to Milwaukee and ran pretty good, then went to Pocono and ran really good but crashed.”

Donnie won more than 500 short-track races throughout his driving career. He was NASCAR’s 1967 “Rookie of the Year”, the 1970 Indy 500 “Rookie of the Year” and the 1970 Sportsman Series Most Popular Driver. Many NASCAR fans will remember Donnie’s clash with Cale Yarborough during the 1979 Daytona 500 when Donnie was leading in the final lap and Yarborough drafting him closely. Cale Yarborough attempted his signature slingshot pass at the end of the back stretch and Donnie tried to block him. Cale Yarborough refused to give ground and as they ran side by side the tyres on the left of Cale’s car went onto the muddy grass on the tracks infield, forcing him to lose control of his car, subsequently hitting Donnie’s car. With both drivers fighting to regain control the cars made contact several times more before finally becoming locked and crashed into the wall at turn three. Once the cars were on the grass and argument broke out between the men and at that point Bobby Allison who was lapped at this point, pulled over and began to defend his brother. This was the first NASCAR race to be televised on national television and in front of thousands of viewers a fight broke out, making headlines across America. The publicity was influential in the growth of NASCAR. Although Donnie never ran a full time schedule he took part in 242 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events, securing ten victories, 115 Top 10 finishes and seventeen poles over a career of twenty years.

When Donnie retired from racing he became a crew chief for Hut Stricklin, his son-in-law and for Joe Nemecheck. He also worked as a consultant for new up and coming teams. He worked an advisor to drivers including Bobby Hamilton, Ricky Craven and his nephew, Davey Allison. The Allison name continues in NASCAR with Donnie’s 17-year-old grandson Justin running Allison Legacy cars at places like Hickory, Rockingham and Orange County in North Carolina and Dillon, S.C. “He’s a good driver and with the right breaks, you’ll see an Allison right up there again,” Donnie said. “I’m the crew chief, chief mechanic and everything on the car. I still have my farm in Alabama, but my whole family is over here. I have two great-grandchildren.” As part owner of Allison Brothers Race Cars Inc., Donnie was active with his sons in the business of building race cars.

References:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/donnie_allison/biography.php

http://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/history/43764/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donnie_Allison

http://www.nascar.com/news/features/families.allison/index.html