Davey Allison posing with a fan at Pocono, Pennsylvania (source:Wiki Commons)

When Davey was growing up he played many sports including baseball, basketball and, his preference, mostly football but as so many sons of race car drivers he joined his father’s Winston Cup team after graduating from high school. Born on the 25^th February 1961 David Carl Allison was the eldest of four children born to NASCAR series champion, Bobby Allison and his wife Judy. He was born in Hollywood, Florida but the family later moved to Hueytown, Alabama, well know as the “biggest little racing town in the land”. From the age of twelve he was working, part time, at Bobby Allison Racing whilst still attending high school. His father insisted that he complete his education with a diploma and that a General Educational Development certificate (GED) would not be acceptable. It seems that Davey attended summer school to complete his education so that he could leave high school early to start working with his father. His father, Bobby, was determined to make sure that Davey had values and insisted that he worked hard for the things that he wanted. Consequently, Davey was only allowed to work on his own car, a Chevy Nova, after finishing a regular working day with his father. Not to be put off by this Davey and his friends, known as the "Peach Fuzz Gang" made the best of what was available, spending hours reconditioning second hand parts to be used for his car. On the 22^nd of April 1979 Bobby accompanied Davey, together with his friends to his first race at Birmingham International Raceway when he finished 20^th and after six starts at Birmingham Davey won his first race on the 5^th May 1979. This was not only Davey’s first year of racing but the first time father and son was to race against each other. This was a good year for a youngster who had built his own car from second hand parts and he had thirty four starts, five wins, twenty top fives and twenty nine top ten positions. Davey went from strength to strength, progressing from Limited Sportsman events, NASCAR Grand American, Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA), and Busch Grand National through to the Winston Cup. In 1983 he earned his first Superspeedway pole and first Superspeedway victory at Talladega. 1984 saw him as the ARCA “Rookie of the Year” and the first winner of the Bill France Triple Crown award. Continuing with ARCA saw him by the end of 1985 ARCA’s all time leader on Superspeedways. During his racing career with NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Davey drove in 191 races over a nine year period, he had nineteen wins, ninety two top ten and fourteen pole positions and with the NASCAR Nationwide Series he raced in eighty six races over a ten year period with no wins, thirty one top ten and two pole positions. Although his career was relatively short his credits were impressive. His achievements were Rookie of the year, 1987, Sprint All Star race V11 and V111 winner, 1987, Daytona 500 winner, 1992, IROC champion (posthumously), 1993 and named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers, 1998. Sadly, on 12^th July 1993 Davey was going to Talladega Superspeedway to watch a friend and his son, David, test a car for David’s Busch Series debut when he boarded his newly bought Hughes 369HS helicopter. On arrival at the track Davey was seriously injured whilst trying to land his helicopter, he died from head injuries the next day, 13^th July, at the Carraway Methodist Medical Centre and was buried near to his brother, Clifford, at Bessemer’s Highland Memorial Garden.

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Davey Allison - Wikipedia
Davey Allison Website
Davey Allison (1961 - 1993) - Find A Grave Memorial

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