History

Bobby Allison

• Tools:
• Printable View
• Share:
• Email a Friend
• Digg It
• del.icio.us
• Text Size:
• Larger
• Smaller
• Reset

Bobby Allison was a founding member of NASCAR’s fabled “Alabama Gang, but few know that he actually was born in and raised in Miami Florida. In his senior year of high school, Allison entered his first race in South Florida, but his budding career was cut short by his father, who wanted Bobby to stop racing after witnessing his first few wrecks. After graduating, Bobby and his brother Donnie relocated in Alabama in search of more fertile racing ground. They settled in Hueytown and a legend was born.

This full-time mechanic and engine tester raced part-time until 1962 when he won NASCAR’s national championship in the modified special division. 1965 saw Allison move up to the big time of the NASCAR Grand National division where he would win 84 races at NASCAR’s highest level. Allison’s first Daytona 500 start was in 1961. It would take him 18 years to win his first in 1978, but by then, when most driver careers decline, Allison was in his prime. He would go on to win two more Daytona 500s past the age of 40 and his 1988 victory is the only one posted by a driver over the age of 50.

The 1983 NASCAR Cup champion, Allison is tied for third on NASCAR all-time Cup Series win list. In 718 races over a 25-year period, Allison compiled 446 top-10 finishes and 58 poles. Outside of his achievements in NASCAR, Allison became an International Race of Champions (IROC) Series champion in1980. He was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1993, and named one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998.