1985: NASCAR Driver Bobby Allison during a car race. Mandatory Credit: Allsport USA/ALLSPORT
Of all the people who have competed or held some role in NASCAR's top division, one would be hard pressed to find an individual with a stronger firsthand recognition of the dark side of racing - and life - than Bobby Allison.
One of the sport's greatest drivers, Bobby is tied with Darrell Waltrip on the all-time wins list with 84. He claimed but one championship, in 1983, and had a fairly eclectic list of car owners, owing somewhat to a strong-willed personality that led him to clash at times with such fellow stars as Waltrip, Richard Petty, and, of course, Cale Yarborough.
He was a popular figure and one of the founders of the famed "Alabama Gang," though he himself was born and grew up in Miami.
The last of Allison's 84 - though the unofficial tally is 85 - victories in what is now the Sprint Cup Series was the 1988 Daytona 500. Driving Bill and Mickey Stavola's #12 Miller High Life car, he out-dueled son Davey, the reigning rookie of the year, in one of the most talked about and most popular Daytona 500s in the event's 52-year history.
Twelve races into that 1988 season, after the final event at Riverside International Raceway, he sat sixth in the points, just 182 points behind leader Rusty Wallace and 78 markers behind eventual champion Bill Elliott.
The Miller High Life 500 at Pocono Raceway, held one week later on June 19, 1988, was the genesis of Bobby Allison's personal living hell.
On the very first lap, Allison radioed to his team that a tire was going down. His car spun in turn two - the famous tunnel turn - and was left sitting in the middle of the track. Most of the traffic got by safely, but journeyman racer Jocko Maggiacomo could not avoid Allison. He slammed into the driver's side door of the gold and white Buick.
A tracheotomy performed on the scene kept Bobby alive, but there was little hope that he would survive the night.
Ultimately, against the odds, Bobby Allison triumphed one more time. It was far from a sweet victory, however.
His legendary driving career was over. He was alive but broken, and would spend years recovering from the immense physical trauma inflicted by Maggiacomo's race car. In addition, and perhaps even more cruelly, his memory had also been damaged in the crash. The wonderful story of the 1988 Daytona 500 was - and remains - but a blank page in his mind.
The toll that crash had taken on his mind and body, however, was little compared to what the coming years would do to his heart.
Bobby returned to the Cup Series as a car owner in 1990, fielding a #12 Buick, like the car he had last driven, with sponsorship from Raybestos.
His first driver, Mike Alexander, was the man who had taken over the driving duties of Bobby's car after the Pocono crash. Alexander had been injured himself in a short track crash the previous year, and would last seven races before effectively retiring.
Hut Stricklin, who was married to one of Bobby's nieces, took over the car and showed flashes of brilliance in his three years in the car, but never visited victory lane.
While Bobby Allison the car owner was struggling to gain a footing in the Cup Series - ultimately never winning a race from 1990-96 with drivers such as Jimmy Spencer and Derrike Cope - Bobby Allison the dad was seemingly on top of the world.
Davey Allison had gone from being "Bobby's kid" to being a superstar driver in his own right. He had a legion of fans, including a then-five-year-old boy who is the writer of this story. In 1991 he scored five wins and finished third in the final points. He had opened the 1992 season by joining his father as a Daytona 500 champion, and for much of the early part of the season looked like a certainty to win the title.
His younger brother, Clifford, meanwhile, was on his way up, competing in what is now the NASCAR Nationwide Series.
Though the lingering effects of his crash might have still given him problems, life seemed to be heading in the right direction for Bobby.
But then, over a 20-month span, Allison endured heartache that would bring even the strongest of men to the brink.
The precursor was, fittingly, at Pocono. Davey suffered one of the worst crashes in recent memory at the time, going airborne off the nose of Darrell Waltrip and barrel-rolling several times. Though some feared the worst - Mark Martin remarked on his radio that there was no way anyone could have survived that crash - Davey escaped with a mild head injury and a broken wrist.
In view of the sheer horror of the crash, there was no shortage of praises to the Good Lord for bringing Davey through the accident and sparing the Allison clan another tragedy like the one in 1988.
Less than a month later, they would not be as fortunate.
On August 13, 1992, Clifford Allison was driving for his dad's Busch Grand National team at the Michigan International Speedway when he spun and slammed the wall in a practice session. He was killed instantly.
The family pressed on in spite of the loss of Clifford, who was 28 at the time of his death, with Davey locked in a tight championship battle on the Cup side. He appeared to have the upper hand late in the season finale at Atlanta Motor Speedway, but when Ernie Irvan spun in front of him, Davey had no where to go. Just like that, his championship bid was over.
Davey and Bobby each entered the 1993 season with high hopes. Davey was the popular pick to unseat Alan Kulwicki as Winston Cup champion, while Bobby had new blood and a new sponsor for his #12 team, with Spencer now driving the Meineke Ford.
As the Cup Series navigated the early months of the season, which were marred by the loss of Kulwickiin a plane crash on April 1, bothseemed to be where they wanted to be. Davey was fifth in points after the season's 16th race at New Hampshire, having placed 3rd in that event, while Spencer was a solid 12th in the standings.
Then, on July 12, 1993, the unthinkable happened.
Davey was piloting his helicopter to the Talladega Superspeedway to watch Neil Bonnett, Bobby's best friend and a fellow Alabama Gang Member, and his son, David, test, when the chopper crashed in the track's infield. Red Farmer, the Alabama racing legend, survived the crash with broken bones. Davey suffered massive head injuries.
Recalling the miracle survival of Bobby just five years earlier, everyone prayed that somehow, some way, Davey would come through this and maybe one day return to racing and fulfill what had seemingly been his destiny, to join his father as one of NASCAR's greatest drivers.
Those prayers went unanswered. On the morning of July 13, 1993, exactly eleven months to the day of Clifford's death, David Carl Allison passed away at the age of 32.
While the devestated Robert Yates Racing team, for which Davey had driven, chose not to travel to the next race on the schedule, Bobby's team did make the journey to the event, which was at Pocono. Yes, Pocono.
The loss of two of NASCAR's shining stars shook the sport to its very core. The loss of Bobby Allison's two sons brought him to his breaking point.
And then, in February 1994, as if the seemingly endless heartache he had already endured wasn't enough, he lost his closest friend when Bonnett was killed during a practice session at Daytona while attempting to make a comeback at age 46 from head injuries he had suffered in a 1990 wreck at Darlington.
The unfathomable tragedies ripped the Allison clan apart, as Bobby and his wife seperated. He continued to field his own #12 team, but finally shut the doors after the 1996 season, when sponsorship and other financial woes put an end to Bobby Allison Motorsports.
Ultimately, Bobby and Judy Allison would reconcile and eventually remarry after joining to help comfort Kyle and Patty Petty, who had just lost their son Adam, in May of 2000.
Today, Bobby is a frequent sight at NASCAR Sprint Cup races and other events, often though his association with Coca-Cola, a longtime sponsor during his driving days. He is likely to be elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame this fall, and it is probable that Davey will one day join him in enshrinement.
He remains popular among fans, but he is also acknowledged as NASCAR's unofficial "tragic figure." Indeed, it is difficult to comprehend the seven years Bobby Allison endured from 1988 through 1994.
He is known almost as much for personal tragedies as he is for his spectacular driving career, his three Daytona 500 wins, his fight with Cale Yarborough while brother Donnie looked on after Cale and Donnie had crashed in the 1979 500, his 1983 championship, and the day that perhaps NASCAR's greatest father and son tandem dueled for the victory on the sport's grandest stage.