Hard to believe Davey would have turned 60 today. Gone but never forgotten!!! RIP sir. NASCAR has never been the same...for me anyway.
FreeBird
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Hard to believe Davey would have turned 60 today. Gone but never forgotten!!! RIP sir. NASCAR has never been the same...for me anyway.
FreeBird
60 years old. Wow. He seemed so young when he died
The 90s represented a decade of growth and popularity for NASCAR. Not only in Cup but also in the way the Truck Series was taking off. For a lot of fans, we got to see drivers who we followed in their early careers on short tracks, bull rings, and regional tours finally make it to the big leagues. The 90s also represented heartache for a whole bunch of fans.
For me, Davey Allison would have been at the top of that list of heartache. I really liked Davey and his promise. There was great expectations for what he and Robert Yates were going to be able to achieve and it seemed like the sky was the limit. His early passing was a gut punch when I heard the news, especially only a few months after Alan Kulwicki.
From Tim Richmond's passing in 1989 up to Adam Petty in 2000, there were some names there that would have very likely changed the face of Cup racing. There certainly would have been a shake up in the championship standings from year to year and I really doubt that someone would have won as many as they did in the late 90s.
What could have been.
Happy heavenly birthday to Davey, one of the "Alabama Gang" good ole boys!!
One of my favorites. Used the same colors scheme on my race car. Not the same layout just the same colors.
Thoughtful, insightful post, Morgs. Davey, Alan and Tim were horrific losses to NASCAR and racing in general.
I would only add that we shouldn't forget up and coming drivers Blaise Alexander and Tony Roper who died from the same exact injuries that took the lives of Adam Petty and arnhead during the same time period. And, although Neil Bonnet was in the final years of his career in 1994 he was a terrible loss to NASCAR and racing and was destined to continue to be a hit as a NASCAR TV color commentator, as well. Nothing substantial was done to prevent basil skull fracture deaths of drivers until arnhead met his fate against the turn 4 wall at Daytona. If only NASCAR would have taken the same action following Neil's death in February of '94 as they did in 2001 after arnhead's death we may have seen the career's of those other drivers develop and blossom and arnhead would quite possibly be enjoying his retirement these days.
Kid, even though I was very young at the time I had the honor of being at Daytona and watching Bobby and Davey run 1 & 2 in the 500 and we were also in the stands at Daytona when Davey ultimately won the 500 4 years later. We'll never know but Davey may well have had a career as successful as his dad's, which is saying something!!
I think he would have had a great career maybe better than his dad and yes that's saying something.
Watched Davey at the Springfield Mo ˝ mile, ARCA, when he first started his career. Later in life I visited Daga’ a week after the helicopter crash. It was still taped off. Very sad moment.
Lurker, I watched Davey at Springfield too, but it was on the dirt at the Springfield Mile in an ARCA car. He didn't fair so well that day on the dirt but he was there giving it his all. Bobby was at Springfield that day spotting for Davey. Davey got crossed up getting into turn 3 and wadded the car up pretty bad. He ran the ARCA 200 miler on the dirt at Du Quoin 2 weeks later.
On a side note: Maybe its just me getting a lot older --- but when some of us older fans of Motorsports reminisce past racer “names” of the sport, I don’t think today’s youth fan really understand the who and what we watched.