Bobby Allison Wins In Father-Son Finale
Reprinted February 18, 1988 edition of Grand National Scene
By Steve Waid

In his 22 years of steady NASCAR Winston Cup competition, Bobby Allison has many fond memories of Daytona International Speedway. But it quite possible the 1988 Daytona 500 NASCAR Winston Cup race will head his list of treasured recollections.

By winning the classic race on the 2.5-mile Daytona track, the 50-year-old Allison established records, enhanced his position as one of NASCAR’s premier drivers and completed Speed Weeks with an account of success seldom complied by any competitor. 

The victory was Allison’s third in the Daytona 500, his last coming in 1982. he has now won 16 times at Daytona, making him the speedway’s all-time winningest driver and breaking him out of a tie with Cale Yarborough. He also moved ahead of Yarborough into third place on NASCAR’s all-time winners list with 84.

The Daytona 500 was Allison’s third win in four days at the track. He also won a 125-mile qualifying race on Feb. 11 and the Goody’s 300 Busch Series race on Feb. 13. in the Feb. 7 Busch Clash, he logged a third-place finish.

Further, Allison gave General Motors’ squad of “new” cars a victory as he won in a Stavola/Miller American Buick Regal prepared in the team shops in Harrisburg, N.C.

“But all of that is probably secondary to the emotional charge Allison must have felt as he battled his 26-year-old son Davey for the win. Davey, in the Ranier/Havoline Ford Thunderbird, was the only other competitor who had a remote chance of upending the elder Allison over the race’s final few laps.

Although he didn’t do it, he made a noble effort, putting his car under his father’s as the two came around the third and fourth turns on the final lap. He finished second by two and one-half car lengths.

“It was really good to be in front,” said Bobby Allison. “It was a great feeling to look back and see somebody you think is the best coming up and know it is your own son. It is a very special feeling and it is hard to put into words.”

“I’ve got mixed emotions,” said Davey. “I had a lot of dreams when I was growing up. And one of them was to be battling my dad to the wire in a race. The only difference is I wanted to finish first.”

The Allisons became the first father-son combination to sweep the two two positions in a NASCAR Winston Cup — formerly Grand National — event since Lee Petty beat son Richard at Heidelberg Raceway in Pittsburgh on July 10, 1960.

After his victories in the qualifier and the Goody’s 300, Allison was listed as a strong favorite to win the Daytona 500. His Buick was as powerful as predicted as Allison led seven times for 70 laps, tops among all competitors and one more than Darrell Waltrip in the Hendrick/Tide Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS.

Among the contenders all day, Bobby Allison moved into second place with his son in tow on lap 152 and then snatched the lead from Waltrip on lap 155. Four laps later, Davey moved into second place and the trio of the Allisons and Waltrip opened up a 4/16-second margin on a pack led by Buddy Baker in the Red Baron Pizza Oldsmobile Cutlass and Dale Earnhardt in the Childress/GM Goodwrench Chevrolet.

On lap 162, Bobby gave way to his son when he pitted for gas and began a stream of green-flag pit stops. Davey followed on lap 164. So did the rest of the leaders save Waltrip, who remained on the track until lap 176 and had built up a 36-second margin on the field. Waltrip spent 10 seconds in the pits getting fuel.

Asked if he was worried Waltrip’s margin might be too much to overcome, Bobby Allison said, “We got the information that when he came out of the pit he would be five or six seconds ahead of us. Davey and I were hooked up in a draft and we were making up five to six-tenths of a second on him, so have no doubt we would have caught him.”

The matter became academic on lap 177, when Harry Gant brought out the race’s sixth caution flag when he crashed in the second turn. After another series of pit stops, the race was restarted on lap 183 with Phil Parsons in the Crown/Skoal Classic Oldsmobile the leader. Davey Allison followed, then Waltrip and Bobby Allison.

Before the lap was completed, Bobby Allison had moved into the lead with Davey right behind him. Then, on lap 185, something gave out in Waltrip’s engine and he quickly faded, losing the five-car draft.

Debris on the track brought out the seventh and final caution on lap 188 but two laps later, the race resumed with a tight five-car pack consisting of the Allisons, Baker, Parsons and Terry Labonte leading the way. Waltrip hovered back in 11th place.

On lap 192, Baker moved into second place in the third turn, but Davey Allison quickly moved alongside him to retake the position. Caught outside the draft, Baker drifted to eighth place.

Just four laps from the finish of the 200-lap race, a 13-car draft was formed but Bobby Allison’s point position wasn’t challenged until the last lap. Between turns three and four, Davey took the low route and while he pulled within striking distance of his father, he could not pass. His father led the final 18 laps.

“I knew my best bet was to help Dad get away far enough so I could protect second place and make a move if I could,” said Davey. “I knew he had been watching how I passed everyone earlier. He knew my car was working really well on the outside, so there was no way he would give up the outside line. That’s why he was up there in between turns three and four.

“So I tried to fake that I was going high and get under him. I knew if I was successful, the only way I was going to win was by a few inches”

“I think the reason I went up front as often as I could was my impression that my car was the best one left,” said Bobby Allison, whose victory was worth $202,940. “Darrell was strong, but I felt I was slightly stronger. Then something happened to him and he faded. So my impression was to get the lead and not get hung up with someone in a fairly good car and get the sheet metal bent up.

“I saw the nose of Davey’s car out of the corner of my eye, but I thought I had enough suds to beat him.”

Asked if he had any concern he would become involved in a race-ending mishap with his father as the two battled for the lead, Davey Allison said, “I grew up working with this guy and I know how fair he is on the track. If my car could beat his, then it would. But he would make it very tough on me. He would never wreck me.”

“Throughout my career I’ve tried to play it straight,” Bobby said. “And racing against the best youngster to come along, I wouldn’t do it any other way.”

Parsons came home third for his best career finish while Neil Bonnett took fourth in the Rahmoc/Valvoline Pontiac Grand Prix, Terry Labonte rounded out the top five in the Johnson/Budweiser Chevrolet, meaning the top five finishing positions were occupied by five different car makes.

The race was marred by one serious multicar accident which took place on lap 106 and brought out the fourth caution period of the day. Richard Petty’s STP Pontiac broke loose in the fourth turn and was clipped by A.J. Foyt’s Copenhagen Oldsmobile and Phil Barkdoll’s Helen Rae Special Ford. Petty’s car got airborne and then completed six barrel rolls near and against the outside wall before coming to a halt at the start of the front trioval. The rear end of the car shredded apart against the wall.

Cars shot in all directions around Petty’s mass of mangled metal but the Crisco/Motorcraft Ford couldn’t avoid making contact, slamming into Petty one last time. Damaged in the incident were the cars of Bodine, Foyt, Rusty Wallace, Alan Kulwicki, Phil Barkdoll and Eddie Bierschwale. Of the group, Barkdoll, Foyt and Bodine retired. None of the drivers were injured.

After witnessing the nerve-shaking spectacle, many observers figured Petty was seriously injured — or worse. However, after reporting to Halifax Medical Center for treatment of a possible concussion and a sore right ankle, Petty was released.

The race continued for 20 laps at a crawl while crews replaced two fenceposts and retightened the safety cable on the front grandstand fence at the trioval. That contributed to the race’s average speed of 137.531 mph — slowest for the Daytona 500 since 1960, when Junior Johnson won at 124.740 mph.

Other incidents included Connie Saylor’s wreck in the fourth turn which created the second yellow-flag period and Cale Yarborough’s spin in turn four which produced caution period No. 3. Derrike Cope spun in the second turn on lap 177 to force yellow flag number five, after which came Gant’s spin in the same location.

With 25 lead changes among 12 drivers, the race was more competitive than many had anticipated. During the week, it became evident that the Winston Cup car equipped with the one-inch carburetor restrictor plates mandated by NASCAR at Daytona and Talladega, Ala., was difficult and passing could only be done if one car pulled out of the draft to help another. Further, Allison said after his win in the Goody’s 300 drivers were becoming involved in incidents because they showed “disrespect” for speed and position.

That didn’t seem to be the case in the Daytona 500, however.

“There was a lot of beating and banging but I think were also a couple of important differences,” Bobby said. “Two things happened. People showed more respect than they did earlier in the week and they learned how to cope with what we had to do. They learned how to run side-by-side out there and maybe experience some bent metal without ending up in a lump in the infield.”

The elder Allison allowed that three wins at one track visit was the most he had accomplished in Winston Cup competition.

“I did have a double at Talladega in 1971 and at Charlotte (N.C.) one other time,” he said. “It’s just a big thrill for me and it hasn’t taken a toll at all.

“I think of things in threes. I won the qualifier and the Goody’s 300, but then I had also won the boat for winning the ‘fish off’ in the fishing tournament they have at the infield lake here. I caught a giant fish. It was a largemouth bass and the largest thing about it was its mouth.

“So going into today’s race, that had me a bit concerned.”

But he didn’t race like it. He raced like he always has for three hours, 38 minutes and eight seconds.

“You always have to have support and on this team, I have it,” he said. “With the Stavola brothers, Ron Puryear (team manager) and Jimmy Fennig (crew chief) and the crew, it makes for the kind of team you need to win. I’ve been with teams in the past that weren’t like that and when there was a poor performance, occasionally it was blamed on the driver.

“I guess this proves I’m a late bloomer.”

“I think it proves he’s a winner,” said Davey Allison. And he should know.

See Also:
Spectacular Crash Leaves Petty With Minor Injuries
1988 Daytona 500 Photo Gallery