It's been 26 years since the racing world lost a Great One !

Posted by Wayne G.Barber

Would Jeff Gordon have been so dominant with Davey Allison, Allen Kulwicki and Adam Petty in the same field for 36 races a year ?

David Carl Alexander Allison (February 25, 1961 – July 13, 1993) was a NASCAR driver. He was best known for driving the No. 28 Texaco-Havoline Ford for Robert Yates Racing in the Winston Cup Series (Now Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series). Born in Hollywood, Florida, he was the eldest of four children born to Bobby Allison and wife Judy. The family moved to Hueytown, Alabama, and along with Bobby's brother Donnie Allison, family friend Red Farmer, and Neil Bonnett, became known in racing circles as the Alabama Gang. 
Three days after Kulwicki's death in an airplane crash, Davey Allison finished fifth in an emotional race at Bristol. He followed that finish with a fourth at North Wilkesboro, second at Martinsville, seventh at Talladega, and 15th at Sears Point. He finished a 30th in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, but rebounded at Dover, finishing third. He was sixth at Pocono, but finished 35th at Michigan and 31st at Daytona. Halfway through the 1993 season, Davey was fifth in the point standings, but was 323 points behind leader Dale Earnhardt. Still, Davey and the Robert Yates team were confident that they could put their early season struggles and inconsistency behind them and could make a run for the championship in the second half. The inaugural race at New Hampshire International Speedway proved the team's optimism was not unfounded. Davey led 38 laps of the event and finished third behind Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin. 

On July 12, 1993, Allison boarded his newly acquired Hughes 369HS helicopter to fly to Talladega Superspeedway to watch family friend Neil Bonnett and his son David test a car for David's Busch Series debut. He picked up another family friend, racer Red Farmer, en route to the track. Allison was attempting to land the helicopter inside a fenced-in area of the track infield when the craft nosed up suddenly, then crashed. The National Transportation Safety Board^[8] (NTSB) blamed the crash on Allison's inexperience in helicopters, coupled with the decision to attempt a landing. Neil Bonnett freed the semi-conscious Farmer from the wreckage, but Allison was unresponsive and could not be freed until paramedics arrived. Farmer went on to a lengthy but successful recovery, but Allison never regained consciousness after sustaining a critical head injury. He was pronounced dead at 7:00 a.m. the next morning by a neurosurgeon at Carraway Methodist Medical Center in Birmingham after a procedure to relieve pressure on his brain proved unsuccessful.^[9]

Thousands packed the auditorium at St. Aloysious Church in Bessemer, Alabama, to pay their respects at his funeral. He is buried near his brother, Clifford, in Bessemer's Highland Memorial Gardens. His organs except his corneas were donated.^[10]

After the final race of the season, series champion Dale Earnhardt and race winner Rusty Wallace drove a side-by-side Polish Victory Lap carrying flags for fallen drivers Alan Kulwicki and Allison. In his short NASCAR Winston Cup career, Allison posted 19 wins, 66 top-five finishes, and 92 top-ten finishes. He also won 14 poles and earned $6,724,174. He is survived by his wife, Liz, and two children: daughter Krista Marie and son Robert "Robbie" Grey. Source: Wikipedia Facts