Nascar History, The Alabama Gang

The Alabama Gang was the nickname for a group of NASCAR drivers who set up shop and operated out of Hueytown, Alabama, near Birmingham, Alabama.
In the late 1950s, young auto racer Bobby Allison left Miami, Florida, looking for an area that had more opportunities to race. He discovered central Alabama in his travels. The region was dotted with small dirt tracks, and Allison won big his first few times out. He returned to Florida to pick up his brother Donnie Allison, and friend Red Farmer.

The trio set up shop in Hueytown, Alabama, and were dominant throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. In 1973, Jimmy Means joined the gang. Beginning in 1979, their sons and contemporaries began racing, and became known as members of the Alabama Gang themselves. Bobby's son Davey Allison, and fellow Hueytown residents Neil Bonnett, and David Bonnett. Hut Stricklin, who married Donnie's daughter, became the last member of the Alabama Gang.

Other drivers (notably Dale Earnhardt) were great friends with members of this group, and while not Alabama residents, these other drivers became associated with the Alabama Gang.

All of the original members of the Alabama Gang have been inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame. Davey Allison's little brother, Clifford Allison followed the Alabama Gang tradition, but while practicing for a Busch Series race in Michigan, he spun out in turn 4 and was killed. Davey Allison died in a helicopter crash at Talladega Superspeedway in 1993. Then Neil Bonnett died while practicing for the 1994 Daytona 500. Bobby Allison retired in 1988 after suffering injuries in a race at Pocono Raceway that nearly cost him his life. Farmer, the oldest member of the "Gang," was injured in the helicopter crash that took Davey Allison's life, but recovered and continues to race at short tracks today, well into his 70s.

Hueytown memorialized the racers by renaming its main street Allison-Bonnett Memorial Drive. There are other tributes to the "Gang" around the city. Other streets bear names of the members, including Davey Allison Boulevard, and certain local businesses also have paid tribute to the famous drivers. A Honda automobile dealership located in Hueytown was named Neil Bonnett Honda for many years, but it was renamed Serra Honda in 2006. Additionally, the Seal of the City of Hueytown features two checkered flags, acknowledging the large part racing has played in the city's history.

During the course of his career, Bobby Allison accumulated 84 victories, which ties him for third all-time with Darrell Waltrip, including three victories at the Daytona 500 in 1978, 1982 and 1988, where he finished one-two with his son, Davey Allison. He was also the NASCAR Winston Cup Champion in 1983 driving for DiGard Racing. Additionally, Allison ran in the Indianapolis 500 twice, with a best finish of 25th in 1975.

Officially, according to NASCAR.com, Bobby Allison has won 84 races, placing him in third place on the all-time wins list, tied with Darrell Waltrip. Unofficially, Bobby Allison has won 85 races, and should be possibly be credited with 86 wins. The controversy lies in two races: the 1971 Myers Brothers 250 held at Bowman Gray Stadium (Winston-Salem, North Carolina), and the 1973 National 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. (Charlotte, North Carolina.)


Donnie Allison won ten times in his nascar career which spanned the 1960's, 970's, and early 80's.
Donnie is possibly most remembered for his involvement in a final-lap crash and subsequent fight with Cale Yarborough at the 1979 Daytona 500.
Donnie also competed in the Indianapolis 500 twice, finishing 4th and winning Rookie of the Year in 1970 and finishing 6th in 1971.
In 1970 Donnie entered racing history books by finishing fourth in the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and then won the World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, remarkably in the same weekend. He is noted as the most successful cross-over driver from stock cars to Indy cars in history.
Donnie was also awarded the 1967 Rookie of the Year, the 1970 Indianapolis Rookie of the Year, and the 1970 Sportsman Most Popular Driver honors. To his credit, he has 10 Winston Cup wins in 239 starts, 78 top five finishes, and 115 top ten finishes. Donnie has been crew chief for his son-in-law, Hut Stricklin, and also Joe Nemechek.

Charles "Red" Farmer has won more than 748 races in his long career, which continues today in his 70's.
His first race was at Opa-locka Speedway near Miami, Florida in a 1934 Ford in 1946.
Estimates of Farmer's career victories range from 700 to 900 victories, most occurring in the late 1950s and early 60's. He raced 36 NASCAR races from 1953 to 1975.
He was the NASCAR National Late Model Sportsman champion (later Busch Series) for three consecutive years from 1969 to 1971. Farmer's best finish in NASCAR's top division was a fourth at both the 1972 Talladega 500 , and the 1968 Middle Georgia 500 near Macon, Georgia). He had so few Cup races because he was content to run primarily in the Late Model Sportsman. He was named NASCAR's most popular driver 4 times. Red later raced in the white and gold #97 car. In the mid 60's, however, Red raced a white, gold, and red Ford Fairlane, #F-97.

He was Davey Allison's crew chief in the Busch Series.

Red has retained his skills as a driver in spite of his age. He competed in 2 Busch Grand National races in 1992. On June 2005, Farmer, now over 70, turned heads in winning a heat over current NASCAR NEXTEL Cup stars, and finished 8th in the feature during the Nextel Prelude to the Dream at Eldora Speedway, owned by Tony Stewart.


Davey Allison was the eldest of four children born to NASCAR driver Bobby Allison and wife Judy.
Davey qualified Hoss Ellington's Chevrolet 22nd and finished 10th in his first Winston Cup start. This impressive showing earned Davey more Winston Cup opportunities in 1986 where he would sub for injured friend and fellow Alabama Gang member Neil Bonnett in Junior Johnson's #12 Budweiser Chevy.
Prior to the 1987 season, car owner Harry Ranier tapped Davey to replace veteran driver Cale Yarborough in the Ranier-Lundy #28 Ford Thunderbird.
On qualifiying day, Davey signalled that he was in Winston Cup to stay when he qualified an unmarked, but Texaco-Havoline painted #28 Thunderbird second for the 1987 Daytona 500, becoming the first rookie ever to start on the front row for NASCAR's most prestigious event.
May 3, 1987, Davey ran the Winston 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. He qualified Third, with Father Bobby in second.
Bobby would wreck out in a horrific crash at over 200 mph. Bobby was fine, but many fans were injured as parts of his car
went flying into the stands, his car ripped down a large section of the retaining fence in front of the grandstands.
After this race, restrictor plates became the norm at the Super-Speedways. After the caution to clean up this wreck,
Davey continued to run up front and when Elliott exited the race with engine failure, Davey's toughest competition was eliminated. With darkness falling on the Talladega Superspeedway during a late caution flag, the decision was made to end the race 10 laps short of its 188 lap distance. Running second on the restart, Davey passed leader Dale Earnhardt on the backstretch and pulled away for his first Winston Cup win. In winning the race, Davey became the first rookie since Ron Bouchard in 1981 to win a Winston Cup event.
Davey would better that feat just 28 days later by winning the Budweiser 500 at Dover International Speedway (then the Dover Downs International Speedway), becoming, at the time, the only rookie to win two Winston Cup events. In all, Davey started 22 of the 29 Winston Cup races in 1987, winning twice, and scoring nine top-five and 10 top-ten finishes. He also won five poles in his rookie season.
Statistically, 1992 was Davey Allison's best season in Winston Cup racing. And yet, it was also a very painful and heartwrenching season. Davey started sixth in the 1992 Daytona 500 but was probably not quite as fast as the Junior Johnson teammates of Bill Elliott and Sterling Marlin.
He would lead 127 laps to join his father as a Daytona 500 winner.
Davey won the pole for Pocono later in the season, and led 115 of the first 149 laps. But a lengthy pit stop during a caution flag sent him to the middle of the pack. On lap 150, Allison was charging back through the pack, followed closely by Darrell Waltrip. The two cars made contact and Davey went sliding into the grass off Pocono's "tunnel turn". The car went airborne and began a series of violent flips before landing on top of an infield guardrail. Miraculously, Davey survived the crash. He was airlifted to the hospital with a severe concussion, along with a broken arm, wrist, and collar bone. His 33rd place finish left him nine points behind Bill Elliott for the series title, but that seemed insignificant at the moment. Especially traumatizing was the fact that Pocono was the site of Davey's father Bobby's career-ending crash a few years earlier.
He started the next weeks race at Talladega, and was relieved by Bobby Hillin Jr.
Once healed, Davey headed to Michigan. Tragedy would strike again. While practicing for the Busch Series race, his little
brother Clifford crashed hard in three and four. He died en-route to the hospital. Heartbroken, Davey drove to a fifth place
finish, and then returned to Hueytown for Cliffords funeral.
Davey had a chance to win the Winston Million as the series headed to Darlington for the Southern 500. Davey led 72 laps of the event and was in contention to win, but soon after the leaders pitted for tires and fuel, rain halted the race with 69 laps left. Darrell Waltrip, gambling that the rains would come, did not pit and was leading the race when it was red flagged. He was declared the winner as darkness fell and the rains continued. Waltrip, who had long feuded with the Allisons, sat next to his car on pit road in lawn chair and held a colorful umbrella, gleefully joking that the rain shower was worth "one million dollars" to him.
Though 1992 had been a heartbreaking year for Davey Allison and the Robert Yates Racing team in more ways than one, they had to be encouraged by their run for the championship. But 1993 opened on a sour note with Allison finishing 28th at Daytona. That finish was followed by a 16th at Rockingham, but Davey rebounded to win at Richmond the following week. No one knew at the time, but it would be Davey Allison's last win.
Monday, July 12, 1993, Davey Allison boarded his newly acquired Hughes 369HS helicopter to fly to Talladega Superspeedway to watch family friends Neil Bonnett and David Bonnett test a car for David's Busch Series debut. He picked up another family friend, legendary 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.
Neil Bonnett was able to free a semi-conscious Red Farmer from the wreckage, but could not reach Allison. Paramedics arrived and freed Allison, who was alive but had suffered serious head injuries. He died the next morning, July 13, 1993.
In his short NASCAR Winston Cup career, Davey Allison posted 19 wins, 66 top-five and 92 top-ten finishes. He also won 14 poles and earned $6,724,174. He was survived by his wife, Liz, and two children, daughter Krista, and son Robert.

Neil Bonnett began his NASCAR career as a protégé of the great Bobby Allison, working on the team's cars.
He began driving in NASCAR in 1974 and earned his first victory in 1977 at the Capital City 400 in Richmond, Virginia. He later successfully won back-to-back World 600s (NASCAR's longest race, now the Coca-Cola 600) and back-to-back Busch Clash (now Bud Shootout) victories.
In 1984, Bonnett joined the powerful Junior Johnson team, becoming a teammate to Darrell Waltrip. In 1985, Bonnett had one of his best seasons, finishing fourth in the points standings while Waltrip went on to win his third championship.
On April 1, 1990, Neil Bonnett suffered a life-threatening crash during the TranSouth 500 at Darlington, South Carolina. Left with amnesia and dizziness, Bonnett retired from racing and turned to television, becoming a race color commentator for TNN, CBS Sports, and TBS Sports, and hosting the TV show Winners for TNN.
However, Bonnett still desired to continue racing. In 1992, he began testing cars for good friends Dale Earnhardt and car owner Richard Childress. Cleared to race again in 1993 and upon Earnhardt's suggestion, Childress gave Bonnett a ride for the 1993 DieHard 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. But Bonnett's comeback race was marred by a crash in which his car spun, became airborne, and crashed into the specator fence. Bonnett was uninjured and actually called the rest of the race from the CBS broadcast booth. He would also start the final race of the 1993 season in Atlanta, but he dropped out after just three laps. The reason the team gave for removing the car from the race was a blown engine, however Bonnett was teamed with points leader Dale Earnhardt, and the car was retired to assist Earnhardt in winning the season's championship. Earnhardt needed to maximize his finishing position, and by Bonnett quitting the race he was assured of those three championship points.
Despite the setbacks, Bonnett was encouraged because he had secured a ride and sponsorship for at least six races in the 1994 season with car owner James Finch, including the season opening Daytona 500. But on February 11, 1994, during the first practice session for the 1994 Daytona 500, Bonnett's car suffered a right front tire failure in the track's fourth turn. Bonnett's car hit the outside wall nearly head-on. Bonnett was taken to nearby Halifax Medical Center, but he had died on impact. He was survived by his wife, Susan, and their two children, son David Bonnett (had 19 Busch Series starts), and daughter, Kristen. In a tragic twist, Bonnett's close friend Dale Earnhardt would be killed in an almost identical crash in the same location on the same track a little over seven years later.


Was the Alabama gang cursed ? Many say they were. Many say the 28 car was cursed. I don't know. I do know there will never be another
collective group like The Alabama Gang.