“They won the race, but he sure paid the price for it.” The verdict on Davey Allison’s 1992 All-Star Race was simple. For fans, there have been many instances where the audience has had their jaws dropped at the events unfolding before them, but this one was different.
The 1992 Winston All-Star race at Charlotte had been nothing less than a thriller for the audience as the competition was tough, the enthusiasm was high, and the trophy was one. The first-ever night race conducted at a superspeedway turned out to be one of the most chaotic finishes of that time.
And to explain just how important the moment was, let’s hear from Kyle Petty himself. “It was crazy to think you could light this place. Most of us thought, from a drivers’ perspective, [half-mile tracks] go from light to dark to light to dark and that’s OK at 70 miles an hour. But at 170 or 180, when they said they were going to do it with lights and mirrors, I’m like, ‘Maybe smoke and mirrors.”
Considered one of the most competitive NASCAR races in the history of the sport with a $1 million prize, it continues to be remembered through the names of Dale Earnhardt and Kyle Petty, but most importantly, Davey Allison, who made the caution flag wave AFTER the race was won.
Allison was no ordinary man and definitely not on the night of the Winston All-Star Race at Charlotte. Having won the 1991 All-Star Race and several races in the Winston Cup Series, the driver had a hard-earned reputation on the field. Driving the infamous No. 28 Texaco-Havoline Ford for Robert Yates Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series, Allison became an idol for many with his exceptional racing tactics and noteworthy game control. But one race changed it all.
The 1992 edition of The Winston All-Star Race was at the Charlotte Motor Speedway —the heart of NASCAR —in the form of a 70-lap exhibition race. In a two-tire pit-stop qualifying run, Davey Allison won the pole and secured the first row in the actual showdown. On the day of the Cup race, Allison dominated the first 30 laps with ease, but what started as an ordinary night, trying to “light up the superspeedway”, took a solid turn as the race approached its end. But before we get to that, let’s take a look at what really happened. In a gimmick, 65% of fans voted to invert the field, and Allison went to the back of the pack, but not for long, as he would claw up to sixth place.
Up front, Kyle Petty, driving his Pontiac Grand Prix, started behind Bodine and Richard Petty, and fascinated the audience by zooming past them and moving into the second position. With just 4 laps to go, the competition between Kyle Petty and Dale Earnhardt was drawing in way too close as the duo battled for the lead. Being blocked aggressively down the backstretch by the Intimidator, Petty kicked up dust. Neither was backing down from the $ 1 million prize. With Kyle Petty locked on his bumper, Earnhardt didn’t have a chance of making it through Turns 3 and 4. In a move that shocked fans, Dale’s Chevy went sideways, smoke billowing from the tires, and Petty was forced to let up on the gas pedal.
It was all Allison needed to make his way into the lead once again. “Here comes Davey Allison to the bottom! It’ll be the finish everyone was waiting for!” yelled a voice from the broadcast booth, but it wasn’t finished yet. Kyle Petty and Davey Allison touched twice before the latter inched closer to secure the 1st position. But what happened after the finish line sent fans into a frenzy. The two drivers touched again at turn number one, after crossing the line, sending Allison’s Texaco Ford spinning into the front straight wall. Allison was momentarily knocked unconscious and removed from his car via an airlift to Carolinas Medical Center, where he was diagnosed with a concussion, broken collarbone, and bruises in multiple parts of his body.
“I’ve said it, and I’ll go to my grave saying the same thing: we crossed the line, and Davey and I got together, and Davey wrecked. That’s the worst part of the whole night for me, always has been, because he went to the hospital,” said Kyle Petty. Despite speculations of growing disputes between the two drivers after the race, Kyle cleared it out, saying, “The part that doesn’t get told a lot is that Davey called me on Monday or Tuesday… there was never any animosity between Davey and myself, never any animosity between the two teams. We just went to the next race, which was Charlotte, and came back that week and raced again.”
And while Kyle talks about the memory fondly, he was scared when the crash happened. Two crashes, one with the Intimidator and the other with the race winner. “Every freaking fan in the grandstands is teed off because Earnhardt’s wrecked and I’ve wrecked Davey. According to every fan, I wrecked Earnhardt going into Turn 3. … I walked through the grandstands, right through the middle. I’m telling you, they were going to k— my b—. It was ugly. … They cussed us and threw stuff. It was ugly,” Petty revealed back in 2017.
Although the battle on the field was a tough one, Allison was crowned the hero of the Winston race while in the hospital. Allison playfully remarked while lying in the hospital bed, “This is the darndest victory lane I’ve ever been in. I guess the good news is I won $300,000.00, but the bad news is most of that will go towards the hospital bills.”
Allison’s crew chief, Larry McReynolds, revealed the driver was less concerned with his injury and more with the win, as he revealed what Allison kept asking on the way to the hospital. “He asked me about 10 times from there to the infield care center what happened. I kept telling him and he’d ask me again.”
Thankfully, Allison recovered, and things between him and Petty returned to normal after a phone call two days after the race. However, it would be one of the last glory moments for Allison, as NASCAR lost a true legend.
Davey Allison’s End of an Iconic 9-year Run in NASCAR
Despite a successful 1992 season, sadly, no one comprehended that 1993 would be Davey’s last year running for the Championship. The 1993 season opened on a sour note as Allison finished 28th in Daytona, followed by a 16th finish at Rockingham. But, as the season progressed, Allison started rebounding with a 13th finish at Atlanta, 11th in Darlington, and 6th in the Winston Cup as the year went by, hoping that the young man would go for an even higher finish after each race.
There were ups and downs, highs and lows as Davey battled with other prominent drivers of his time, like Dale Earnhardt, Rusty Wallace, and Mark Martin. But the year had something worse in line for him. In July of 1993, Allison boarded a helicopter to fly to Talladega Superspeedway to watch his family friend, Neil Bonnett, and his son, David Bonnett, test a car for David Busch’s Series debut.
Unfortunately, Allison could not reach the destination at all. Flying the helicopter himself, as he tried to land it inside a fenced area of the track on the field, the craft nosed up, causing the helicopter to crash. This incident occurred just 3 months after the death of Alan Kulwicki, who also died in a plane crash in April.
Both incidents shook the NASCAR world to the core, just moments away from one another, not allowing any space to recover from the first.
The post All-Star Throwback: When Hospitalized Davey Allison Crowned Hero in NASCAR’s Most Chaotic All-Star Finish Ever appeared first on EssentiallySports.
