Allison's career endures throughout the years

The fourth of 10 children, Bobby Allison began racing cars as a teenager in south Florida. In addition to his abilities behind the wheel, Allison was a top-notch mechanic and engine tester.

A national champion in the modified division in 1962 as a member of the famed Alabama Gang, Allison's career took off four years later when he wound up driving one of Holman and Moody's cars. Among his career highlights are 84 victories, including three Daytona 500s, and the 1983 Winston Cup championship at age 45.

Hall of Fame bio

A charter member of the "Alabama Gang," the longtime resident of Hueytown, Ala., has become one of NASCAR's most beloved former competitors, in large part because of his remarkable resilience after a career-ending accident at Pocono Raceway in 1988 -- just several months after he won the Daytona 500.

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Q: What was it like racing in south Florida in the '50s?

Allison: Miami was a very peaceful little town to begin with. I had a few things going on around there. They had Opa-Locka Speedway and then they built Hialeah Speedway and Medley Speedway and Hollywood Speedway. And along during that time, they paved West Palm Beach Speedway around 1955. So they had a big half-mile paved, a quarter-mile at Hollywood, a third-mile at Hialeah. So we had lots of race tracks.

Q: What led to the decision to move to Alabama?

Allison: We ran a race at West Palm Beach and finished second in a big 100-lapper, and I won like $95 and thought I was rich. Purses were pretty poor there, but we didn't have any information about purses further north. Two other friends had been on the road, and one of their girlfriends had a family living in Jasper, Tenn. So they took the race car, using that as an excuse to go. They came back and said they saw a lot of tracks but all of them were dirt, so they didn't race anywhere. But they heard there were really good paved tracks in Alabama.

I said, 'Well, I've got all this money so I'll go with you.' I loaded up my stuff and got Donnie in the truck with me and we went to Alabama. The second week there, I won the first feature of my career. And also that same night in Montgomery, it was Donnie's first ride as a professional. He had run some amateur races but that Saturday night was his first professional race.

Q: Why did you choose Hueytown as your home?

Allison: We were in the Birmingham area and there was a quarter-mile called Dixie Speedway. The activity in Birmingham, the business activity was better than Montgomery or Pensacola. Birmingham seemed a little bit more attractive to us and we made some friends there. We were going to buy a house that came up for sale out in the country near Bessemer. I called the real estate guy and he said that house was gone but he had a real nice house in Hueytown.

So he took us out and showed us this house he had in Hueytown and we liked it. We bought it and moved there.

Q: Who gave you the nickname of the Alabama Gang?

Allison: The way I remember it, that happened after we moved to Alabama and all three of us -- me, Donnie and Red Farmer -- were winning races. We had a race at Weaverville, N.C., near Asheville, and we pulled in there and this young guy named Jack Ingram, who was doing pretty good there, was there. We knew him and spoke to him several times.

He looked at us and said, "Uh oh, here comes that dang Alabama gang again." And it just tickled me, the way he said that. So we just adopted this moniker. (Continued)