Pettys Allisons Earnhardts

by way of speed courage and sometimes tragedy this sport once limited to the back roads has sped to the front row of our national pastimes powering the move are a few select dynasties that have given NASCAR its core identity its character from Daytona International Speedway this is ESPN ultimate NASCAR the families I'm Jerry punch from the pennies to the Alice's to the Earnhardt's families have formed the backbone of NASCAR to its millions upon millions of fans whose hearts ride in every car in every race the effort is there it's always there hi copper man hi but it's especially difficult for the Petty's Kyle and Patti to keep things light harder before this race in Loudon New Hampshire for Kyle and Patty Loudoun isn't just another stop on the Nextel Cup schedule Father in Heaven out of your infinite love you have called us into being they lost their son Adam here the gift when he was only 19 years old he present in a special way to the drivers in today's race that was the first time I'd ever seen Loudon and you would think that after losing a child that time heals that but that's not true because you realize that a lot of time has gone by since you lost your child it gets harder I think what time Bobby and Judy Allison went to Adams funeral together even though they were divorced and Bobby's jaw still tightened at the mention of his longtime rival Richard Petty Kyle's dad but it was not a time for false pride only shared pain Kerri picture I'm in my wallet this is my favorite picture I look at it a lot I should people a lot Bobby and Judy Allison understand they know the depth of the Petty's despair the Allison's lost their two sons Davey and Clifford Davey smiling for the camera Navy always did what he's supposed to do and Clifford his give them a set of horns behind his head you know and Davey has no idea that's happening here Clifford's hit another home run and Davey's just being Davey when Dale Earnhardt jr. was trapped in a fiery crash in Sonoma he said he felt as if his father was looking down on him from heaven and had snatched him from the jaws of death I know why I get in the car I know that next time I get in might be last time I get in and if race is what I want to do I was dying to do it three names three bloodlines woven like vines into the tapestry of NASCAR tradition binding it together connecting the years a thread stretching across time a value system in a seam a foundation in three names Earnhardt Alison Petty in NASCAR's relatively short history these are the dynasties the driving forces the fathers and sons mothers and daughters for whom NASCAR is more than a livelihood for these families of NASCAR it is a way of life the highs are higher than everyday life and the lows are much worse Allisyn disaster and this stuff can be worse than disaster as the American public knows it overall we have a problem bobby allison with a horrible crash here on the front stretch after the accident in turn four at the end of the Daytona 500 we've lost Dale Earnhardt NASCAR is not about cars it's about human being and human dreams and human hopes and aspirations and fears and takin chances and living and dying and worse than dying to be triumphant you have to take the chance of disaster every day I got a letter from a lady and she said never put a question mark where God's put a period to me that that just that explains everything and so I used that and accepted that that clause God didn't need any special punctuation for the statement he made when creating level cross North Carolina it is plain as day this rural outpost on the far edges of Greensboro where Richard Petty was raised we live in a house they had no electricity no running water no telephone leave on a dirt road and we were at these junebugs Lee petty the family patriarch grew up during the Depression jobs were scarce so he'd hop on a train to look for work you get off the train and map the people with guns and they'd give my choice you know you can either stay here and die or you can get back on the train and live they didn't want people coming in taking their jobs other times he'd go to New Orleans to bare-knuckle fight anything for a dollar when he returned to North Carolina he worked as a farmer trucker and a mechanic on some of the early moonshine cars and then eventually moonshine delivery became a steady way to pay the household bills is it true that fellas got ready for stock car racing by racing revenue agents well I'm not really going to commit myself to that Haywood because I guess there's a few internal revenue people still around Lee would sell you a case of moonshine whiskey and he would say you know we're Mount Carmel church is down on such-and-such a road Grace Chapel Road or something yeah okay there's a graveyard out there tonight at ten o'clock right behind that tombstone will be your case of whiskey Richard joked about it once he said you know I never hurt my back that much racer but I hurt my back a lot helping daddy care cases of whiskey out in grief sports you know it was a shady way of making a living but people had to do what they had to do to make money they wasn't really proud of that part of their life and so we don't we don't talk about a lot when stock car racing started to flourish after World War two Lee took his hobby racing and made it a family business how was it the very first race I was like 11 years old he read in the paper that Bill France was having a race at Charlotte so the mother my brother um then drove the car too sharp and it was a strictly stock car they stopped at a Texaco station they pulled it up on the rack executive took the cookie ups off of it took them up off the put a number on the plane was ready to race they run about halfway through the race and blows a tire turns over tears all the doors off we have to come away home it was an honor code a brand of toughness and pride instilled in his sons Maurice and Richard tightly knit the petty men defended the family honor at all times and at all costs he had an abrasive relationship with a lot of the other drivers tiny LAN comes to mind he and Lee became arch enemies there was a race of heck mile freeze for a fairgrounds track they were introducing the drivers and Leontine II passed on the states well some words were fast and a fight broke out tiny lon who's killing Lee I was rolling around beating on each other man my brother was earned we got right in the middle of it and they go to the rescue of their father Tiny's killing all three fatties finally mrs. pedak goes to the rescue of her husband or two sons I just walked up with her pocketbook popped him upside the head that was the end of the fight he looks like a purse could do that much damage but this particular purse had a 38 pistol inside of it elsewhere in North Carolina another young man was trying to find a way to put food on the table he was tired of working in the local textile mill Ralph Earnhardt a man of few words took to the dirt tracks around the Carolinas to squeeze out a living when he told me he would wanted to drive I threatened to leave him and of course I didn't work too good so I joined him before Ralph started driving and took me to this little dirt track and I wore a white dress and dressed up together this race course I came home I had a red dress it was red dirt Ralph did everything himself his operation was small-scale compared to leap Eddie's the Earnhardt name remained a local one Ralph chose to stay close to home and racing the sportsman division the junior varsity and stock car racing where he was a star winning a points championship in 1956 Earnhardt battling Bobby Allison and the sportsman division he was the man to beat he didn't mind the property and he would wait to the end of the race like the last laugh to master know whatever so you wouldn't have to have get him back Ralph's name was buried deep in the history books a mere scrap of footage remains as proof that Ralph Earnhardt was not a ghost Ralph it looks as though they found something wrong with Yarborough's car that right well about a leg wheel loader and this would make you the winner if this protest is allowed huh we all knew about it one of his boys began working for him out back in the garage when he was just 10 years old they'll always said that he could go out the next morning and look at the race car and tell if his dad had won or not if he had won the front that wouldn't be no dirt on the front of it it would be clean when you're racing family is born and bred into you every time my daddy got in a car or every time Dale got in a car every time Dale jr. gets in the car we get in that car with them and we're always proud happy when they get out of them successful and when they get out of them long the tide would make for an unreliable witness endlessly shifting each successive wave a reordering of the one before it doesn't record but reflects the ebbs and crests of the lives played out alongside it the cycles of the tide hold the secret to understanding the stories of the Petty's the Allison's and the Earnhardt's I wanted a taller 1959 21 year old kid we come through the tunnel and that looked like the biggest place in the world I mean putting all these cedar first and second corner little grandstands no buildings no Daytona will always be part of our family he'll always be that love-hate relationship that you have with things like that you feel Tim and Fani flock you feel bug Baker you feel Lipe there's the ghost of fireball Roberts there there's the ghost of they'll earn our senior there those guys are there Daytona a 2.5 mile steep banked oval opened in 1959 it was unlike any track the drivers had ever seen if you had a driver that said that he was not afraid to run at Daytona you better find another driver they were dealing with all kinds of new technology new styles are driving the drafting it was a scary place the first Daytona 500 in 1959 had it all man who would be king started but didn't finish that day it looked like his old man Lee petty might have been nipped at the finish line until three days later it was announced that number 42 petty beat out number 73 Johnny Beauchamp in a photo finish over the years Daytona Beach provided the Petty's with moments triumphant and dramatic in the 1961 qualifying races a crash all but ended Lee Petty's competitive career when hit hospital he's laying there about half did and he said you and your brother go home get another car in store start working on you know we got a Racing's our business we got to go racing bleep and he was in the hospital down there for several months and Elizabeth his wife stayed down there with Richard and Maurice came home with no key and got home and with no guy that's whatsoever and they just about closed the shop it was a struggle I mean all of a sudden everything fell on me and my brother so you can grew up really really fast when you got a family behind you that you got to look after father in heaven the hand of your loving kindness powerfully yet gently kitty Alison a devout Catholic all her life is it a morning mass in her nursing home it's her birthday here to unite us she's 100 years old someone asked me do trophy's balance off all of the sufferings that can occur in life in her century of living she gave birth to 13 children three of her boys Bobby Donnie and Eddie made stock car racing their career we just cannot keep this family down especially Bobby certainly there's no one in NASCAR I've ever known who is more independent minded Bobby his entire career wasn't just walking it against the wind he was walking into a hurricane the entire time and by golly he was going to beat that hurricane you ever heard a song I did it my way at this Bobby no disrespect or anything else he never made it was safe you don't believe it asking the Allison brothers migrated to Alabama from Florida because the prize money was a little better there they formed the core of what racing fans would eventually call the Alabama gang when he moved from Florida to Alabama no I he would sleep in the back of his truck with his brother and eat peaches doing and live off of the race earnings alongside me Bobby and Bonnie Allison two of the greatest drivers in the business Bobby Allison would race anytime anywhere but he didn't start running regularly in Grand National Cup races until 1966 Allison into the pits when he wasn't racing he was in the shop burning the midnight oil no days off we brought the car home one time from winston-salem in a bushel basket and had a betta to Darlington by noon on thirsty and there was bed if he could have bobby allison would have driven the racecar pulled in the pit unbuckle jumped out changed the tires filled it full of gas jump back and strapped in and going on because he would feel like everything had been done right then Bobby Allison becomes successful but is he really successful in his mind not as long as he has to live in the shadow of Richard Petty the 43 Bobby Allison dives PO in the third turn and takes back first place Richard Petty was the first hurricane that Bobby Allison throws straight into between 1960 and 1967 penny 175 races including a record 27 in 1967 he was now officially the king Richard was an Arnold Palmer with fractured grammar he was always easygoing he was always accessible he always had things to say he had another one I like a third to fanbelt off the banging I got was racing with the house and I didn't pay no attention and thing rent too hot before called it and was it I told him guys I don't speak English I speak southern American damn crowded we were in Malton New York two and a half hours after the race was over the trucks had loaded up and left there was Richard Petty the King still signing autographs in the pouring rain he has this sort of floral autograph it has a lot of curly cues in it and I asked him why I did that one time he says it gives me at least another second with a person that wanted my autograph he has this ability to make every person there feel like he is the greatest Richard Petty fan in the world I really Envy that I admired it and made it the whole thing and so if somebody asked me for mine it was that it was an honor for me to to give them an autograph and and then it became a challenge and of how close to him can I get today Bobby Allison seems so back-slapping li richard at one time they were so different Bobby intense volatile and Richard easygoing see that's me in that 1988 Bobby felt the NASCAR favored Richard his little garage in Alabama was always playing David to the Goliath that was Petty Enterprises this is the engine room I spent lots lots hours well it was combination engine room and machine shop pity and housing it was the most bloodthirsty battle that's ever been and I mean it was a hat feels and mccoys of NASCAR racing the roles of the petty brothers were firmly established maurice built the engines richard drove the cars racing was in their blood it was their life and they guarded their turf ferociously danny was known as a as a hard man to get along with he loved his brother he'd do anything to protect his family when you messed with Richard he's he was ready to jump down her throat when his crew came around and said anything whether it was Maurice or any of the other guys you know I just said go fly kite you know we had a big well had three or four different situations we got in a little bit of trouble with each other there was an incident at West Islip New York where they traded fists rather than paint I want to tell Bobby what I thought about it uh-huh why any Maurice slugged at me a couple times knocked me down when I down somebody kicked me in the back they got to the point where they would almost rather wreck each other than when the race we'll go to Wellsburg and I'm leading one lap he knocks me in the wall he's leading the next lap I knock him in the wall they beat each other like bongo drums for I don't know 10 15 20 left both colors were just smoking there were several fights in the crowd and stab one of Bobby's lands tried to get into Victory Lane and I imagine he wished he hadn't that day in North Wilkesboro Maurice took out one Allison fan with Richards helmet before the King stepped in family bobbi and myself met and the parking lot at Riverside I said hey timeout before we heard somebody hurt herself hurt somebody else that's just called a truce to this and from you know I guess we raced and probably run into each other but nothing ever ever come out of anything it's a whole lot better to punch the guy in the nose that it is the punching in pen because the racetrack somebody could end up dead what went on between the men went on the track we stayed with our children in the infield our children all played together I was good friends with Bobby's wife his sister's his mother the kids they would play football in the infield and in swimming pools at the motels you cannot dislike Bobby Allison I knew him from hanging out at the swimming pool with Davey I would Clifford he was always a good guy with family people these family people and our crowd gets along good together in the early days you could get his goat real easily I had said something derogatory about him like the race that we had had someone worried about wrecked me or something so it's in the Greensboro paperbacks date big ever so they come to the racetrack the next day with the big article they said what do you think yarn Horton was gonna say when they read this I said you don't have to worry about that they can't read do something thoroughly enjoy you look forward to getting up every day to go dude and make a living make money at food that's pretty neat these smell villages as Kannapolis was where the Earnhardt's came from they were very insulated most people are kind of like deer they didn't go much more than five miles from where they were born they were shy unsure themselves and like the confidence to really socially integrate I can remember right after he won the first championship and it came too fast he wasn't ready for it and I was just chewing him out one day for something he was doing and he looked at me and I'll never get this he said told you that he's healthy 75 I went over and asked him if I could talk to him he was praying for me shy I could not get him to look me in the eye and I finally said they oh I saw your daddy turn banjo Matthews over at McCormick food you were there I said yeah I was there he said tell me about saw tolling and he opened up and told me his hopes and dreams the primer beneath the varnish the engine under the hood throughout Dale Earnhardt's rise to prominence his admirers wondered what it was that drove him out of the mill town of Kannapolis North Carolina and onto the racetrack with such abandon such need peel back the layers of the man to reveal a relationship the one he shared with his father the search always leads here our dad was gone walked raced a lot so you're always competing for attention because you had to compete for it and it was too limited it made you crave it even more that was hard-headed like all young kids they think they know more than the parent does and they butted heads a lot but it's because they were so much alike he did discipline he was a hard discipline but he deedy really for the right reasons they'll special friend had taken some of his marbles and he saw his best friend his mother leave the house so he went up to the house and went ahead and got his marbles and his daddy found out that he had gone the house with no one there he said he wore him out with a belt but Dale idolized his dad who he was what he did and so racing is what they'll always wanted to do lady pick up a tool and do anything responsible Dell was perfectly happy he would have done it 24 hours a day Dale quit school and won the race and his dad told him to get out and find him a ride if he wondered why he wouldn't put him in race car on a fall morning in 1973 Ralph Earnhardt was alone in his modest home when he suffered a massive heart attack he was dead at 45 after his father died there was still struggling try to race I did all I could to help him but financially we just didn't have the money a ninth grade education no funds no father Dale Earnhardt strode doggedly into the tough world of racing there were two failed marriages the first produced his son Carey who would be raised by a stepfather the second marriage produced a daughter Kelly and a son Dale jr. Dale Earnhardt was not a great father Dale Earnhardt was a very selfish individual they learn Hart knew only one thing and that was how to drive a racecar and he also knew that that was the only way he was going to be able to put food on the table for his family Dale would borrow $500 on short notes in the bank just to buy tires and go race there were times early in his racing career that he told me one time he said we probably ought to been on welfare he was a take-no-prisoners type driver then it just assumed push you out of the way is race you out of the way the difference between running third and running second might be just 15 dollars but he needs that money I got a call about one o'clock in the morning it was Dale I mean he was at the bottom absolute bottom of everything and he said I want my car out up at Asheville and I don't know what to do well I mean how bad is it he says it's bad it's gone I said well your former father-in-law Robert G he's got a great dirt race car underneath a tarp over there maybe you can talk him into getting that out he went over there and Robert so we've got to work on it and somebody loaned him an engine that became a rocketship he just started winning prolifically and the rest is history he made history quickly in his first full season 1979 Earnhardt was Rookie of the Year in his next season he won his first Winston Cup championship Dale Earnhardt was not afraid to swap paint with you no matter what track you were at he could come step on your toe physically or verbally and make you smile about you could identify with the alluring hurt scene he wasn't intimidating to us as a fan because he was what we want it to be you know Taylor and I couldn't sign his name until he had already run a dozen than Winston Cup races and he finally went to a friend of his the lake Joe Whitlock and he said Joe can you teach me how to sign my name because I think it's going to be worth something someday February 18 1979 the entire eastern portion of the country from Georgia North to Maine was besieged by a blizzard from the world center of speed welcomed with a 21st annual advisor my flag is out one lap to go so with one lap to go Donnie Allison was in the lead bad luck had snatched two Daytona 500 victories from him but now he roared towards the finish line and stock-car racing 'he's most prestigious prize where will kill me that day was probably most hurt I had ever been in my life to that point to win the Daytona 500 is a tremendous accomplishment and I should have won it three times as petty celebration daddy Bobby Allison drove past his brother to offer him a ride back to the garage Bobby saw Cale Yarborough words were exchanged and the rest his NASCAR folklore there's a fight between shell Yarborough and Allison the toppers over Floyd he likes it me and hit me in the face with his helmet I looked and blood dripping down into my lap and cut my lip and bloodied my nose and I said to myself I'm getting handless right now or run from him the rest of my life so I climbed out of the car and he went to beating on my fists with his nose Cale Yarborough then very upset I'm just thankful he didn't read me that day because it would have been bad it would have been very bad if Kalin raised his fist done at that moment Cale Yarborough and Indian Donnie Allison's fist Kincaid people still look back and call that race the moment that put NASCAR on the map like the Colt Giants championship game in 58 for football day I lost some his clothes but this is first time on remembering long time I won one that's good the TV ratings had gone through the roof the Allison brothers and Richard Petty were broadening the appeal of NASCAR petty would win this race seven times a mark unequalled to this day they were probably two or three of races that I should have won didn't but then there was two or three that I won that I should so it kind of bounces you Bobby Allison 1 3 Daytona 500s over a 25-year career but his legacy is beset with lingering doubt could he have won more not just a Daytona Beach but everywhere if only he'd gotten out of his own way this man won for sixteen different teams 16 different teams Richard Petty won for what two teen think about all the conflicts at Bobby Allison went through Bobby Allison almost never got fired from a ride he quit Bobby was his own worst enemy Bobby would not accept the premise when you were hired to just shut up and drive and there were an awful lot of teams that Bobby drove slapped him on the back in victory lane and then they'd go back to their shop and they'd unload that car and they would end that Bobby Allison in jail and go to the next race I say to them all time look at all champion few to one if you had a clear LM car how many to kill win I made it Darrell one of juniors cars you don't want everyone ma'am you know no you're a good race car drivers those guys are not better of all the teams that Bobby left the parting that hurt him the most that caused him the most regret was his split from car owner jr. Johnson I had a tough time communicating with jr. you know jr. felt like the thing should be run by chain of command I talked to him about under fishing he'd jump right in there with it but if I talked to him about race cars he didn't answer me they couldn't agree they clashed they went through a time that they didn't even speak to each other for weeks and months at a time Bobby's always said that me and him didn't get along but God I ever seen him satisfied with any car simply put Bobby had a chip on his shoulder god no he had a tree on himself not a chimp he said to me one day are you gonna drive for me next year yes or no because if you don't I got the best driver in NASCAR to go in the car and I said well if you don't have them right now get them and which was sewn down that driver Cale Yarborough 145 races and three points championships driving for junior Johnson I was the loser on that deal and part of that was my personality and my you know my attitude about things when jr. Johnson sold his team and retired in 1995 in his farewell address to his employees he told him if we'd been able to keep bobby allison we would have won 200 races and Richard Petty wouldn't had Richard Petty's record was a bed by the way son I thought we would no doubt know dad see this right here this is the smell this is that Talladega at the speedway and that was Elena saying that that was me in that shrill Davy didn't want to go to the racetrack because the car wasn't paint it it was primered nice Davey the races are tonight and they all look good in victory lane get that thing up there Bobby and Judy Allison raised their family of four two boys and two girls in Hueytown Alabama the oldest boy Davey was shy and he idolized his dad the boys had to learn from the ground up you know they had to learn to wash parts they had to learn to sweep the floor I felt like he had to earn his way into this business if he wanted to be in it for me to try to buy him a better engine than the next guy or a better chassis wasn't the thing to do Bobby and I got into a pretty heated argument up in his office I said you need to help him get a car and I had to know about that it was almost unbeatable that I had put on jack stands Davey was walking across shop floor there and for some reason I just saw today we hook up your trailer come to my shop I'm gonna give you a man over when I told Davey the stipulation was daddy didn't touch that car over in level cross North Carolina Petty Enterprises was introducing their next generation to the racing game the king's son Kyle Petty was having an easier time of it with the best equipment money could buy now he closes again right in behind comes back one man was fending off young and old drivers alike carving out an identity for himself winning championships provoking adversaries on the track and making fans off of it who do you feel hit you on that last thing which were you and Darrell I just racing I ain't gonna you know man Darrell's got a race wait wait you ain't under he had a good heart he just had a bad head I mean he could just he just he had he had evil thoughts when I came to Rex it if there was ever a chip of the GoBot if they say the that was it they learned heart was was a mirror of his bad in so many ways he'll economy their driving styles were very very similar their personalities were very very similar in November of 1982 Dale married for a third time Teresa Houston from a racing family was a kindred spirit and dales two children from his second marriage Kelly and Dale jr. moved in with them that's when a familiar pattern began to repeat just as Ralph Earnhardt and prioritized cars and career above all else so did Dale Earnhardt struggle to find time to spend with his kids I'm sitting there thinking man what's so hard about sitting around here talking to me for five minutes you know why not be working on Bobby atop all-time on that race car why can't I go with you and I had sit there to nine o'clock with Theresa and Kelly and I don't want to be around now but Dale also had been married at age 19 and from that Union came a son Jerry Earnhardt raised by his mother and stepfather had spent some time working the mills of Kannapolis but he had dreamed of becoming a racer like his biological father a man with whom he had no contact until one fateful day when I turned 16 I got my license and the first trip I made was to my grandmother's house walked in talked to my grandmother and it just so happened the race shot was behind her house I walked out the back door into the shop and dad was Miriam working on a motor race car says Dorothy looked up saw me and he stopped the tools down we went and got in the car and right around went right around the farm and places his talk there was caring just 16 sharing secrets with Dale Earnhardt a sports legend to millions a father finally to him I just talked about past the thankfully misting things that we can maybe do together which was a little bit because he was on the road and busy all time Jerry Earnhardt talked walked and looked just like his dad but the similarity ended there he never made it big on the Nextel Cup scene this is the museum guys I can fix you right here we go man is like I shake your hand sorry buddy meet hi guys thank you thank you thank you all for coming okay hi this is a 200th car here put it in Smithsonian like a 92 the Smithsonian won't let you touch it if he ain't got a pair of white glisten that's linen ain't none of the racecar you know if it gets men up we'll fix it no no no it was 1984 Richard Petty had been struggling since his last points championship in 1979 and winning was becoming ever more difficult as he inched towards the 200th victory Plateau gentlemen a screenwriter might be accused of over sentimentality were he to have scripted what actually occurred in this uniquely American sport its greatest star and folk hero one on the fourth of July and Daytona in front of the President of the United States it's time at all and the darrell waltrip type came in the flashy or more glib one lining sarcastic type you know Richard told me to you know in the twilight of his career he said he said they don't want me out front on TV anymore because I can't talk good English Richard said I don't want to quit as long as I'm having fun I want to keep racing 1988 as sure as the Daytona Beach tide rises it also falls forever reflecting the fortunes of the NASCAR family trouble bad from the charm of crack Richard Petty's cars turn over seven or eight times coming off turn one of the most vile of accidents we've ever seen updates on internet in my mind immediately I thought you know there's no way he's alive I could tell she'd been cried then she thought I was okay then she got me I wanted to cry tears of joy because he was alive and yet I was just mad at him to think he was still out there she walked in and she looked around she said are we having fun the happily comes Bobby Allison seeking his third when the race continued Richards old nemesis Bobby Allison was fighting for the lead with NASCAR's brightest young star it's turning into a dream race here that they caught a 500 his son David he's down low Bobby Allison odd I had a reporter come up to me and ask me which one are you pulling for and I said the one that pays the bills evening come to the stripe the winner of the Great America Bobby Allison free Daytona 500 and her son right behind what could be better than this what a thrill for me what a thrill after the race Davey was asked if he had any regrets about finishing second no what's the quick response because my dad will always be my hero you know I know it happened I've watched tapes it's like somebody made a film you know some movie yeah and I have no personal memory of um went on no personal feel that would have to be the greatest memory recall of of all time I was going down the highway one night really early in life young professional life and came up on a wreck in the wreckage were five dead adults and like six or seven dead children and I helped take these dead bodies out of these cars and I thought this is how uncertain life is and so I must do the best I can to enjoy life for as long as I can through the 1980s as Richard Petty's star faded and Darrell Waltrip throws Bobby Allison singled out Waltrip as the guy to dislike the guy to put on top of his personal grudge list in the early part of my career when I wasn't having any success he used to go down to his house stay with them traveled together race together we were very very good friends Waltrip has retaken the lead on the inside of Allison once I kind of got to where I could rub fenders with old Robert Arthur he seemed to create that seem to create a little resentment we had a few run-ins and we just became rivals better run the last race ever at Riverside he wrecked me sent me down to the infield I was really mad about that for next week spoken up in the drivers meeting Bobby stands up he says let me ask you something why are y'all going to do when some a ho runs you off the racetrack erection and knocks you out of the race and with that Michael Waltrip I'm not that old I'm just his brother Bobby went back to his hauler and his teammate came to our truck and he said I have to come and tell you something he said I shouldn't do this because he's my teammate but Bobby said he's gonna wreck you today June 19 1988 Pocono Bobby Allison drove his last race he never challenged Waltrip that day he wrecked early we got to stand back on the backstretch his life changed forever the absolute as of that moment the man who was always driving into the wind would no longer be competing but just trying to survive and we went to the hospital after the race to see how he was doing and we didn't think you would make it doctor came in to tell me how bad he really was he had fluid and around his frame which they say is lethal and I said well he doesn't want to be a vegetable and I don't want him to be a vegetable and he says I'll give you back your husband a risky operation was necessary Bobby had a shunt placed in his brain to drain the fluid after he left to go do this operation I went to pieces and then all of a sudden something told me you've got to stop this because you have a big job ahead of you it was starting on will dad teach me how to talk and walk and eat and then one morning I woke up what went wrong we're in mine what years.this no memory after months of rehabilitation Bobby Allison reappeared little thinner a little grayer a little slower but alive more and more of his memory came back each day and soon his younger boy Clifford became his pet project I was encouraging him to go over and help Clifford and get his interest going back again you know not thinking that he would actually be reliving his own career through clipper the track is in organic cold it doesn't grow like a tree with rings to record the passing days but Michigan International Speedway still remembers August 13 1992 Clifford Allison's racing career was taking shape in the ARCA Division he and Davie were poised to carry on the Allison brother family tradition as his father watched Clifford went out to practice he had told me dad we're gonna get him we're doing good and you know gave me on a high sign I felt really good about it I was standing on top of the truck watching them and they went in turn three and car got a lot of shape and he overcorrect and when I hear to walk he made a mistake they tried to stop Bobby from going out there he wouldn't stop he tell them that's my boy I'm going I went to the car when I got there I could see was dead a couple of the NASCAR people read me and put me in a car and I didn't know what to do he said when I walked up to that car and saw that boy was dead knew that boy was dead there began a hurt that kept on and on and on and has never gone away I went to Clifford's viewing and I nailed down the cast by side the cast on I looked at clipper lantern and I could see my son's face but its heart death is part of life Clifford was doing what he wanted to do he was pursuing as his own dream and so it is one of those very unfortunate things in life that I don't have an answer for I don't have to like it but I have to accept it for Dale earnheardt there were seven Winston Cup trophies on the mantle but no Daytona 500 titles in nineteen tries Daytona has always linked celebration and despair and for the Earnhardt family it came to symbolize frustration career unfulfilled cooter should when you're gonna win the 500 star I've never won this race devices with your best shot will I've had shots just like this something is amiss they have set it up flat tires just a quarter of a lap away from making those damn Fords hey boys win the damn there Rick I hate the Daytona $4.99 what does I think it means my dad's gonna be the greatest race car driver ever drive stock car could not won a Daytona 500 seem like this race and this day is always eluded us okay that one yeah oh you like this one sure that's a sweet Liz Allison her daughter Krista and son Robbie they were so young back then they don't remember much this is my favorite probably well one of my favorite pictures of us I mean it was just in happier times I guess but their mom can be counted on to tell them about their dad Davey a career so short Davey Allison one early and often 19 times in just seven years as a regular on the cup scene we want to say hi to my grandmother out there what grandma paddle is and christen Robbie to the brown eyes shy ways but all his competitors talked about Bobby and Judy's son Liz's husband Donnie's nephew Davey had a brother and two sisters a son and a daughter David became legitimately our tribal of Dale Earnhardt could have been as good he could have taken races away from him that would have been why derive or whether they caught a 500 this is the biggest one of them all it had even sunk in yet I can't embrace those moments because it's the ultimate just the family element Davey Allison with his children in his arms and his wife who can't stop crying long enough to to celebrate anything home track restaurant you eat on Alabama the gathering spot for the Alabama gang to break up long hours in the shop today the Allison still get together here to rehash old times baby was always tight we would do little things to make baby have to reach in his pocket I don't have any money I don't have any money he takes his wallet out throws it open I can just see and I said I grabbed his wallet held in the flap and here with all his hidden money in the back oh boy baby get up for supper - Davey was getting a little too high you know - fast paced when everything you reach out to turns to gold um waiting for something to turn around and I felt like that's how it was with Davey sometimes you can live too fast and grab too many things and I felt like that's what the helicopter was that was my argument with him is that you know enough already July 1993 Davey Allison was flying his jet ranger helicopter to Talladega to watch a friend practice while maneuvering the chopper Davey was about to touch down when he lost control crashed in the Talladega infield he has now listed in very critical condition I was hopeful and we had prayed all night you know for him like we did for his dad and said rosaries and then Liz came and told us that if we wanted to say goodbye we better go see him right now it wasn't very long after that that they came and told us that he was gone I literally lost it my legs my arms everything was going in 90 different directions there was some sort of security trying to screen Bobby and Judy coming in out of there and I've never seen two people with their faces looking so totally empty it was just like the life was gone from he touched a lot of people and they loved him and we loved how much can fate deny a family feed at that point to me have to deny the allison's everything Bobby was standing in the driveway and I walk out there to him and I didn't say hello and up now he grabbed me I grabbed him and we both started crying and he says to me after he funk gods composedly he said what am I gonna do the tragedy of the alysus just became bottomless to me at that point because Davey had said if I get killed in a race car I'm gonna die with a smile on my face Davey didn't even get that Davy died with no expression on his face unconscious from an air crash you certainly question life and you question God but you found the strength every day and when you have a one-year-old a three-year-old who wakes up in the morning ready to take in life then you get up and you do that with them because you don't have a choice I received an interesting phone call from Dale Earnhardt senior he said I just want you to know that I'm not coming to Davey's funeral and for just a half a second I was offended and he choked up and said I can't do it I cannot come and look at Robbie and krysta and realize that they'll grow up without their daddy Bobby and Judy Allison carried on the best they could but not together the fire had gone out of their marriage we just began to disagree with each other on everything and then we lost Davey it got WAY worse she grieved in a different way than I did you know I appreciate the people coming up and sobbing and I'm carrying on and it just broke her heart further and it was causing me and him to not be friends anymore Bobby was still recovering from his brain injury and now with the loss of both their sons it was too much for the relationship to withstand I stayed in the Birmingham area for two years in an apartment hoping that we could you know gradually come back together and you know and not get a divorce every time he came he was just cold there was no warmth there was no affection there was just nothing we got where we couldn't agree we just couldn't get along you know what's four suffering 1996 Bobby was next to broke the hospital bills had cost him all his savings his wife had left him and he was living with his mother in a modular home in Hueytown Alabama just across the street from the house where he had raised his family the house was for sale the for sale sign was long down in the yard this is wrong and November and the leaves were just blowing everywhere it is terribly forlorn scene out there it lost his sons he'd lost his own health he had lost his fortune his wife was leaving him everything was gone and yet he looked at me and he said I'll tell you what I've learned how to launder my underwear myself and I've learned how to cook spaghetti and I will make it the struggles the joy the bonds the brakes the families the 500 the most anticipated moment in racing 20 years of trying 20 years of preparation all of it is racing all of it is life look out on pit row the year was 1998 for a lucky few has life includes a trip down Victory Lane well you know what victory lanes look like there's a thousand people the media people's going crazy and he turned around and when he saw me he actually looked in my eyes he said there's my sister Cathy and hugged me and to me that was one of the most personal private moments we'd had in a long time the Daytona 500 is ours we've won it we want it we won and at that moment I wish we all could have been there Lee petty had long since retired from petty enterprises but was still as combative as ever he had a few buddies that go play golf and all but he he was he he'd like to make a wager and a bet here and there so I guess he's about 70 years old and another guy he was 40 accused him of cheating and leave he didn't take that to guy so he just he cold-cocked him and knocked him and Richard Petty's retirement tour was in full swing 1992 was his last season and he hadn't won a race in eight years but he was still as popular as ever the further away you get away from what Richard Petty did the harder it is to understand the more you try and justify well they raced sixty times a year or he had the best equipment some of that may be true but still have to go back to the fact that he won seven Winston Cup titles he won seven Daytona 500s he won 200 races he is the king I don't want to be the next person in line behind Richard Petty that'd be like going to Alabama after Barrett Brown or UCLA after John Wooten that's not my stuff no one but Kyle Petty could really know what it was life to walk in the shadow of the king he showed early flashes of brilliance and even contended for a cup title in 1992 the bank at Rockingham he would win eight races by 1995 a career labeled a disappointment so the focus was placed on the next generation of betty's Kyle's son Adam grandfather says he got them do the best you can dad says got to do the best you can sir so that's what I do every time I buckle up he didn't have the expectations on him away Kyle did but he was Kyle and Patty's son and everybody loves Kyle and patty it was all set up for Adam to take up it's all set up for Adam to be the next Richard pick Adam Adam an orca racing at Charlotte and this is the actual core it was a happy lose night during their comp looked out the back window one day and saw Richard and Adam out in the backyard and he said to his wife well it looks like Richard finally got the son he always wanted by 2000 Adam petty had three years of NASCAR experience under his belt but the man who would claim Richard Petty thrown at an heir of his own burdened with similar expectations had an aim to live up to one day he says I was gonna start a race team tomorrow I would go get Jeff board whatever it takes you know and he's just shut that tape recorder off on Tisa I got a son coming along it's gonna kick his butt what are they here when Dale jr. came on the circuit he warned about bushroe's at that time Dale jr. lived across from the shop across the road from the shop and a tray yeah Dale senior since about 2:00 o'clock Sunday 9:00 Theresa woke me up and there was all this music and he says I got up and got in the car and drove over there and says I don't know how many people were over there I said oh they were just rocking and rolling I ran everyone I'm off and I told that boy if he was going to be a race driver he was gonna act like a race driver or he was not getting any more help at all from me Dale Earnhardt senior was always sensitive about his lack of education he had sent his son to military school but he also wanted him to adopt the work ethic that brow fern Hart had imparted back in that old garage and Kannapolis he called is it in typical Dale we're doing things hey can he put Dale jr. to work I can't do anything with him and okay yes if they set him up he will give a job typical kid needed a little direction I think they really taught me everything you know as far as the basics from the ground and I was able to take that back to my father and fruit that I had what it took he's a superhero to me I was at all every time I was around him how about it you put her life in your kids and they win you you're proud of them you proud of them just growing up and being good kids inside Earnhardt was a gentle person we would get in his pickup and ride over the farm and talk about his mother and father and his tennis children and great big tears rolling down down his cheeks strangely enough he was somewhat of a religious person he told me that he prayed before every race never that he would win but that nobody would get hurt Dale Earnhardt had reached a period of contentment in his life in the early days he bounced checks and could barely scrape together the money for a cup of coffee by the end of his career he owned yachts Lear Jets and his own company he was a millionaire many times over and the most popular athlete in his sport Dale Earnhardt was beloved because so many common people who lived paycheck to paycheck had this burning thought in mind old Dale made it up from nothing and maybe I can to someday there was little more to prove on the track though maybe another championship to pass Richard Petty and all the dysfunction of two failed marriages was a distant memory he could now bask in the glow of his children's successes and then there would be time to spend with his grandchildren before the start of the 2001 Daytona 500 Stevie Waltrip has had become the custom taped a card to Earnhardt steering wheel with a proverb from the Bible the name of the Lord is a strong tower the righteous run into it and are safe Bernard seven laps to go there he was with his son running for first place and his car car that he owned given by Michael Walter and they were running in front of where Earnhardt was with his buddy he's back there with Schrader and Sterling Marlin and they're banging around having a good time and he can sit back and look at the accomplishments of his life while going 200 miles an hour and say I'm there for that moment I've always believed he had to be happy Kelly dales daughter got on phone right away when they didn't go back to show the car that's when I knew something happened I just for some reason never expected he was dying race car it was unreal just unreal it's hard to save what you want to say without being so emotional and it's embarrassing to be emotional because they'll daddy although there weren't emotional people the I'm a firm believer in faith destiny in his fate was that they always going to not be 50 years old because he knew we drag him to death when he turned 50 he didn't make it he would have been 50 in April and but it would wiggle a laydown fig he'll never be old that's the one thing about my daddy and elbows they'll always be healthy successful bigger than life even in death parents aren't supposed to outlive their children it goes against nature the pre-race ritual seems to reinforce that inescapable truth this is patty Petty's first visit back to Loudon New Hampshire since her son Adam died here it was only 19 years old when he crashed during a practice run in 2000 coming in here last night knowing it did Adam won here was uh pretty hard I'll say that we were looking for Adam sorted future of PD enterprises but when that happened then you know we were just upside down just terrible just stopped everything five weeks earlier the pedis had lost their past when their patriarch Lee died at age 86 the evolution of a petty family and the sport is coming to the end of the road where Kyle should be getting out of the car and be the proud pop on top of the truck giving us some lap times that isn't there and yet in the aftermath of this tragedy leaving everything so dark and confused something unexpected came into view the sight of Bobby and Judy Allison after the memorial service almost like an apparition coming across the paddock I see Bobby and Judy Allison together and I remember they will walk up to me and they were holding hands and I grabbed their hands and I said does this mean that you're together and they said yes we've seen how you and Collard leaning on each other and we've not done that Bobby and Judy's reunion had begun awkwardly at the wedding of their daughter-in-law Liz Davies widow there's a fine line between love and hate and they were so angry at one another so you had to think if we could just make that passion turn into something good wow what a great thing it would be I wouldn't even speak to her and she stepped in front of me as as walking through the door that church and said we should put our differences aside and go try to help the Petty's and I said you're right so the Allison's left Liz's wedding and embarked on a 15-hour Drive from Tennessee to North Carolina for Adam Petty's funeral 15 hours tiptoeing around past differences looking for common ground we didn't talk of a whole lot but then a couple of things did come into the conversation he wanted to know if I would give him a discount in the alimony I think I shocked me because I said yes the Petties tragedy was pulling them closer the only parents on this planet who could possibly identify with what Kyle and Patti were going through the old vicious rival family the Alison's embrace Patty petty in their time of deepest tragedy you could just see in Patty's face the strength that it gave her they had 32 years of covering this stuff I've never seen a moment that tragic in that touching Adam brought them back together which is kind of funny let's you know roll the tape back to when he was a year old his first words were go Bobby Sasson it's not go grandpa and it wasn't go daddy it was go Bobby when we realized at the end of the race Bobby Allison would come over and pick him up and say hey man how you doing Bobby took that time and he made a connection and the first words he said were go Bobby says it only been six months after my dad had died and I felt like you not been handling it pretty good I took my friends down and we'd been there we'd been there for four or five days already hadn't went to the track yet I was like you know let's go track it's nice to see the racetrack without the RVs and the teams there it's real surreal and quiet kind of way eerie before it was a meaningless corner you know now that acre of land is big piece of my life I try to imagine why it's not painful for me to go there but I don't know why I it's a bit it's positive I get a positive thought I always wonder how things would be today if he was still here I remember him telling my youngest son that he was going to take him deer hunting when he got back from Daytona nice task that's in February deer seasons al he's not on my farm he said I don't take him get him a deer and you know things happened in Daytona they didn't make a trip list the little things that's what you miss the most we don't miss the fame and glory because good graciousness that is really hard for our family because we're an average family we weren't raised with all that attention when you're a daughter of Ralph if I get through that or not sorry you know the number of times did you wish you had stopped and visited you know a lot of times with Daddy and Dale and now jr. you don't make that effort because fragile bothering you know how many people are talking and so you want to be the lord of the family that doesn't turned on we were waiting for them to retire so we could have those long conversations again ladies and gentlemen let them know you're there Christmastime at the Victory Junction Gang Camp established by the Petty's in Adams memory for kids with life-threatening illnesses can cause what you want for Christmas and a horsey and Oh only 19 but with compassion beyond his years concerns far beyond his own needs yeah fine good that was Adam petty this was very much his idea when we would visit children's hospitals Madam's to mom and add these people paying to be here and it looks like they're poor and they can't afford the things that they want or just something to play with in their hospital room we visited a camp in Florida and he came away from there going okay this is what the petty family should do let's concentrate on one thing make children happy and it's free baby as we look back on his life you can say how did a nineteen year old kid get to this point well the 19 year old got to that point because God put him in that position 30 numbers was just your size you can ride all by yourself all wounds heal with time they don't never completely heal going and seeing the kids and seeing the camp then that that kind of eases the pain when you see those kids grin like you see Adam grant that makes us feel good we see Adam in these kids are you doing Kyle Petty's successes off the track far exceed the marquee made as a driver while his dad the King remains the standard-bearer on the track he still has the gift still can make every fan feel like the greatest Richard Petty fan alive remember he hitchhiked home from the first strictly stock car race as an 11 year old in 1949 and he remains a presence today but with the passage of time and torches the pride that fed Richard and Bobby's old rivalry has been replaced by perspective gained through the lives they lived and lost dear mr. Allison you've been one of my most favorite drivers can you please send me a couple autographs for my son so many years so many memories so many races and my frog you have a conference in your career the best one the day in 1988 he and Davey finished 1st and 2nd at the Daytona 500 he still can't remember it a cruel irony it's one of the few memories that elude him but always within easy reach there in his wallet the picture of his two boys I go see periods where it's not very easy if I were to get that picture out and started looking at right now I may cry and I may not it's incredible mental pain nothing like but Bobby continues to push against the storm living as best he can outside the Charlotte area remarried to his childhood sweetheart Robbi our son Manon Devi son is 15 now when he was 11 he wanted to race and it was something that I actually didn't want for him as much as I loved the sport I did not want him to have a passion for it but we put together a little team for him and he went out and had a pretty good little wreck first night out and hit his head pretty hard and he's 11 years old you know and he had to be removed and taken to the hospital and as we're sitting in the emergency room he looked at me and he goes mom would daddy be proud of me right now it was Robbie's last race but another Alison Justin is busy upholding the family legacy with help from his grandfather I see him do things I see things happen in that race car that you got to have a gene to do that I mean it's kind of something's got to be there in order to do that that you're not taught that Salas ins a pity it's learn hard it's a gene and I see that in Justin maybe we have another Allison that go on and race and get to the big thank you happy maybe and if he can do that and wants to do that I love him every way I can you didn't kill nobody Graff will come in for lunch and for dinner and then usually go back out work ten o'clock or so at night he he'd try not to crank the cars that you know after about ten after he passed away then Dale moved out you know he's the garage to race out of and then when he built his place up there yeah it was almost like somebody had died again I mean I missed that hearing those motors crank up 46 there was friction in the Earnhardt camp after Dale seniors death Dale jr. tried to negotiate for continued service to his father's company but eventually he severed ties and parted ways with Dei and his stepmother Teresa at 32 years of age the same age as my father was when he made his final and most important career decision it is the time for me to compete on a consistent basis and contend for championships now the main focus will be on navigating the turns ahead and continuing to honor his family they held life it's all been really overwhelming you know to grow up the way I did in to be where I am today I don't really know why I'm not married I can't separating into many winners but I thought I mean I look to be married and I'd love to have a son running around here you know getting in trouble but you know hadn't worked out yet it's a great honor to drive race cars with that last name I'm going to weigh in and be successful and you know do what you think would make you and my grandfather proud when the motor is quiet and cool down and the grandstands empty what lingers on the track is the imprint of families the NASCAR families the Petty's the Allison's the Earnhardt's bound by their bloodlines to the sport laughing and crying longing and loving winning and losing living or racing mmm you

Channel: rowdyeverylap

Views: 367,956

Keywords: Richard, Petty, Bobby, Allison, Dale, Earnhardt, Jr, NASCAR

Id: 4vZpUt2fqqg

Length: 91min 17sec (5477 seconds)

Published: Tue May 24 2011