Red Farmer Recounts Unthinkable Tragedies with the Allison Family

[Music] you guys have been all over the country doing something i mean right i don't know how you fit it all in but i mean it is you know yeah i've been around a lot you talk about all the culture we'd say the other day they said how many race acts have you run in 75 years you know and i got thinking i said well i raced in key west florida as far as house you get rock island i ran in oxford maine in the other corner yeah i ran down to california the other corner and i ran up in victoria british columbia and raced up in there so i raised all four corners for us to get away and i don't know how many in between that so i raised an old fork and people don't even know they had attracted key west at one time they did they're still just a little like portion of the track still there underneath all the growth well when we first went down to key west to run that track a little quarter mile looked like a quarter mile asphalt track and the back straight the one straight away had a cardboard guard rail with two by fours and we got there we hot left a few left right there and i walked out there and went walked over that cardboard guard rail and looked over and there was the ocean right beside us the hell is going on and i said i said that one time that we left i never come back i said if you went through that cardboard you would not know she leveled the ground he's swimming now yeah he's swimming yeah yeah wow i didn't know there was old track in key west sitting down there yeah we got to do this i don't know at one time far as i know uh you know i don't think anybody anybody ever go back running again so you know this begs the question so you and bobby and donnie are great friends and bobby and donnie go on to to race in the cup series you're as successful as they are in the modifieds and doing just as well why why was your cup experience and your your cup career so limited how come how come that didn't work out for you the way it did for bobby there's a lot of reasons a lot of reasons for that one reason uh at that time factories was in the racing and if he wasn't a factory ride he was an also ran he was independent so it was kind of a tough deal i was offered some rides but none of them i thought was winning rides was there was there a ride that maybe you think back on now that maybe i should have took that ride well no not really i don't i don't regret it in any way that i turned down that few of the rides that i had because to me uh racing i love racing there was so much politics and stuff going on in racing at that time if because i know bobby and donnie at one time they was on separate kind of teams yeah and eddie was in it and on one team and that team told him you can't talk to him his own brother because he was on the other team right and that kind of stuff and i remember one time we were going through inspection i think at daytona and they come over to my car and my headlights i had a piece of aluminum out pop rivet open my headlights in the front an inspector came over and said you got to take that aluminum off and move it back in an inch and a half to where the front of the bulb's at and i said what he said yeah i said you got to take that off and move it back in in the front end i looked over there about two cars from me and there was a holman moody car or something sitting over the same year same car that i've got he's got aluminum on the front of his and i said what about his he got to take his off he said i'm inspecting york or not his but the race started and he still had his aluminum on in front of his and i had to move mine back an inch and a half yeah and he politics you know and i said well you know it just took something away from me i said uh i i said i don't want i'd rather go back to bir and win my 30 lap feature and being winning circle then i would finish 15th to 20th to 25th in a cup race and just say i'm a nascar cup driver and being also ran i mean to me that's like kissing your sister it just don't do nothing for you you know what i mean so if you rush i don't actually but i'll take your word for it well that's what i'm saying you know what i mean it it just being also ran wasn't to me i would rather win short track races than being also ran and run back back i couldn't win races i wanted to win races that's what meant more to me first place second place is not worth nothing so i said i'm just going back and running and you know and uh i built this uh long lewis board i'll be at 72 torino and i drove it back from the dealership to my shop in hueytown and when i got to garage it had nine miles on it and we started taking the upholstery and the headliner and everything and making it into a race car and i i campaigned that car some and uh in fact i finished fourth in 74 i finished fourth in the talladega 500 with that car yeah that we built it would still stock frames still everything on it other than i put jack bolts on the springs and change the spring stuff around so basically it's the one sitting in the hall of fame right now yeah and you can look at the seat on it did it have no armrest no headrest nothing in it you know we ran 500 miles and uh in fact i went to ontario california and uh i don't know if anybody's ever in ontario but they had a car they had a tractor exactly 10 years ahead of its schedule i mean it was a beautiful racetrack but it was like indianapolis it had too short straight away too long straightaways it was flat and i went there with my 72 torino and uh joe joe bill got the way joe gas away was inspectors at the time for nascar anyway to make a long story short i finished i qualified third fastest in ontario against 50-something cars i qualified all the hot dogs and bill guys went in and they called me into the office and said red said we've got a short time here right now he said whatever you've done to your car that's illegal correct it right now and we won't have no problem i said bill i said there ain't nothing wrong with my car he said well ain't no way you could take that 72 torino and run qualify on second row in ontario against all these guys and i said i can because i tell you why so the first time i went out and went out for a practice session we'd gone down the straightaway and i like to crash the car in front of me because they was already out of the cast and i wasn't playing no lifting for another 100 yards and they were scared to drive on that flat track with a 90 degree corner to get to it and they would back it off like i said 100 200 feet before i was even planning on lifting and i said they were scared to run on that flat racetrack but i learned to drive bir which is a flat racetrack and to me i felt comfortable running that way but they didn't i said so my car was legal so did they accept that yeah did they accept that did they accept your uh explanation yeah yeah they did in fact they gave me after their race they gave me a uh some kind of a a kit that uh checked for cracks and flaws or some kind of a kit and i think for the best engineered independent car oh wow yeah so they gave me a ward i kept that that case of that stuff that die stuff you just pray on stuff for checking for corrective applause and they gave me that award that's an i haven't heard that story where it's like we don't know what is wrong with your car we don't know what's cheating we just think it is whatever it is go fix it yeah yeah that's crazy yeah so i'm sitting here watching you you got three fingers with tips missing off of them how'd that happen they won't say where'd you lose them i said i didn't lose them i know where they're at in the everglades oh lord wait what happened in the everglades well uh you know i'm a hunter and fishing i love to hunt fish well i had two air boats i always had air boats in florida in fact a lot of times on saturday night when i went to hailey or something like that i'd have my buddy take my race car back to the shop and i'd have my airboat on my behind my truck sitting in the parking lot when the race is over i'd go out and get in that thing and i'd drive up to tamiya trail and i'll set airboat at midnight and head out to the hunt club about six miles into everglades and do some frog you know get some frogs on the way out there with the gig and stuff like that well uh i had a one boat that was a little what i call a hot rod boat it would be about 12 foot long had an 85 lakomi motor on it and uh i had a roll cage but i didn't have no wire on the front of the roller cage and i was actually running the deer chasing the deer through some of the woods and uh thanks to get hit my head with my with a limb so i reached up grabbed that limb and pushed it over this way like that and then my hand went between the bars and the propeller cut them off cut the fingers off or knocked them off or whatever and uh damn i bet that hurt i tell you what when i looked up and saw blood squirting out in them and the bone still sticking out there about a half inch no meat on it and and i said well here i'm by myself now what year was this uh 58 i think somewhere yeah you're out in the middle of nowhere about everglades by myself so i said i had to drive so i reached over there and grabbed trying to squeeze that top of the blood from coming out and ran that boat back probably four miles to the trail hit the hit the trailer because it hit backed up you know the airboat run across dry ground i ran it wide open up up on the trailer put the latch on it dumped in the car and had to drive the high lift uh about 10 miles down the road until before i got to found got a hospital and went in there for the blood you know when they wired them all up pictures yeah lord i'm surprised you you didn't pass out at least well that's what they just wondered i didn't pass out from from this big blood loss yeah so but i knew i had i was by myself i had no choice i had to do it you know so yeah so the friendship with bobby and donny you know lasts for decades and davey comes along uh davey's going to be a race car driver bobby's son you seem to be really really close with him you all went places together you drove his race cars sometimes when davey would need somebody to fill in uh y'all seen you and davey seemed to be even closer maybe than you and bobby were um you know how how what was that relationship like between you and you and davey and you know what did you see in him davey was just coming out of the street stocks and stuff and just learning to be a race car driver and of course i was there when he was born because i went to bobby's wedding when him and judy got married in miami springs florida yeah so when all his kids was born they would you were there i was there well anyway uh you know davies bobby's shopped like i say just next door in the mines so when i was over there working with bobby owen in the shop you know and then uh clifford and david be coming in there on tricycles you know and then of course on bicycles and then go carts and stuff like that so i saw him grow up the whole time and then he become a race car driver uh at that time is when bobby and donnie was off cuff racing right and i was running bir in huntsville and places like that and of course davey was there so did y'all parked together at the tracks and stuff y'all stayed back a lot and stayed together and of course when he in other words i tried to take bobby's place more or less and help davey as much as i could you know and bring him up like that because like i say bobby and donny was gone so uh we became real close that way and you know we got to hunting and fishing together and and just helping him out you know and he was he was like a second son to me you know so uh that that they live how that came about you know that i tried to take bobby's place to help davey as much as i could on the way up yeah so i didn't know it was i guess i mean if you think about it it makes sense that that y'all would be in the same place all the time and him coming up through the ranks and racing at the local tracks that you were still racing at y'all really did have y'all really did have a tremendous amount of time to be around each other yeah and he would he would grow really you know comfortable and fond of being around you and leaning on your advice and so forth so how did bobby react to that did he um i'm sure he was pretty appreciative to have somebody trust he was bobby knew what i was trying to help david's bunch of us you know he wanted him to do that too he wanted somebody to be able to help davey and clifford the same way yeah so uh david become a real good driver you know i always tried to bring you you know how davey was you know i always told davey i said look you become a champion and become a racer and you do that i said i want you to stay always remain davey just like you now i said don't you ever get big headed get an ego and start thinking you're better than anybody else you do so i'm gonna kick your butt yeah and he never did davey always remained davis he was always the same he never changed i can vouch for that me and uh i didn't know davey uh super well he's a little bit older uh but kelly and davey had a friendship my sister kelly and davey were friends and davey looked i think davey looked at me and kelly in this and saw something that was similar in himself being bobby's son right and how he knew coming up in the ranks underneath bobby's shadow and trying to prove himself and the doors that would open but also the challenges that would come with that yeah being bobby's son and i think he looked at kelly and me and i i would watch him and kelly interact anytime they were around each other kelly kelly had a little crush on davey at one point but davey was super nice and just so easy to talk to even for someone as young as me and even as he was going into the cup car like you say i anticipated his personality to change i anticipated him to be more challenging to talk to or engage with as a young kid but he always acknowledged you when he would come into the room hey how are you doing what have you been up to you everybody nobody was too unimportant right uh to davey davey was such a nice guy and always willing to you know kind of create a conversation with anybody well i think a lot of that's got to do with bobby's bringing him up too davey david didn't he learned everything himself he's come in the shop he'd come up with me he'd be out there and probably have him sweeping the floor with a thing and bobby and david want to go and work on the race car he didn't want to sweet no damn floor sure so he'd come up to me she said read the daddy did that did i said david just go ahead and sweep the floor you can work on the car a little bit later so just do it and and bobby had him come up that way but davey learned everything davey could actually do everything he could wire a car he could build a motor he could build a chassis he could set the front end he could do everything because bobby had him learn everything from sweeping the floor on up and uh davey was was a good all-around mechanic yeah bobby seemed um my opinion of bobby alice and dad and bobby were really close um as far as i remembered when bobby was injured at pocono at that point dad and bobby were pretty close bad and neil were very close and i think that kind of roped all that together right neal being part of the alabama gang um so dad dad really listened to bobby and and followed a lot of bobby's advice uh even up until you know bobby was injured so i i remember bobby uh being i wonder how bobby was as a dad uh and i know that he was off racing a lot but to me uh he seems like he would be kind of strict uh and it's interesting he would strict but he was a good dad i mean he wasn't in other words they wasn't given anything they had to earn it everything like bobby was pretty strict with him for his behavior and what they did this that another but bobby was a good dad he did a great job raising them two boys how come clifford's career trailed davies what was the deal there let's put it this way the difference between donny and bobby was different bobby was kind of laid back and calm and davey was kind of wow and donnie was wild as hell and acted the same way davey was calm more like like bobby and clifford was just like donnie he was kind of wild he didn't really want he he was kind of crazy in other words the kid he didn't know he wanted to be a race car driver and i noticed i watched when they both started driving you know and the the year i think the year before clifford got killed at michigan he had finally made up his mind that he was going to calm down and be a race car driver yeah he i don't think until then he really didn't want to be he didn't know really what he wanted to do i understand before davey always knew he wanted to be a race car driver yes and clifford really improved that last year before he had that crash in michigan he was really the night and day changing from his driving and his his attitude and everything else about clifford because i was in the park me and david and clifford's car was parked side by side at michigan down in turn four when the wreck happened and that was probably one of the hardest things i think i've ever ever done i still uh i get emotional whenever i think about it we were side by side when clifford had that crash we looked up there and it was only you know a couple hundred yards from us when he had that crashed and his car was parked there and bobby walked out on the pit road and started walking up towards the crash and uh the guard up where the guard tried to stop him bobby just pushed him aside walked on up there and he walked up there just looked in the car and turned around walked back and come down right between the cars i was standing right next to him and he sat down on that tool box put his hand into his face that was the hardest thing that bobby ever had to do i guess i can never forget it yeah that's tough bobby and that family would go through a lot of tragedy a lot of difficulties um you know the helicopter crash took davey uh you were in that helicopter you know how do you you know you talk about this experience that day in michigan with clifford um and then you know the accident with davey happens i really think i really don't know how bobby did it you know i really don't know how you come back from something like that or how you keep moving forward i know it's i i think they i think it goes back to their religion they really didn't had to take over for that you know you know me living next to bobby and knowing him since he come and helped me on my first car when he was 15 16 years old he had he lost pop allison he lost knee neal lost david off clifford we lost some awful close friends and i don't know how they put up with i mean they the trouble they had then the financial problems that they had when the insurance companies and all that stuff left him out of broke you know trying to pay all those hospital bills for all his injuries that he had and stuff like that so it took some awful strong religions and faith to be able to put up with all that stuff i know it's just because how i felt what the clifford did and then the next morning after the helicopter crash um and they come into my room and told me about davis and uh you know i know i felt so i said it's got to be rougher on bobby and judy than it is on me but uh i don't think it could be yeah how what what injuries did you sustain broken collars and ribs and just more or less beat up david was still trying to fly that thing and when i saw that it was upside down and out of control i kind of braced myself and he couldn't and he was flying he was still trying to fly that thing to the last minute i mean that something broke on the collectors that made the propellers mess up or something on it he couldn't control it and uh i got to brace myself when it crashed down was uh when it hit the ground and the motor was still running wide open on the helicopter and we had gone down to uh talladega to watch uh neil bonnett and them practice david practice and uh neil was the first one got over to we was only maybe 100 yards from where they was parked in the garage and uh the neil came running over to me and the whole front of the on my side that crashed down the the glass the bubble was busted out their way and i undid the seat belt and i was trying to get out and kneel reached in there and got me by the arms and pulled drug me out of the helicopter pulled me away about 10 feet and i told him i said neil go back get davey he's hurt he's hurt and neil went back to try to get davey out of things you know so it was a quite of a deal you know so and then of all things of all things what did they do they they put us in two helicopters or flies to the hospital i told them i said put me in the back of a pickup truck i don't want to get back in the helicopter i imagine yeah that would have been pretty yeah that was the first time i've ever been in it i didn't like i told that david had that helicopter for six months and uh in fact he was making a helipad right up next to the shop to park it on and uh i never would get in he took all the guys the crew ride and flight around huey town come back landing and all this stuff and i never would get in it because i didn't like it i said those things i said something happened they don't glide or float they stick like a rock i said hey they're not made to fly they got no wings on them you know yeah so i used to own one and uh i didn't think anything about it my dad owned a helicopter and we would fly to the race tracks and um i bought one i bought mine from tony stewart and was riding in that thing whenever we needed to and woke up one morning don't know why didn't nothing happened i just woke up one morning and didn't want to ride in anymore i don't know why i just i had this i had my whole mindset about them changed well that was me i just didn't feel comfortable anymore i just didn't want to ride it i never would get anything to it and that day that it happened he would tell me about kneeling him down there practicing the taladia we'd just gone to lunch and uh he said we're gonna fly down to talladega with neil now i said no i ain't either he says yeah you are i said we we got a race he said we just finished up the race car this morning we just got through setting the front end the car's already loading the trailer you don't need to be in the shop working on the cruise we're going to fly down to daytona i told i just didn't want to do it i saw finally he said come on i need some somebody to ride with me so i got in the helicopter that was the first time i've ever been in it where did you take off from birmingham so the helipad had not been built yet or it had been built by the shop no it had to it had been graded off it was still dirt it didn't pave nothing he was just in the process of building that thing yeah and we he kept the helicopter down in birmingham got it okay you know red it occurs to me i mean like you know you know all the stuff that bobby's dealt with i mean that if you take away losing sons which i can't imagine you know like i can't imagine there being anything anything worse than losing a kid right uh but bobby you know you also lost a friend in neal and bobby also had the head the head injuries and i know that you being the supportive friend and the person to lean on wasn't what you necessarily signed up for but here you you've sort of been that rock right i mean like i i'm not saying by choice and i'm not saying it's by something you may it's not something you relish or enjoy but you do have something about you and it needs to be said i'm sitting there thinking about it in the hall of fame speech which was remarkable and i and i i'm looking at a man that's also i think your legacy is also being there for people through unimaginable grief and i don't know how you're able to do it i mean i don't know how you're able to do it and i don't even know if you do no i don't really know either like i said bobby that's one of the hardest things like i said they lose both sons and pop allison and pop was such a wonderful man to their daddy he was he was unbelievable pop allison was and and neil and all that stuff and i really don't know how bobby then put up this it's got to be his religion you know it's just you know uh i'll tell you a quick story uh i was david's crew chief at the time we were down there working on the cars and the cars were getting ready going they get ready to go to lunch and they said well we're going to run up the iceberg here which is a little favorite restaurant in hawaii town have lunch and i told dawg davey i said i'm sick of my stomach i feel real bad i don't feel like i want to eat nothing i'm just going to lay it here on the couch and y'all come back for lunch so they went to lunch and they come back i was almost laying on the floor hollering screaming my stomach was so bad and david said we're going to the hospital so davey loaded me up there and another guy helped me in the car and they took me to the hospital and i went in the hospital and this and the guy dr brown i think he was anyway just run him over the emergency room right now i'll call so i got out of the emergency room and they put me around the room and making lawn i had a ruptured appendix and it was done busted and got infected all through my intestines and stuff like that i was pretty bad shape so they put me in the hospital and i woke up a couple gave me a whole bunch of stuff and i went to sleep and i woke up and there was a napkin laying that side of my bed and said me and dad's on the way to pocono we'll stop the hospital on the way back davey was on the napkin inside my bed well this was in 88. i was laying in the hospital bed watching the pocono race when bobby had his crash and here i am in a hospital bed in bad shape like this and knew bobby had a bad wreck and that was the worst eight or ten hours i think i've ever spent because i could not get any information how bobby was whether he was dead or alive or what the problem was and uh finally i finally got some information the next morning that he was in bad shape but he was still alive and people don't realize how fortunate we are to have bobby you know bobby's you know not doing good now but if they had gone when they brought bobby back to birmingham and put him in lakeshore rehab place he didn't even know judy or me or nobody and the doctor wanted he told judy to get one of his closest friends and him and y'all and come visit him as much as he can to get him to back or do it so me and judy to the hospital just about every day and sit in the room with bobby and it was i don't know a month before he really started recognizing judy or me you know so we got bobby back 95 but they don't realize how close we come to losing him all together yeah so i would just tickle the debt that we got him back as long as we have and um there's just so many things that i don't know it's just i just think of some of the problems and things we've had you know i've had so many good friends in my 75 years that's not with us anymore that uh got killed in crashes or different stuff like that you know and i've lost so many close friends like that and bobby has too so sometimes it's kind of rough deal you got to get through it the best you can how do you get through it i don't know i just keep i don't know i just always hoping that everything's gonna be better tomorrow you know what i mean so you know i still got my racing i still love to do it um i've got three grandsons i get to race with every saturday night at the racetrack i look forward to it every week until people can't really realize that because my next birthday i'll be 90 years old but i still love to get i love to work on my race cars and uh i i look forward to it and you know i always figured this if if a person had got some kind of a goal or something they want to do are they looking forward to doing then they got no reason to exist anymore you know what i mean that happens yeah that happens but i think you've got a goal and something that you want to do and something you're enthused about then you can keep on managing that the way i am now you want to hear more of that conversation with red farmer well you got to listen to the entire interview on the dale jr download the whole podcast available on all major podcast platforms [Music] you

Channel: Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Dirty Mo Media

Views: 356,704

Keywords: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Dale Jr., Bobby Allison, Davey Allison, Donnie Allison, NASCAR, Red Farmer, Dirty Mo Media, Dale Jr. Download, Dale Jr podcast

Id: Uc-S5qIN4o4

Length: 33min 25sec (2005 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 12 2022