Pocono and Tragedy
Later that season, on June 19, 1988, Bobby Allison was nearly killed, suffering massive head injuries in a crash at Pocono Raceway which forced his retirement from driving in NASCAR. In 1992, his youngest son, Clifford Allison, was fatally injured in a practice crash for the NASCAR Busch Series race (now Nationwide Series) at Michigan International Speedway. Allison was elected to the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1993.
Later in 1993, his son Davey was killed in a helicopter accident at Talladega Superspeedway. Three years after these major tragedies, he and his wife Judy divorced. Four years after their divorce, while attending their daughter's wedding, they reconnected. They were remarried and are still together. He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1992, and inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in May 2011, along with Lee Petty, Bud Moore, David Pearson, and Ned Jarrett.
Allison is one of eight drivers to have won what was then considered a career Grand Slam (an unofficial term) by winning the sport's four majors: the Daytona 500, the Winston 500 at Talladega, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, and the Southern 500 at Darlington. Only seven other drivers have accomplished this feat: Richard Petty, David Pearson, Darrell Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, and Buddy Baker.
Read more about this topic: Bobby Allison
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