The number of Cup Series drivers who won a race in their final full-time season is extremely small, with only five drivers in NASCAR history achieving this feat. Of those five, only one was driving a NASCAR Ford at the time – Davey Allison, who took his Thunderbird to Victory Lane at Richmond in early 1993, marking the final win of his career.
As per a report on NASCAR.com, Allison secured his spot on the elite final season winners list after winning the Pontiac Excitement 400 on March 7th, 1993. The race was held at Richmond Raceway, and was the third race of the Cup Series season, then known as the Winston Cup Series. Allison was coming off a disappointing 28th-place finish in the 1993 Daytona 500 and another lackluster P14 result at Rockingham the weekend before, qualified 14th.
Allison slowly picked his way forward in the No. 28 Ford Thunderbird at Richmond, taking control of the race during the second half. He led all but five of the final 157 laps of the race, finishing more than four seconds ahead of second-place Rusty Wallace. The win marked the 19th of Allison’s career, and his last.
“The car just felt great right from the start,” Allison said in a postrace interview. “I just tried to pick my spots and get through traffic. I just had to be patient until we got up front.”
Tragically, Allison lost his life just a few months after winning at Richmond. On July 12th, 1993, Allison boarded his new helicopter, bound for Talladega Superspeedway .There, he intended to watch Neil Bonnet and his son, David Bonnet, test a car for David’s debut in the Busch Series (now Xfinity Series). Allison, who was flying the helicopter, attempted to land in the infield when the aircraft’s nose went skyward suddenly before crashing. Allison sustained a traumatic brain injury in the crash and was pronounced dead the morning after. After the final race of the 1993 Cup Series season, Dale Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace drove two-wide in a “Polish victory lap” to pay respects to Allison and Alan Kulwicki, who also died in an unrelated aircraft crash earlier that year.
Throughout his Cup Series career, Allison amassed 19 wins, 66 top fives, and 92 top 10s.
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Comments
Man I miss the days of Davey, Alan Kulwicki, and Bill Elliott.
Those were great days.
That was back when race cars were really based on street cars. Great stuff!