Passing Lane
A NASCAR BLOG BY Mike Hembree
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One race, two versions
Feb
15
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – After all these years – almost 30 now, still they differ on the particulars.
Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison. Combatants – literally – on the last lap of the 1979 Daytona 500. Participants, along with Donnie’s brother, Bobby, in a fight that, many say, helped launch NASCAR on its way to broader national acceptance.
Donnie and Cale crashed at the end of the backstretch on the final lap, their cars slowed and dropped to the infield, and Richard Petty inherited the win. Yarborough blamed Allison; Allison blamed Yarborough. To this day, they stand by their opposing versions of the wreck. Stubborn and territorial, both are unlikely to change.
Yarborough was in town Friday as part of the first of several weekend tributes to Daytona 500 winners. Allison was here, too. He never won NASCAR’s biggest race, in large part because of that infamous 1979 crash.
Yet there they were – men on two different sides of history – posing together for photographs, sharing a laugh or two, greeting and hugging each other’s wife.
They are part of the great sweep of stock car racing’s past – two guys who went to the limit in search of their sport’s greatest prize and, at least on one eventful day, didn’t reach it.
Two racers. Two stories. Two friends.
Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison. Combatants – literally – on the last lap of the 1979 Daytona 500. Participants, along with Donnie’s brother, Bobby, in a fight that, many say, helped launch NASCAR on its way to broader national acceptance.
Donnie and Cale crashed at the end of the backstretch on the final lap, their cars slowed and dropped to the infield, and Richard Petty inherited the win. Yarborough blamed Allison; Allison blamed Yarborough. To this day, they stand by their opposing versions of the wreck. Stubborn and territorial, both are unlikely to change.
Yarborough was in town Friday as part of the first of several weekend tributes to Daytona 500 winners. Allison was here, too. He never won NASCAR’s biggest race, in large part because of that infamous 1979 crash.
Yet there they were – men on two different sides of history – posing together for photographs, sharing a laugh or two, greeting and hugging each other’s wife.
They are part of the great sweep of stock car racing’s past – two guys who went to the limit in search of their sport’s greatest prize and, at least on one eventful day, didn’t reach it.
Two racers. Two stories. Two friends.
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