BOBBY ALLISON’S 1978 DAYTONA 500 VICTORY

BY BOBBY ALLISON, AS TOLD TO BEN WHITE

From 1961 through 1977, I was always in contention to win the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, but every year I would come up short of getting to Victory Lane.

In 1977, I decided to run my own AMC Matador program. I worked very hard to make it a winner, but the effort almost physically killed me and I ended up with nothing. I had incredible faith in the car but getting to 500 miles was often difficult.

While with Roger Penske for a limited schedule in 1974 and the full season in 1975, I won four times in the Matador at Riverside, California; Ontario, California; and twice at Darlington, South Carolina, in the Cup Series. Mark Donohue also had a win in the Matador in 1973 at Riverside.

Going into 1978, I was having rather bad stomach issues and had lost a great deal of weight. I parked the Matador when Bud Moore called and I gladly accepted his offer to drive his Ford. I told him I wasn’t well and we would have to take it a race at a time at first. He agreed.

In our 125-mile qualifying race on Thursday prior to the 500, we ended up getting wrecked by Buddy Baker, and it hurt the frame and left-side sheet metal pretty badly. When I saw the damage to the car, I told Bud I was going back to the hotel to lay down. I didn’t think I could go on and thought seriously about heading back to Alabama.

When I got back to the track the next morning, I was shocked and also happy to see the car was completely repaired and painted back to its blue and white colors. The crew had stayed up all night and worked until early morning getting the car finished and ready to race.

Because of the crash, I started in the 33rd position. I led a total of 28 laps even though the race was dominated by Darrell Waltrip, Cale Yarborough and Buddy Baker as far as lap leaders go. But Waltrip crashed out with Richard Petty and David Pearson (on lap 60) and that left Cale, me and Baker to sort it out.

Late in the race (with 11 laps remaining), Baker’s engine blew. I was home free because I knew I had Cale covered. I hadn’t won a Cup Series race since the Southern 500 at Darlington in September of 1975, so it felt so good to win again.

It took several months for me to recover from the health issues, but I finally got there. We won five races that year and a total of 14 while with Bud’s team through 1980.

The key to that Daytona 500 win and all of our success through 1980 was Bud Moore. No question. He was a very smart team owner and had an incredible crew of people around him. Everybody supported me and they were so easy to work with. I enjoyed my relationship with them when it came to getting the car the way I wanted it and also the closeness of the team. Doug Williams was our crew chief and he was a complete joy to work with.

I also won the 1982 Daytona 500 with DiGard Racing and the 1988 Daytona 500 with Stavola Brothers Racing, and both wins are also very special. The 1978 Daytona 500 was my first and helped me realize I had many more wins and a Cup Series championship in 1983 in store. Without Bud Moore’s surprise phone call in late November of 1977, none of that remarkable time in my life would have happened. It was an incredible turnaround for sure.

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