CONCORD, N.C. — Ask NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Donnie Allison about his 1981 wreck at Charlotte Motor Speedway and he’ll playfully joke it would take a week to properly tell the story.
While his turn-four accident during the World 600 wasn’t the end of his racing career, the moment of impact undoubtedly changed his life forever.
“The day was really strange, because I was in a car that belonged to a guy named John Rebhan. Harry Hyde was the crew chief,” recalled Allison, who is 84 years old. “I drove the car the first time in Talladega and I finished fifth. And believe me, I finished fifth — the car didn’t finish fifth.
“But anyway, we go to Dover, Delaware, and I can’t drive this car.”
At the time, NASCAR had just introduced a new car model featuring a shorter wheelbase and increased spoiler size. According to Allison, they were “doing all kinds of crazy things.”
Whatever the changes were, Allison wasn’t a fan.
“I said, ‘Harry, let’s not go to Charlotte. Let’s go test this car and get it worked out where we can race it,’” Allison said.
Hyde responded to Allison with a staunch “no,” telling Allison he had to go.
“He said, ‘I have to go. That’s my home track,’” Allison said. “So I go home and I get up the next day to go back to Charlotte to race and I told Pat (wife) before I walked out the door, I said, ‘I’m gonna mess around in junk like this and bust my ass.’”
Sure enough, Allison was right.
“I was going four laps, two laps down every 50 laps,” Allison said. “I was getting lapped by Neil Bonnett and that bunch.”
Why he didn’t park the car, Allison isn’t sure. But he made the choice to stay out, rejoining the field in 21st or 22nd after each pit stop. On lap 146, it all came to an end.
A cut tire sent Allison spinning into the wall in turn four. As he drifted back down the track, he was slammed into by the car driven by Dick Brooks, who was unable to avoid the collision.
“I don’t know anything about it. I just know that Dick Brooks hit me. And from that period on, for the next two weeks, I didn’t know anything,” Allison said.
He was told the Woods brothers visited him at Charlotte Memorial Hospital — where he was initially taken to be treated for his injuries, which included a broken shoulder, fractured rib, concussion and bruised lung — but Allison has no recollection of it.
Allison was then taken to a hospital in Birmingham, where his “head doctor” was located.
Kyle Petty, Steve Mill and others stopped by to check on Allison, but again, the memory is faint.
“I remember Kyle — I don’t remember anybody else,” Allison said. “I went through probably a month-and-a-half or two months of not really knowing anybody or anything. And all I could say to myself was, ‘When am I gonna be well enough to be get back in the race car?’”
As the 10-time Cup Series race winner said, his mentality about returning to racing wasn’t a question of “if” — rather a question of “when?”
“I’ll never forget, the weekend I was going to get back in a late model at Birmingham (International Raceway), on Friday I called my head doctor. I wanted to ask him a question. Well, he had left for the day and the nurse said, ‘Is there anything I can help you with?’” Allison relayed. “And I said, ‘Well, I wanted to talk to Dr. Davies, because I wanted to find out if I was ready to race.’
“And she said, ‘He wouldn’t have released you if he didn’t think you were.’”
Nonetheless, Allison proceeded to make an appointment for Monday for a final check-in with the doctor and required that his wife, Pat, go with him.
“I walked in there and he wanted to shake hands and I said, ‘No formalities. I came here to find something out. Am I ready to race?’” Allison said. “He said, ‘Donnie, I can’t answer that question. You are the one who’s gotta answer that question. Your head’s ready, or I wouldn’t have released you.’
“I said, ‘OK, I’ll shake hands then.’”
From then on, it was an uphill climb for Allison to get back in the car.
But after months of remembering very little, the memory he made in his first race back has stuck with him forever. While sitting on the start-finish line, waiting for the green flag, a newfound gratitude washed over Allison.
“I looked out the front windshield and said, ‘Thank you, Lord. Thank you for letting me be able to get back in that race car,” Allison concluded.
He only appeared in 14 Cup Series races following his World 600 crash.