Davey Allison: A Celebration of Life

As a long time Allison fan, it's hard to even see the book. But it's a great way to remember a NASCAR legend and loving family man. David Carl "Davey" Allison will be sorely missed.#28 will always be Davey's car. As his father said he is now the guardian angel for the #28 car.

Though it's been five years since his un-timely passing, it is still hard for me to look at this book. Especially when it gets into Husband and Father. Seeing those pictures just makes me tear up cause I know he'll never get to see his wife and kids again. This a must have item for any loyal Davey Allison fan.

David Carl Allison had everything going for him. In his rookie season on NASCAR's Winston Cup Series, he won two races, won a pole, and established himself as an immeasurably friendly personality.All of that ended in July of 1993. Landing a heliocopter he had recently purchased at Talladega Superspeedway, Davey was killed when the helicraft looped over and smashed top first onto the ground. Suddenly, the personality that was carrying the sport into the 1990s was gone.Davey's widow Liz grieved the loss of her husband, the father of her children Krista and Robert Grey, but in 1995 she purged that grief and let her heart flow by putting together this poignant photo look at her husband's career. The photos run the gamut - there is the 1961 shot of nine month old Davey using a toy telephone, with a look of "What the blank is THIS thing?" on his face. There are childhood photos and photos of the beginning of his racing career. His first win at Birmin! gham (AL) International Raceway came in April of 1979, with proud papa Bobby Allison looking on. There are some great shots of Davey posing with racecars in the middle 1980s. One shows Davey posing with the #1 Chevrolet with which he made his Winston Cup debut in 1985. There is a 1983 photo of Davey, with Darrell Waltrip, Dave Marcis, and Dick Brooks all grinning at what he is saying during a news conference.There are many shots of Davey hanging out with his best buddy, Brett Bodine. The one on page 73 shows Davey, Liz, and Brett walking hand in hand down Talladega's pit road, almost like little kids. Another favorite is the shot of Dale Earnhardt on a payphone, Davey, Bill Elliott, Bobby Hamilton, Geoff Bodine, and Ted Musgrave all waiting their turn.Davey took up hunting and fishing as a hobby, and one great shot shows him with a 26 pound bass fish that almost looks bigger than him.But the most gut-wrenching shot is at the very end, of Dale Earnhardt, hol! ding a #28 flag in victory lane at Pocono, his face almost ! ashen. More than any words, that shot rams home just how much Davey meant to racing, and how much we so desperately want to know how high he would have reached in his career.There are some minor nits to pick; there's a photo on Page 60 at Martinsville that is erroneously listed as 1992. Not only are the cars pictured of 1993 specs (Kyle Petty's Pontiac sports a flush airdam not allowed until 1993) but the name above the door reads, "Ernie Irvan." The book has several superb shots of Davey Allison and 1992 champion Alan Kulwicki, killed in a plane crash just three months before Davey's death, but should also have made an attempt to find photos of Davey Allison and Tim Richmond, yet another superstar cut down before his full potential was reached.Noentheless, it is well worth the investment to own this look back on NASCAR's most genuinely charming personality to come out of the decade of the 1980s.

This was a wonderful accumulation of mostly pictures but also some very poignant text. The forward from Benny Parsons was an extra plus. I do wish that his father had written a piece for it. I think that it is something that his fans and family(especially his kids) will cherish forever.