Donnie Allison in 1970 at Indy
When it comes to trivia bench racing, save this one until the rent money is on the table.
Question: Before Nigel Mansell in 1993, who was the last rookie to complete 500 miles in the Indianapolis 500?
Answer: Donnie Allison.
Donnie Allison? He was a stock car driver.
Yes, but in 1970, in an A.J. Foyt entry, he finished fourth and took Chase Rookie of the Year honors on the lead lap of the “500,” a feat that was not achieved again for 23 years. Roberto Guerrero became the closest at 495 miles in 1984.
“I’m not much into statistics or that kind of stuff,” said Donnie, 70, from his Salisbury, N.C. home. “But a couple of people told me that, and you better check it to make sure.”
Allison, his brother, Bobby, Cale Yarborough and Lee Roy Yarbrough all took their turns in running the “500” in the early ‘70s, invading Yankee land. Donnie was the most successful. He ran it twice, finishing sixth in 1971 in his other start.
Foyt periodically went south to compete with NASCAR’s finest, won a Daytona 500 and other races and was well-known among the Southern faithful.
“I kept saying to Foyt: ‘When are you going to let me run an Indy car? When are you going to let me run an Indy car?’” said Donnie. “He kept saying, ‘Aw, you’re a taxi driver.
“In 1970, I talked to him at Daytona, and he said OK. ‘70 was quite an experience. I crashed in practice, and it took us seven days to fix the car. Once we got the car together, I ran faster than I had all month.
“I liked it. I enjoyed it. The Indy cars are quite a bit lighter, more acceleration and horsepower, but I thought they drove easier. I didn’t have a problem to adapt because I ran a lot of supermodifieds. It was the first time that I started three abreast, but that didn’t seem too awkward to me. I never even thought about it. In ‘71, I wanted to run the championship. I went to Ontario and it was terrible, went to Milwaukee and ran pretty good, then went to Pocono and ran really good but crashed.”
He says he would have liked to run the Brickyard 400 at the Speedway.
“When they decided to do that, I was concerned it wasn’t going to be a good race, but I was definitely wrong.”
Today, his 17-year-old grandson Justin is running Allison Legacy cars at places like Hickory, Rockingham and Orange County in North Carolina and Dillon, S.C.
“He’s a good driver and with the right breaks, you’ll see an Allison right up there again,” Donnie said. “I’m the crew chief, chief mechanic and everything on the car. I still have my farm in Alabama, but my whole family is over here. I have two great-grandchildren.”
I really miss what I call the glory days of the 60s and 70s at Indy. The variety of cars and power plants, that made for a truly interesting race. I just don’t pay very much attention to it since there is no tech competion. The same goes for NASCAR, I know it’s safer, but still miss actual stock cars. I also miss the likes of Foyt, Andretti, Unser and Jones. It sucks getting old.
I agree with Kenny F. When you think about it, however, people said the same thing about a “rut” when the front-engined roadsters were dominating. I know about getting old; I turned sixty-three two days ago. At least today’s machines are safer than they were in the ’60′s and ’70′s. And it’s good to know about Donnie Allison.
I would love someone to give me some information regarding a 1931 Model A ford that I have in my posession. In the back seat of this car when I bought it there was a brochure from an antique auto show on July 18 1an 19 1975. There also was the cars entry number 67 the year and make of the car and the name of the person showing the car as Donald Allison. I an so curious to find out if this vehicel at one time belonged to “the” Donnie Allison.Any information you might be able to come up with would greatly be appreciated. I can be contacted at my email address. Thanks so much John