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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.”

He was a halfback in high school, played four years of semi-pro football and was offered a tryout with the Washington Redskins. But he turned to auto racing and claimed three NASCAR Winston Cup championships.

When a factory glitch occurred in NASCAR, he came north to participate in four Indianapolis 500s with a best finish of 10^th in 1972 and two full seasons on the Indy car trail.

He eventually became a NASCAR car owner, but now watches most races on television.

At one time, he owned 18 Hardee’s restaurants but his only business remaining is a Honda dealership in Florence, S.C.

At 71, he resides on a 4,000-acre plantation just outside Timmonsville, S.C.

“I got your message,” came the voice of Cale Yarborough through the phone. “I just finished digging a 30-acre lake by myself. I have six grown kids, and everything’s fine.”

He has fond feelings of his trip to the Indy car ranks.

“I enjoyed it a lot,” he said. “I wish I had better equipment. Stock-car racing is my first love, but I just loved Indy. They’re low cars, and you use different techniques but that’s all there was.”

The three-abreast start was his first, but that didn’t bother him, either.

“It didn’t make any difference to me,” he said. “If that’s the way they wanted to run, that’s the way we’d run it.”

The Brickyard 400 came after his retirement, but he would’ve liked the competition.

“I would have loved to,” he said, “but it was after my career. I think I might have had an advantage over everybody because I knew the racetrack. I’m still a big race fan. I just don’t participate any more.”

Yarborough is happy he raced when he did.

“The money there is today … but I wouldn’t take anything for the part of it that I was in. It’s all business now. It was fun then. These boys today don’t know what they missed.”

Years ago, when he was racing and building his array of businesses, he mused thoughtfully about how he was handling life.

“There are times when I wished I had a half-mile dirt track in the back yard and when I came home from work, I’d go cut a few hot laps in a supermodified to blow off steam before I went in to the family.

“That’s still on the drawing board,” Cale said, laughing. “Now I have three grandsons who can go out and play with me.”