Clay Today will test your knowledge weekly and provide interesting facts on various topics. This week, Bobby Allison. The racing world lost an icon last Saturday when Bobby Allison, 86, died …
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Clay Today will test your knowledge weekly and provide interesting facts on various topics. This week, Bobby Allison. The racing world lost an icon last Saturday when Bobby Allison, 86, died peacefully at home. He had 85 wins at the Cup Series level, which is fourth all-time. He also had a lot of other unique numbers associated with his career. Did you know he won under two names? Early in his short-track career, he was known as Bobby Sunderman. When he raced in Hialeah, he changed his name because his mother didn’t want him to race. His father wanted to take him to the track one night when Bobby was supposed to drive, and on the way there, his father told him he knew he was Bobby Sunderman. He told him his mother better never find out. He won races for 12 different car owners and won for eight other manufacturers. His most remarkable feat was set between Sept. 6, 1971, and Oct. 8, 1972, when he led at least one lap in 39 consecutive races. Along with Richard Petty’s 200 career wins, those two marks are unlikely to be matched. One of his most memorable races was the 1979 Daytona 500 when he, brother Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough were involved in a fistfight in Turn 3 after the race. That race was the first live flag-to-flag broadcast on CBS. Donnie Allison and Yarborough crashed on the final lap, fighting for the lead and argued as Petty took the checkered flag. Bobby Allison stopped to see if his brother was right, and Yarborough punched him. Years later, Bobby joked, “I blocked all of Cale’s punches with my face.”