#8 – The Petty-Allison Feud
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01/25/2018 Matt McLaughlin |
(Editor’s Note) In 1997
- 1998, Matt McLaughlin penned a special Anthology of historical pieces in
honor of the 50th Anniversary of NASCAR entitled "50 Years of NASCAR
Racing." Matt has entrusted the entire collection, minus one or two that
were misfiled back then and cannot be salvaged, to my tender, loving care.
As NASCAR turns 70, the
Anthology itself will celebrate a 20th anniversary through 2018, and will run
again here on Race Fans Forever. As before, there is no record of which pieces
came first, so it will appear in the sequence presented earlier. Please, sit
back and enjoy as you take a journey back through the pages of history and
perhaps relive a memory or two.
As always, many thanks
to Matt, and God bless you my friend. ~PattyKay
Throughout NASCAR's history there have been a lot of
feuds between two drivers and even more heated discussion between two drivers
with a different point of view of on track contact during a race, but none have
ever been as fierce as the Richard Petty and Bobby Allison feud that boiled
over late in the 1972 season.
The two men were very different in a lot of ways.
Richard had, of course, been born into stock car racing's premiere family, the
son of three time Grand National Champion Lee Petty. By the point Richard began
driving the family already had a close association with and financial support
from Chrysler. The Pettys made their home in North Carolina, the cradle of stock
car racing. Bobby had no such advantages. He earned his stripes on the short
dirt tracks of Alabama in cars he worked on in dirt floor garages, usually on a
shoe string budget. Petty began racing full time in NASCAR's top division in
1960 after having run limited schedules in 58 and 59. Petty got his first win
at the dirt oval at the Charlotte fairgrounds in 1960. Allison flirted with
Grand National racing in 1961 with 4 starts that year, then didn't appear on
the circuit again until 1965. 1966 was the first time he made a push to race as
often as possible. His first win came that year on July 12th, in Oxford Maine
of all places, driving a Chevy owned by JD Bracken, with no factory support. It
was Chevy's first win in close to three years. What both these very different
men shared was a burning desire to win, fierce tempers and incredible talent.
While Richard had already proven himself by winning a
championship by the time Bobby arrived on the scene, Allison had to earn the
respect of the other drivers or have them push him around. On August 27th,
1966, Bobby showed the other drivers he meant business by going at it head to
head with Curtis Turner, one of the toughest men ever to turn a wheel on a
NASCAR track. Turner spun Allison early in the event. Allison spun Turner
trying to get his lap back. And at that point all bets were off, with both
drivers giving up the idea of racing and just having at each other in a
veritable demolition derby, much of which took place under the yellow flag.
When Allison's car was finally too battered to continue, he used it as a
battering ram to finish off Turner's Ford as well. The two hopped out of their
cars and went at each other, with many of their fans jumping the fence to join
into the fracas until the police intervened.
Petty and Allison had their first major dust up late
in the 1967 season. Petty was cruising towards his second championship. Petty's
stunning success that year had ironically enough helped Bobby Allison get the
factory ride that all drivers of that era coveted. He drove for the Fred
Lorenzen team as the Ford Motor company backed a fleet of cars, trying to
derail the Petty express. Allison scored a victory driving for Lorenzen at
Charlotte in October and once again was battling for the lead in that season's final
race at Weaverville, North Carolina. Bobby and Richard were the cream of the
field that day and creamed each other more than once during the event, trying
to settle who would take the checkers. At one point Richard shoved Allison hard
into the wall. Allison came storming back and knocked Richard out of the way to
take the win. After the event their respective pit crews went at each other in
the pits and had to be separated by NASCAR officials.
Bad luck marred Bobby's career as he searched for a
first class ride for the next few seasons. But in 1971 he wound up as the
driver of the powerful Mercurys entered by Holman and Moody, while Richard was,
of course, still driving the fleet Petty Enterprises Plymouths. That year Petty
won 21 events and Allison 11 with 27 top-fives. And
along the way Bobby and Richard had an occasional disagreement over the same
piece of real estate. At Atlanta that year, Allison and Petty were clearly the
two dominant cars, sharing a lap by themselves with the third place car nine
laps behind them. Lapping that many slower cars while battling for the lead
caused the two to swap paint more than once, but afterwards both were
diplomatic... even Petty, who wound up second. At Winston Salem, Allison opted
to drive a Ford Mustang, one of the smaller Grand American cars NASCAR was
letting run against the Grand National taxicabs owing to small fields at short
track events, while Petty opted to remain in his big Plymouth. The two swapped
more than a little paint on their way to another 1-2 finish, with Allison once
again taking the win. After that event, Petty chose to criticize the rules that
allowed the smaller cars to run at all, rather than Allison. At Talladega in
August the battle continued. That day Pete Hamilton joined Petty and Allison to
dice it out for the victory, though Bobby and Richard did a majority of the
bumping and grinding, especially in the last 10 laps. Allison had the lead with
one lap to go and was trying desperately to break the draft so the two
Plymouths of his rivals couldn't slingshot by him. He may have tried a bit too
hard, at least for Richard's tastes, and the three came together going into
turn three. Hamilton got the worst of it, spinning off the track, but Richard
had to get off the gas to gather his car back up and Allison sped along for the
win. After the race Petty was much less diplomatic. In fact he was downright
angry and told the press, "I've been racing 13 years and the only cat I've
ever had trouble with is Bobby Allison."
Thus the stage was set for 1972, the year the
hostilities between Petty and Allison peaked into an out and out war. It was a
year of change in NASCAR's top rank. Gone were the factories and the teams they
supported. Instead, big money sponsors made their first appearance on the scene.
Bobby and Richard had two of the best and richest sponsors. Richard inked a
deal with STP to sponsor his Plymouths, a sponsorship that remains with the
King to this day. Bobby Allison convinced Coca-Cola to leave the Holman and
Moody team with him and up the ante. He signed on to drive Chevys owned by
Charlotte owner Rich Howard and managed by the legendary Junior Johnson.
Charlie Glotzbach had had that ride since Howard financed Chevrolets, starting
the year before, but Bobby had a committed sponsor and wound up with the ride.
It was also the first year of the "modern day schedule" insisted upon
by title sponsor to the series, Winston. The schedule was cut from 48 races in
1971 to 31 in 1972. The Petty / Allison duo continued to dominate, with Richard
taking 8 wins and Bobby 11. Factor in six wins by David Pearson who only ran
the big events in the Purolator Mercury and it was pretty slim pickings for the
rest of the field. In fact, Petty and Allison finished 1-2 in 13 events out of
31 that year. With the two rivals running that close together both on the track
and for the championship, there was bound to be fireworks and there were
plenty, particularly late in the year.
The real war began at Richmond in September, with
Richard and Bobby eight laps up on the third place driver, Bill Denis and 18
laps up on James Hylton in fourth. On lap 392, Richard used the chrome horn
(the front bumper… and they really were chrome in those days) to push Allison
out of his way to take the lead going into turn one. Going into turn three,
Bobby returned the favor and then some. Petty's Plymouth slammed the guard rail
and actually got up on top of it in a shower of sparks and for one frightening
instant it appeared he was going into the grandstand. A support pole for the chain
link fence intended to protect the spectators knocked the 43 car back onto the
track….and Petty never even lost the lead. He went on to beat Allison by two
seconds with a tire going down. After the race, both drivers denied any hard
feelings, with Petty saying, "It's over and done with as far as I'm
concerned." Not bloody likely as it turned out.
At the next short track race, two weeks later, Petty
and Allison were once again in a class by themselves with two laps on the
field. Petty cut down a tire and had to duck into the pits to get it replaced.
Despite lightning fast work by his pit crew, he returned to the track with
Bobby right on his rear bumper about to lap him. NASCAR waved the blue and
yellow move over flag, but Petty ignored it. A caution flag waved soon
thereafter and Richard restarted the race right on Bobby's rear bumper. And of
course he had a little score to settle after all the times Bobby had hit him
trying to get Richard a lap down. In the latter part of the race the two
drivers were bumping and banging while the crowd roared its approval. Richard
tried to bull past Allison on the inside, struck the curb and ricocheted into
Allison's Chevy, damaging the quarter panel to the car so badly Bobby's gas cap
was dangling the chain that secured it to the car. NASCAR tried to black flag
him for having the cap loose but Allison ignored the flag. Another caution
allowed Allison to pit to get the cap replaced without losing a lap. Soon
thereafter though, he sideswiped a lapped car and put a fender into his tire.
Unwilling to yield, Allison kept driving the car in pursuit of Richard even as
the tire deflated. Eventually, when the tire disintegrated, Allison lost
control of his Monte Carlo and slammed privateer entry Ed Negre.
The resultant yellow allowed Bobby to pit for tires and to have the sheet metal
pried away but he lost too much time in the pits and wound up finishing second
to Richard. To Allison's great annoyance, he was fined by NASCAR for ignoring
the black flag, while Petty was not fined for ignoring the "move
over" flag. Negre loudly complained to Allison
that he had been a victim of the feud, and ever the gentleman (off the track
anyway), Allison agreed to pay to repair the car. Negre
chose a race shop to repair his bent up Dodge and Bobby got slapped with a
$3000 bill he thought was outrageous. The repair shop? Petty Enterprises, of
course. Allison was quoted as saying, "This thing started out at $1500. I
feel like I paid for a Dodge and a couple of Plymouths, too".
Both drivers once again went on the record as saying
there was no feud. But the next race at North Wilkesboro proved otherwise… dramatically.
As per usual, Allison and Petty were on a lap all by themselves and going at it
for the win. In the final 40 laps Allison and Petty engaged in an epic battle,
swapping the lead 10 times as the crowd roared. There was some banging and
bumping, such was the nature of North Wilkesboro, but with three laps to go the
feud peaked and it went from racing to assault by motor vehicle. Petty tried to
use a lapped car to block one of Allison's pass attempts. Allison never even
lifted as he rammed Petty's Plymouth, putting it up on top of the guardrail
once again and the 43 car began shedding parts. Allison got by, but Petty came
after him with fire in his eyes. The impact had smashed the right side of
Bobby's car in so badly both tires were rubbing and smoking, and in fact, so
much smoke was pouring into the interior of the 12 car Allison couldn't see
where he was going or the Plymouth bearing down on him from the rear. Petty got
under Allison and forced him high. Bobby had to back off to swerve to avoid
debris on the track. Ironically enough, the debris was the front and rear
bumpers that fell off Petty's car when Allison ran him halfway out of the track.
Petty got by and took the win while Bobby limped his car home with three flat
tires. Meanwhile, when Petty got out of his car in victory circle an enraged
Allison fan hopped the fence and went after him. One of Petty's crew members
took Richard's helmet and beat the interloper senseless. Petty was hustled off
to do his winner circle interview at a safe location, as the crowd got uglier.
During that interview Richard stopped denying there was a feud and added,
"If I had films of this, I could sue him (Allison) for assault with to
intent to kill or something." Allison's comments were no more polite. With
a tight points battle and three speedway events to finish out the season...
tracks where someone could get hurt if the feud continued... Bill Gazaway of NASCAR
said he would have a talk with both drivers and "This stuff is going to
stop." Actually, according to the edited account I have in my files, he
used a word a little stronger then "stuff" which would have got him
fined $5000 today. Of course, racing has changed. This year a lot of fans were
shocked by the tap Gordon gave Rusty to get around him on the last lap. But
back in 1972, Petty and Allison weren't tapping. They were beating down the
door in the greatest rivalry NASCAR has ever known.
AFTERMATH- There were no more blatant incidents that
year. Richard went on to win his fourth championship while Allison finished
second. Of course, Petty would go on to win seven titles in all. Allison had a
rough few years and made a couple questionable calls in those days, the worst
of which was deciding to campaign AMC products a couple years. As Richard's
career faded after 79 Allison continued to run strong and in fact was always a
contender for the title, though he had a new nemesis, a certain Darrel Waltrip,
with whom he had a whole other feud, almost as colorful as his one with Petty.
He would finish second in the points five times before finally claiming the
Winston Cup championship in 1983. Tragically, a bad wreck at Pocono cut short
Allison's career in 1988.
*Matt can no longer
field comments or email at Race Fans Forever. If you have comments or
questions, please leave them below and I’ll do my best to supply answers.
~PattyKay Lilley, Senior Editor.