He began working for his father's NASCAR Winston Cup Series team after graduating high school, and built a race car of his own, a Chevy Nova, with friends known as the "Peach Fuzz Gang."

Prior to the 1987 season, car owner Harry Ranier tapped Davey to replace veteran driver Cale Yarborough in the Ranier-Lundy No.

A pit miscue which allowed a rear tire to fall off on the track ended his hopes of a good finish in the race, but success for Davey Allison would be just around the corner.

The car turned sideways, lifted into the air, became airborne, and crashed vertically into the frontstretch spectator fence near the start finish line.

28 Ford again suffered engine failure but Allison would drive his father's car later in the race when relief driver Mike Alexander was overcome by heat.

On October 1, 1988, Ranier sold the team to Yates, who temporarily remained as Allison's crew chief for the balance of the season, before undertaking full ownership.

A year after he and his father's one-two Daytona 500 finish, Davey started at 16th, then was involved in an early incident with Geoff Bodine that sent his car careening into the sand bar separating the track's backstretch from Lake Lloyd.

Two races later, Davey won his first road course event at then Sears Point International Raceway where he was awarded the victory after Ricky Rudd was penalized by NASCAR for spinning Allison out on the final lap.

But Davey was unable to get drafting help from fellow Ford Motor Company drivers, and he slipped to ninth place after attempting to pass Earnhardt for the lead.

In his post-race interview, Allison stated "All we needed was three inches to clear Earnhardt, when you can't get help from a fellow Ford driver, that's pitiful.

The injury failed to slow him down, however, as he finished a remarkable 10th on the road course at Watkins Glen, then was second at Michigan, a photo-finish, in which Dale Jarrett scored his first Winston Cup victory.

Davey started sixth in the 1992 Daytona 500 but was probably not quite as fast as the Junior Johnson teammates of Bill Elliott and Sterling Marlin.

A hard crash in the Food City 500 at Bristol left him with a bruised shoulder, and the following weekend the team had Jimmy Hensley on hand for relief just in case Allison could not go the distance.

[8] Another hard crash at Martinsville re-injured his ribs, but Allison rebounded yet again, leading a contingent of Fords to victory in the Winston 500 at Talladega using the same car with which he won the Daytona 500.

While practicing for the weekend's Busch Series race, Davey's younger brother, Clifford crashed hard in the third and fourth turns of Michigan International Speedway.

But Davey's fortunes changed dramatically at Phoenix as he won the event by beating his closest rivals off of pit road, and Elliott finished 31st.

A first lap incident involving Rick Mast caused minor damage to Davey's car, and he battled through much of the race to stay in the top ten.

Late in the race, Davey had finally managed to reach the top five and was in position to win the championship when Ernie Irvan lost control of his car on the frontstretch on lap 286.

Kulwicki, an independent driver who had turned down offers to drive for other teams, including Junior Johnson, won the championship by leading one more lap than Elliott (103 to 102).

Still, Davey and the Robert Yates team were confident that they could put their early season struggles and inconsistency behind them and could make a run for the championship in the second half.

Allison was attempting to land the helicopter inside a fenced-in area of the track infield when the craft nosed up suddenly, then crashed.

He was pronounced dead at 7:00 a.m. the next morning by a neurosurgeon at Carraway Methodist Medical Center in Birmingham after a procedure to relieve pressure on his brain proved unsuccessful.

[10] In January 1994, Allison's estate filed a lawsuit against McDonnell Douglas claiming the cause of the crash was a failure of the collective socket on the helicopter.

"[13] In their March 1995 report, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) blamed the crash on Allison's inexperience in helicopters, coupled with the decision to attempt a downwind landing.

Testimony from a biomechanics expert established that Allison would not have died, and Farmer would not have sustained his injuries, had they been wearing shoulder harnesses originally provided in the helicopter, relieving the manufacturer of liability.

[19] Fellow drivers attending the funeral included Mario Andretti, Roger Penske, Mark Martin, Darrell Waltrip, and Bill Elliott.

[30] A promotional die-cast 28 car was released with Allison's replacement, Ernie Irvan listed as driver to pay tribute to the team's win at Martinsville in the fall of 1993.

[32] On April 28, 2003, the mayor of Hueytown, Alabama, declared it Davey Allison Day and is celebrated on the weekend of the springtime Talladega race.

Due to Allison's death, Robert Yates initially chose not to field a car at the 1993 Miller Genuine Draft 400, stating "It's hard to race with tears in your eyes".

[34] A road called "Allison-Bonnett Memorial Drive" in his hometown is honored by him, along with fellow native Neil Bonnett, who died a year after Davey.