“Wish I Had Died”: NASCAR Legend Bobby Allison’s Tryst With Tragedy Prompted Shocking Revelation Years After the Devastating Incident

To most people, death is so horrifying, even a close glance or glimpse of it can lead to them changing everything that they do in their lives. But most people don’t willingly choose to drive a car at 200mph around an oval track. Dale Earnhardt wasn’t like most people, and neither was Bobby Allison.

Dale Earnhardt’s death is probably the most high-profile casualty that NASCAR has witnessed in its 75 years of existence. It was also, thankfully, the last fatality to hit NASCAR, as, after his accident in 2001’s Daytona 500, no Cup Series driver has died on the track.

But that wasn’t the first time the legendary driver had a dreadful accident in Daytona. In the 1997 edition of the race, his car flipped. The race marshals successfully brought him out of the car and they took him infield for treatment.

That’s when the 7-time Champion noticed the car hadn’t lost any of its tires. He roared, “Will it start?” Earnhardt then proceeded to try starting the car on his own, and when it did, he said “Get the hell outta my car!”.

Bobby Allison, on the other hand, was involved in one of the worst accidents you’d see when he was T-boned into by Chauncey ‘Jocko’ Maggiacomo at the 1988 Pocono race.

It took 30 minutes for Bobby to be taken out of the car, and another 6 weeks in intensive care for him to become stable. But at the end of it all, when he looked back on that night years later, he had a peculiar response.

“I wish I had died. My life was great then.”

Normal people would think differently. But Bobby and Dale weren’t normal people, were they?

Bobby Allison recovered from the Pocono crash – but in some ways, he didn’t

That crash in Pocono was life-changing for Bobby, in ways he didn’t comprehend for a very long time.

Bob Nolen, one of the first safety officers to reach Allison’s car, expressed the severity of the crash. He said, “We knew he was a hurtin’ individual. It was one of the hardest hits I’ve ever seen.” Nolen had 35 years of experience.

But Allison didn’t know what had happened to him. He was back on his feet 6 weeks after they admitted him into intensive care. Unfortunately, he couldn’t race again. 

He said, “For two solid months I couldn’t add two and two. I was conscious, but I had no idea who was who or where I was or what year it was. I sat and cried, like a 2-year-old. The world was really mixed up to me. Early on, I was really mad that they let me live.”

That tragedy never left him. Bobby managed to live through it, but he witnessed the deaths of his sons, Clifford and Davey, in the coming years. Moreover, his very close friend and a member of the Alabama Gang, Neil Bonnett, also died in 1994.

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One night and one tire burst are all it took for Bobby Allison to lose all he had to live for.