1992: Davey's day

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- After destroying his third car in four years at Daytona, Davey Allison was ready to let somebody else tear up their equipment for a change.

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Running a patient race pace, Allison dodged "the big one" on lap 92, then went on to lead all but five of the final 102 laps for a victory in the 34th annual Daytona 500.

On Wednesday, Allison wiped out his primary car in a collison with Sterling Marlin, prompting him to change his strategy: run fast, but also run smart.

"In a 200-lap race, there's no need to stick your neck out and take a chance," Allison said. "A couple of cars were faster than us, but they ended up a bunch of sheet metal in the garage. I think they made a mistake."

"They" were Marlin, Bill Elliott and Ernie Irvan, who collided on the backstretch, setting off a 14-car accident which eliminated most of Allison's competition.

	Robert Yates (left) with Davey Allison.

Three-wide in Turn 2, Marlin was in the middle of a 190 mph sandwich, with Elliott above and Irvan below.

Irvan and Marlin touched, which sent Marlin's car up against Elliott's, turning him sideways in front of the lead pack. By the time the carnage had concluded, seven contenders had been sidelined: Marlin, Irvan, Elliott, Darrell Waltrip, Mark Martin, Dale Earnhardt and Dale Jarrett.

In addition, Rusty Wallace, Richard Petty, Hut Stricklin and Alan Kulwicki were involved.

"I still don't think Ernie should have been digging the way he was digging down there," Elliott said. "He wasn't going anywhere. He hadn't been that good all day long."

Irvan said he had a good run on the leaders and decided to make his move.

"Sterling went diving underneath (Elliott) and that got them all slowed way down," Irvan said. "I went diving underneath Sterling and thought I was clear of him. I got hit in the side quarterpanel. I don't know if I came up or not."

Marlin realized too late that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Ernie got loose and came up a little," he said. "I saw 'em coming and I said, 'This ain't going to work.' I got out the gas and almost missed it."

Allison was running fourth at the time.

"I saw it coming," he said. "They ran out of room. I picked which way to go and Morgan (Shepherd) followed me, then all hell broke loose."

From that point, Allison outlasted Michael Waltrip, who experienced engine problems, and Shepherd, who had no drafting help and settled for second.

"I could get right to him but I didn't have enough to pull up on him," Shepherd said.

With the win, the Allisons became the second father-and-son winners of the 500, joining the Pettys.

Geoff Bodine, Kulwicki and Dick Trickle rounded out the top five, the only other cars on the lead lap.

This is one in a series of articles counting down to the 2003 Daytona 500.