NASCAR's Northeast past linked to an all-time great

New Hampshire Motor Speedway opened in 1990 and was added to the NASCAR Cup schedule in 1993, but NASCAR's forays to the Northeast began several decades before. And for Bobby Allison, one visit in particular jump-started a career that seemed to have run out of juice.

A field of 38 cars, including several of the top drivers of the day, traveled to extreme northeast Connecticut in October of 1951 to race at the Thompson Speedway half-mile. Herb Thomas seemed to have things his own way but crashed his Hudson just before the halfway mark while leading. That left the battle up to Jim Reed's Ford and Neil Cole's Oldsmobile. Cole, the pole-sitter, finally got by with 45 laps to go and wound up lapping the field to take home the $1,000 winner's paycheck in what was his only Cup victory.

Bobby Allison, circa 1966.

Bobby Allison

Best Average Finish / Track

Track	St.	Wins	Avg.
Meyer Speedway	1	1	1.0
Oxford Plains	3	2	2.0
Montgomery	3	1	2.0
Langley Field	4	1	2.2
Islip Speedway	4	2	3.0

With the exception of Emanuel Zervakis' 1961 victory in a 500-lap marathon at the quarter-mile Norwood Arena bullring in Massachusetts, NASCAR rarely ventured north of the Mason-Dixon Line. That is, until the mid-1960s, when the series put together a northern swing following the July 4 Firecracker 400.

After NASCAR visited several tracks in New York during the summer of 1965, Maine's Oxford Plains Speedway was added to the 1966 schedule. Allison, a national sportsman champion, had struggled to break into NASCAR's top division despite top-10 finishes at Atlanta and Birmingham the previous season.

He landed a ride in Betty Lilly's Ford to begin 1966, and finished third at Rockingham and Macon, but after blowing an engine in Smokey Yunick's Chevrolet three laps into the World 600 at Charlotte, Allison's career seemed at a crossroads at age 28.

He continued to turn out cars at his fabrication shop in Alabama, and built a Chevelle that seemed perfect for the short tracks. With J.D. "Woody" Bracken as owner, Allison towed the car north. He won the pole at Manassas and led 49 laps before the transmission let go, then suffered an oil leak at the road course at Bridgehampton. But Allison's luck changed for good when the tour pulled into Oxford Plains Speedway.

Starting on the pole, Allison dominated the race, leading all but 62 laps on the third-mile track and taking home $1,100 for the first of what would be either 84 or 85 victories, depending to which record book you ascribe. Proving that win was no fluke, Allison backed it up with a victory at Islip, N.Y., followed by a win at Beltsville, Md., later in the summer.

Allison impressed both the Ford and Chrysler factory teams, which landed him a ride with Bud Moore at Daytona in 1967. But Allison's Mercury finished 40th with an oil leak, and he wound up making just two more starts there. However, Cotton Owens had just had a falling out with David Pearson, and was looking for a replacement. Allison fit the bill, joining the team at Richmond in April.

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But the relationship would be acrimonious from the start, and despite a string of nine top-10 finishes in a 10-race span, including a win at Birmingham, Allison was left with the option of running for Bracken again as Owens refused to tow his car up north after the Firecracker 400.

And once again, Oxford was the perfect antidote for Allison's ills. This time Allison's two-year-old Chevelle chased down the faltering Plymouth of Richard Petty and he won going away. But there was an additional twist to the story. Afterwards, the folks at Dodge were dismayed to see one of their factory drivers in a competitor's car, particularly when it wound up in Victory Lane. And Allison's days with Owens were numbered.

Allison returned to Oxford in 1968 to defend his two victories, but this time Petty got the better of the battle, holding off Pearson and Buddy Baker for the win, while Allison finished a distant fourth. The series never again raced there, although the track has been renovated and continues to holding weekly racing to this day.

Allison eventually got the last laugh. Landing Holman-Moody's No. 11 Ford, Allison won three consecutive 500-lap races to finish off 1967. He ran much of the 1968 season for Bracken before Dodge wised up and put him in Mario Rossi's No. 22 the following year. During the next four seasons, Allison won 29 times, finishing second in the points in 1970 and '72.

Thompson Speedway returned to the Cup schedule in 1969 and '70, with Pearson and Bobby Isaac scoring victories. But none of the Northeast tracks survived NASCAR's Modern Era purge at the end of the decade, when officials decided to pare the schedule to a more manageable number.