Donnie Allison through the years

On Jan. 19, Donnie Allison will take his rightful place in the NASCAR Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2024. Take a look back through his storied career ahead of his well-deserved induction ceremony.

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1962: Donnie Allison kneels next to the first car he drove in competition at Daytona International Speedway. The 1956 Chevrolet was entered in the NASCAR Modified-Sportsman race. Allison finished 38th in the event.

1967: Donnie Allison, center, stands with Leonard Wood (L) and Glen Wood (R) of the famed Wood Brothers race team at Martinsville Speedway before the Cardinal 300. Allison dominated the event, leading 232 of 300 laps in a car Leonard Wood modified from a 1966 Ford Galaxy frame.

1968: Famed car builder Banjo Matthews (L) was a dedicated car owner for Donnie Allison in 1968 with his Ford, a partnership that would extend into the start of the 1971 season.

1968: Donnie Allison drove this Banjo Matthews-owned Ford Torino in 13 NASCAR Cup races during the season and scored eight top-10 finishes, including his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory in the Carolina 500 at North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham, North Carolina.

1970: Allison celebrates his win in the Firecracker 400 in Victory Lane at Daytona International Speedway. The triumph was the sixth of Allison's career and third of 1970, the most wins Allison scored in a single season.

1971: Donnie Allison poses with his Wood Brothers Mercury at North Carolina Motor Speedway in Rockingham. Allison drove the No. 21 car to Victory Lane earlier that season at Talladega Superspeedway, beating older brother Bobby Allison to the checkered flag by six car lengths, per the race report.

1978: Donnie Allison (L) and Richard Petty speak in the garage area at a NASCAR Cup Series race. Allison picked up his 10th and final career win that season at Atlanta Motor Speedway, leading only the final three laps.

1979: Cale Yarborough, Donnie Allison and Bobby Allison fight after Yarborough and Donnie Allison crashed on the final lap while battling for the lead in the Daytona 500. The scrum capped the first major live television broadcast of a NASCAR Cup Series race, putting an exclamation mark on a thrilling race that drove interest in NASCAR to new heights.

1982: Hueyville, Alabama natives Neil Bonnett, Donnie Allison and Bobby Allison stand together at Darlington Raceway. "The Alabama Gang" began with the Allison brothers and fellow Hall of Famer Red Farmer, another Hueyville native. In nine starts that season, Allison scored the final three top-10 finishes of his career, finishing ninth at Darlington, sixth at Talladega Superspeedway and eighth at Dover Motor Speedway. Allison ended his career with 115 top 10s in 242 starts.

1983: Donnie Allison ran just two NASCAR Cup Series races as his career behind the wheel slowed significantly. Allison never competed in a full season and made just two more starts in Cup, hanging up his helmet after a 1988 race at Michigan International Speedway.

1993: In a somber moment, Donnie Allison drove a memorial lap ahead of the DieHard 500 NASCAR Cup race at Talladega Superspeedway in honor of his nephew Davey Allison, who lost his life in a helicopter crash a few days prior. The car Donnie is driving is the one Davey was to have raced.

2011: Donnie Allison never strayed far from the garage after his racing career, evidenced here as he stands in the Charlotte Motor Speedway garage ahead of NASCAR Cup Series practice.

August 2023: Donnie Allison  receives the votes necessary to be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2024, the same class as Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus.

October 2023: Donnie Allison reunited with the modified race car he won with at Martinsville back in 1967. After being sold, wrecked and left in a junkyard, the vehicle was salvaged and later restored before Ray Evernham purchased it in 2010. The Wood Brothers got it back in 2021, and Leonard Wood worked to get similar-to-original parts back in place before Allison paced the modified field in 2023 ahead of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race at Martinsville. Learn more about the car's significance here.