Before President Ronald Reagan gave the command at Daytona in 1984, he had a fan in Bobby Allison. The feeling was mutual. The NASCAR Hall of Famer professed his respect for the president in 1982 and was later invited to the White House for a state dinner with Reagan and his wife, Nancy, who died earlier this week at age 94. The story below was told by Bobby Allison to Matt Crossman.
When I won Daytona in ’82, Reagan was going through a political deal where guys were really hammering him about he wasn’t a good enough president about something. In Victory Lane at the 1982 Daytona 500, when they stuck the camera in my face and the microphone in my face, I said, “I love Ronald Reagan.”
It went out all over. Ronald Reagan happened to be watching that broadcast that day and he saw that. So then (my wife) Judy and I got invited to go to the White House for a state dinner, which was quite an affair.
We were up in New York for the ’83 championship banquet. Somebody under his command called and said, “The president would like to have you and Judy at the White House for a state dinner.” I had to go rent a tux — we didn’t wear tuxes yet at the awards banquet. I had a regular suit.
I went across the street there in New York City, got a tux, tried on the pants and shirt, bow tie, all that stuff. I told the guy I wear size 10 1/2 shoe. So he grabs a pair of shoes and sticks them in a shoe box and says, “OK, they’re in there.”
I go to Mike Curb’s apartment in Washington D.C. to get dressed. I get my tux all on and my bow tie and my studs. I put my left foot down into my left shoe. I put my right foot down — into another left shoe.
So here I am, with two left feet. Mike wasn’t there. His sister was there. She called him to see if he had a pair of patent leather shoes for a tux. He said, “Yeah, they’re right there. But you know I have little tiny feet.”
Mike Curb had size 7 1/2 shoes. So I put my size 10 1/2 feet into those 7 1/2 shoes. I was so in agony. Nancy Reagan asked me to dance, and I couldn’t dance. I could barely stand up. It hurt to sit down, even.