Twenty-eight. 28. Two-eight.

It was the number Davey Allison made famous on tracks around the country, piloting the No. 28 to all 19 of his premier series victories before passing away following a tragic helicopter crash in 1993.

For his daughter Krista Allison Sheinfeld, it’s more than a number.

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The number 28 has yet to disappear for Sheinfeld following the days, months and years since the accident on that somber summer day. In fact, it’s become something more.

“I see 28s all over the place, non-stop,” she said. “When I’m going through something, when I’m having a happy time, I just see 28s on … I look at the clock and it’s 12:28 and then I look at my phone and I’m at 28 percent. And I bought a car recently and there were two 28s in the final price tag.”

Having lost her father at a young age, the struggles that have come since haven’t always been the easiest to handle. However, the memories of her father don’t come with as much heartache as they once did.

Yet, 25 years have yet to drown out the emotions that certain days evoke for the Allison family.

“My dad’s birthday and the day that he passed, every year, are really hard for me,” Sheinfeld said. “Everyone handles things in a different way. I tend to handle things where I just want to be by myself. I don’t really want to talk about it that day and that’s just how I handle it. So those days are rough, but you get past them.”

When Sheinfeld goes back to her normal routine, she feels her father is sending her reminders in his own way.

Reminders that life moves on in the most beautiful ways.

“It’s always for me when I see those 28s. It’s almost a little sign that he’s there and he’s telling me it’s OK or that was the good choice or, ‘I’m here to help you.’ It’s kind of a gut feeling that I get from those little 28 signs everywhere,” said Sheinfeld, age 28.

MORE: Bobby Allison helps grandchildren build a bridge back to Davey

“What’s your name and are you married?”

It wasn’t a flashy pickup line, but that’s what Davey Allison said when he first met Liz Allison before a race at Summerville Speedway in South Carolina on a low-country, steamy August night.

It was so hot, Liz Allison admits she almost backed out from a friend’s invitation. But the friend, who was dating one of the competitors, promised an exciting time since some NASCAR greats were in town before their premier series race at Darlington. 

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Dale Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace were two of the drivers expected to be on hand, so after some coaxing, Liz relented and threw on a T-shirt, some shorts and flip-flops to head out for the race.

When she got to the track, Liz was sitting in the back of a pickup truck before the races got underway when a man who was not exactly dressed for the weather conditions hopped up into the truck and uttered that line.

“I thought, ‘Wow, that’s kind of forward,’ ” Liz Allison said. “He had on black corduroys and a long-sleeved shirt. I thought, ‘Who in the world is this crazy guy with these corduroys on and this long-sleeved shirt when it’s steaming hot here in South Carolina?’

“He started talking to me, and then it was time for him to race, so they asked if he was ready to go. He said, ‘Hey, will you hold my hat for me?’ ”

Liz did not recognized the man, but after several fans came by asking about how Davey qualified at Darlington, she began to get the picture.

“When he came back over, we started talking again and I realized that he was Davey and that’s why these people were asking me where he qualified,” Liz Allison said.

“It was just a short meeting. He jumped on top of the pickup truck, we talked for a few minutes, he raced, he came back for a minute and grabbed his hat back and asked if he could have my phone number. …

“So, I thought, ‘Well now, I won’t hear from him. He won’t call.’ And he did call. He called the next day and so, that’s when I really got to know him. … That was in August and I didn’t see him again until November, so there were a lot of phone calls, and so that’s how I got to know him. We just kind of sparked this friendship over the telephone.” 

A friendship that would lead to so much more.

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A little boy driving his Matchbox cars is a scene probably played out thousands of times a day in living rooms all across the country. But when you’re Robbie Allison, son of Davey Allison, moments like these are meant to be cherished.

So it was this past Memorial Day weekend when Robbie’s son Theo was playing in front of the TV while the Coca-Cola 600 blared in the background.

“That’s the first sound that Theo started making, the ‘Rrrrrr-rrrrrr (of the cars),’ ” Robbie Allison said. “He gets glued to it. Our granddad (Bobby Allison) said that dad started making car noises when he was 9 months old. But my son was 4 months old, so I always tell my granddad … Theo’s got dad beat.”

And just like that the four generations of Allison men have shared a connection.

RELATED: Learn more about Davey Allison

For Robbie, finding those connections is invaluable.

“My son’s 18 months old now, and so I constantly think about, this was about the age I was when he passed away,” Robbie Allison said. “Just seeing my relationship with my son, and that bond, has really allowed me, internally, to get to know my own dad better in that experience. It’s a life-long journey, for sure.”

What’s just as important is spending as much time as possible with Theo, something Robbie didn’t get the opportunity to do with his own dad.

“My son and I are really attached to each other, and I try to spend every moment away from work, every moment that I can with him,” Robbie Allison said. “I see that if I get home after he falls asleep, the next day he’s that much happier to see me. You can see, at 18 months, there’s that bond. He knows who his mom is, he knows who his dad is, and he misses us when we’re gone.

“I think back on me being 23 months old and losing my dad, and thinking of what I must have gone through as a young child, as a toddler, knowing that you’re missing that role that you’ve gotten to know, and that you’ve come to rely on, and had this unexplainable bond with, and then to miss that piece,” Robbie added. “It’s weird to think about that from the outside looking in, and then take a step back and realize you’re thinking about yourself.

“It’s me that I’m kind of analyzing in that situation, and it makes me that much more motivated to be as active of a father as I can. And to just do whatever I can for my son. Give him the best life, the best father/son relationship he could possibly have.”

MORE: Treasures left behind give Robbie Allison connection to dad

Come January, Davey Allison will hold a place in NASCAR’s Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2019.

Consider that the late driver’s second home, as Allison has resided in fans’ hearts for three decades.

Bursting onto the scene full time in 1987, Allison rocketed to Rookie of the Year with two wins and a career high five poles. The son of NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Bobby Allison, it didn’t take much success to achieve fan-favorite status, but Davey over-delivered.

RELATED: Learn more about Davey Allison

Allison continued to excel into his early 30s, winning 10.6 percent of his remaining races, his star power increasing by the lap.

Allison had his career and life tragically cut short in 1993 at the age of 32, however, leaving the NASCAR family to mourn. To the fans, the loss was especially heartbreaking.

The love he and his devotees had for each other was deep and mutual.

“I think the reason fans connected so much is because he did go so out of his way and they could see it,” said Krista Allison Sheinfeld, Davey’s daughter. “They could see his genuine friendliness and his genuine care for his fans. He knew they were the reason he had a job outside of obviously his driving talent, but you don’t get very far without fans.”

Following his Hall of Fame nomination this past May, Bobby Allison said that after Davey died, “the mailman delivered 1,300,000 pieces of mail to my house in five weeks.”

1.3 million.

“The thing that most people seem to hold on to was when they met him in person,” Allison’s son, Robbie, said. “That’s the thing I hear more often than anything else is, ‘Oh, I met your dad at Pocono, I met your dad at New Hampshire, I met your dad at Talladega. He stopped. He looked me in the eye as he smiled at me. He shook my hand. He talked to me. He signed autographs for six hours after a race.’

“It was always him making time and treating everybody with humility and respect. They saw that he was genuine and he was real and he was humble, but he wouldn’t give up an inch on the track.”

With Allison set to be enshrined, fans who weren’t able to meet the down-to-earth kid from Hueytown, Alabama, before his passing will get a chance to soak in Allison’s legend.

The 19-time winner would’ve loved to see people relive his career.

“He loved the fans. Oh my god, he loved the fans,” Allison’s widow, Liz, said. “He loved the energy that they brought to the sport and loved … listen, he loved that people knew who he was. He loved that he was an Allison. He loved that he had a part of making the sport what it is today. So, I don’t think there was anything that he didn’t love about it.”

And there wasn’t anything fans didn’t love about him.

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