Donnie Allison's Election Dilutes NASCAR Hall of Fame

by Julian Spivey

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A 57-member voting panel selected the 2024 class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame on Wednesday, August 2 and seven-time NASCAR champion driver Jimmie Johnson and seven-time champion crew chief Chad Knaus  - the duo winning those seven championships together – were each elected on their first year on the Modern Era ballot. After being chosen on the Pioneer Ballot, Donnie Allison will join Johnson and Knaus in the 2024 class. Janet Guthrie, the first female driver to start in the Daytona 500, received the Landmark Award for Outstanding Contributions to NASCAR and will be celebrated alongside Johnson, Knaus and Allison at the Hall of Fame Induction ceremony next January in Charlotte.

Johnson received 93% of the vote, Knauss received 81% and Allison 53%.

Much of the controversy online around the NASCAR community, including drivers, media and fans alike, was the fact that Johnson wasn’t a unanimous choice by the voting panel with four members leaving him off their ballot. The Athletic reporter Jeff Gluck was among the media personnel saying the four members of the voting panel who didn’t vote for Johnson should be removed from the panel. Luckily for those four individuals, the balloting is anonymous, unless the individuals announce who they voted for themselves.

The fact that Johnson, arguably the greatest driver in the history of NASCAR with his record-tying seven titles and 83 career Cup Series wins placing him sixth all-time, wasn’t a unanimous choice is idiotic for sure but I don’t think quarreling about the percentage of vote he got was the most controversial NASCAR Hall of Fame choice of the day – though seemingly few are talking about the one that truly is.

There is simply no reasonable metric or reasoning I can think of as to how or why Donnie Allison is a NASCAR Hall of Famer.

Nothing about his 21-year, 242-race Cup Series career comes close to explaining why he’s now a NASCAR Hall of Famer.

He won 10 races in his career. That’s 61st all-time in Cup Series history. Of those 10 wins only the 1970 World 600 is really the only one considered a “grand jewel” of the sport. Three wins in the 1970 season were his career high for a single season.

Do you know who else won 10 career NASCAR Cup Series races?

Clint Bowyer.

No one is out there clamoring that Bowyer is a Hall of Famer. Hell, Clint Bowyer is more worthy of the NASCAR Hall of Fame candidate than Allison because he also had lower-level NASCAR success with an Xfinity Series championship and eight wins in that series, as well as three wins in the Craftsman Truck Series.

Allison’s highest career finish in the season-long point standings was 17th. It was the only time he finished in the top 20. Now, Allison never ran a full-time NASCAR Cup Series schedule. He never ran more than 65% of any season, but should that matter when it comes to the Hall of Fame?

I’d argue it shouldn’t help his Hall of Fame case, especially when other drivers who never ran full seasons are in the NASCAR Hall of Fame with much more impressive resumes. Hell, Junior Johnson never ran a full-time NASCAR schedule and won 50 races, good enough for the 13th all-time in the sport’s 75-year history.

Another head-scratcher to me is how Allison topped the Pioneer Ballot when it featured legitimate candidates like A.J. Foyt, Sam Ard, Ralph Moody and Banjo Matthews.

Every single one of those other Pioneer Ballot candidates is more deserving of Hall of Fame induction than Allison.

Ard was one of the first greats of what’s now the NASCAR Xfinity Series winning two championships and 22 wins over three years in that series before his career was cut short due to injury.

Foyt, perhaps the greatest open-wheel driver in motorsports history, wasn’t too shabby when he moonlighted in NASCAR. His seven career Cup wins might be fewer than Allison, but Foyt won the sport’s biggest race in the Daytona 500 in 1972. Those three fewer wins than Allison also came in more than 100 fewer career races.

Matthews and Moody were legendary owners and mechanical geniuses. Moody was a two-time NASCAR Cup Series championship-winning car owner. Matthews won three championships as a car owner and won more than 250 Cup Series races, including five of Allison’s 10 career wins.

I would really love for the 53% of voting members who checked Allison’s name on the Pioneer Ballot to explain why they chose him over any of the other four members because right now all I have are theories.

Theory #1: The Allison name

Donnie’s older brother, Bobby, is one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history. Bobby Allison’s 84 career Cup Series wins are tied for fourth most all-time. Allison was also a champion (1983) and won bukoos of “grand jewel” races like the Daytona 500 four times, the Southern 500 at Darlington three times and the World 600 at Charlotte three times.

Donnie’s association with his brother and the gang of drivers known as the “Alabama Gang” for their shared home area around Birmingham, Ala. has no doubt helped further his name and legacy.

The plain truth to me is that if Donnie Allison had any other surname he would not have been inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame now or ever. Why do I believe this? Just look at some of the drivers he’s jumped over into the Hall of Fame. Dick Hutcherson won 14 races in just over 100 career races for a much higher winning percentage than Allison and hasn’t even sniffed the Hall of Fame. Jim Paschal won 15 more races than Allison. He can’t even get his name on the Pioneer Ballot. Jack Smith, Speedy Thompson, Fonty Flock and Marvin Panch all have better resumes than Allison. Crickets.

Theory #2: The Good Old Boys Club

This one kind of goes along with Allison’s name but a bit differently. I think Allison still being alive at almost 84 years old and being such an effervescent personality has helped his case. Maybe more so than still being around and his personality though is the fact that many of the drivers he raced against and owners he competed against – some who are no doubt on the 57-member voting panel – helped his cause. That just doesn’t seem fair to more worthy candidates.

Theory #3: His Association With Maybe the Most Famous Moment in NASCAR History

It’s very likely Donnie Allison was a player in one of the most famous moments in the 75-year history of NASCAR, along with his brother Bobby and fellow Hall of Fame driver Cale Yarborough, at the end of the 1979 Daytona 500, the first-ever NASCAR race aired live from start-to-finish on television and had the luxury of doing so while most of the Eastern Seaboard was snowed in from a massive blizzard.

Allison and Yarborough were racing for the lead and win in the sport’s biggest race when the two contacted each other and wrecked into the infield. A fight between Yarborough and both Bobby and Donnie Allison would break out in the infield near the wrecked racecars in front of millions watching from home. It’s likely more people could tell you about that fight today than the fact that Richard Petty won the race after driving by the wreckage.  

Maybe some of the writers feel like Donnie Allison was owed a Daytona 500 win because of that moment and that win would be enough to get him in. To that I’d say – Sterling Marlin won two Daytona 500s and has the exact same number of Cup Series wins as Allison and we’ll see if he ever makes it down the road on the Pioneer Ballot.

One honor Marlin has that Allison doesn’t is this year he was named one of the 75 greatest drivers in NASCAR history. However, Foyt and Ard are also among the 75 greatest drivers honorees and we see what good that did them.

There are more than a dozen drivers on the 75 greatest drivers list eligible for the NASCAR Hall of Fame that haven’t been inducted yet, many of them eligible for the Pioneer Ballot, yet Allison will be enshrined come January.

Why does all of this bother me so much?

Because I want to believe in the sanctity of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Are Hall of Fames perfect? No. We’ve seen head-scratching inductions in every other sports hall of fame. I remember feeling this same way a few years ago when Harold Baines was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Donnie Allison isn’t even at the level in NASCAR that Baines was in Major League Baseball in my opinion.

My wife said to me tonight as I was telling her of the 2024 NASCAR Hall of Fame class: “Do you believe everybody in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is worthy?”

My answer: “No. But music is something that’s subjective. Sports are something that is mostly objective. You have statistics and things like championships and awards/honors to go by.”

Allison doesn’t have the statistics, championships or awards/honors to qualify in my opinion for such an esteemed title as “Hall of Famer.”

It makes the process of getting into the NASCAR Hall of Fame feel dirty or at least confusing. Most importantly, Donnie Allison's induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame dilutes the entire hall of fame. Now that might put it on the same level as all of the other halls of fame, but up until Wednesday the NASCAR Hall of Fame hadn’t undergone such a dilution.