Donnie talks about the Infamous 1979 Daytona 500 fight post race between himself, his brother Bobby and Cale Yarborough. The video is below and the full transcript is below the video.
Donnie and Bobby Allison tangle with Cale Yarborough after the last lap wreck at the 1979 Daytona 500
Hamm – What was that conversation between you and Cale right after the whole thing because I saw you had him by the arm and you were talking to him?
Donnie – Well after the wreck, Cale and I, we had some pretty unpleasant words towards each other but no fighting or nothing like that and at the time really I didn’t even think about fighting. I just lost the Daytona 500 for the 3rd time. I should have won it maybe a fourth time and I’m sitting down in the infield with a wrecked race car and a little short squatty guy that wrecked me standing right here beside me but anyway, so we had a few unpleasant words towards each other and that was basically it. Well Bobby shows up and stops and he’s about probably 30 feet away from us on the apron of the racetrack and he hollers over to me am I all right, I said yea I’m fine. He said you want to ride back to the pit and I said no I’m gonna stay here with the car. And all this time Cale is walking towards his car. I couldn’t hear what he was saying to Bobby because you know his back was to me ya know and the next you know I see Cale hit Bobby to the window net. I ran over there and I grabbed Cale by the left arm and I spun him around and I said you want to fight you SOB I’m the guy you need to be fightin’ with. By that time Bobby, how Bobby got out that fast, I don’t know but anyway he got out and then the fight broke out and you know they got pictures of me with my helmet raised up I never touched him. God as my witness, not my mother, God. But, and it’s a good thing. Like I told my mother if he ever hit me or I’d ever hit him on that day I probably would have killed em’.
Hamm – I know you told me before that Bobby would start fights and you would finish them, or something like that.
Donnie – Well, I was in, not proudly so but I was in seven of them at the race track, and my brother started five of them.
Hamm – Also tell me about whenever you were in grade school, and somebody picked on you. I say grade school meaning your younger grades.
Donnie – Well, I was a very small lad at the time and I had very large ears and they used to call me Dumbo all time and I guess that was all right. But this guy in my room was named Joe Schuster, and to tell ya how big he was, in ninth grade he was a Varsity Center on the varsity football team. And this is the seventh grade when this happened. Anyway, we got into it for a better definition, I beat the hell out of em’. Anyway, so that started a reputation some way shape or form and then I had another guy there that I went to school with from Michigan. Jim Killoran was his name and we used to have I went to Catholic school. And we had intramural track meats and everything like that and I could fly. And we were in five events me and this guy and I, well I won all five and he run second in all five then at the awards banquet. Coach called me up there one time he says you might as well just stay here we got a bunch more to give you and he’d tell Killoran every time you go sit down and so we had a little thing going on, whatever I don’t know. But anyway, in the morning we get to school. We went to school Downtown Miami and had a concrete playground. We didn’t have a grass playground. We used to get the basketball and shoot before the bell rang. Well he threw the basketball and hit me with it. And when he did I hit him and hit him so hard and they took him to the hospital anyway. Long story short. I plastered that guy’s nose all over his face. And that was a talk at school. Our school was from kindergarten to seniors. The whole school wasn’t junior high or none of that so my reputation got going again. And I guess they expect you to live up to it. We want to try you out. I didn’t like that…anyway.
Hamm – So you learned how to be tough from a young age.
Donnie – Yeah, well, my Dad helped a lot. My Dad told me said Son, don’t ever start one but if one starts you finish it.I took that to heart pretty good, they make big sticks, no better stick than a big stick