JOHNNY ALLEN - 9/17/19340/
Allen was from Greenville SC. He made his first Cup start in 1955 when he ran his first race at Memphis-Arkansas Speedway in LeHi, AR. He would start 31st and finish 17th in a race won by Speedy Thompson. In 1956 he made 32 starts. His first was on the beach course at Daytona. The race was scheduled for 39 laps, but was shortened to 37 laps due to the incoming tide. Allen would start 67th in an 80 car field. He finished 42nd. He only had one other finish worse than 30th, and only had six finishes worse than 20th. His best finish was a fifth place run at Norfolk Speedway (VA), and he had another fifth place finish at Chisholm Speedway in Montgomery AL. On the season, he had four top five finishes and 11 top ten runs; finishing 12th in points even though he only ran 32 of 56 races. 1957 saw him make the most starts in a season. He ran 42 of 53 races. His best finish came at tough old treacherous Langhorne Speedway where he finished third behind winner Gwyn Staley. Langhorne was established in 1926 and hosted stock car; open wheel, and motorcyles races. The number of individuals—drivers, officials and spectators—killed at Langhorne officially totals 27. Many others suffered grievous injuries and burns. Larry Mann was the first driver to be killed in the NASCAR Series, and it came at Langhorne. 1959 saw him Allen a car on five
occasions. He had a good run in the Firecracker 250 at Daytona, starting 11th, and finishing third. The following year he made ten starts, and half of those starts he finished inside the top ten. His best performance came at Atlanta where he finished second, behind winner Bobby Johns. Allen started way back in 37th place, and made a great run through the field to almost get the win. In 1961 his best finishes came at Darlington, and Nashville where he finished third. At Darlington, he led as late as 60 laps to go, but when the checkers flew he was a lap behind winner Fred Lorenzen and runner up Curtis Turner. At Nashville he finished two laps behind winner Jim Paschal, and second place runner Ned Jarrett. 1962 would see Allen get his only Cup win. It came at mid-season when the Cup stars went to race at Bowman Gray Stadium, in the Myers Brothers 200. It was 200 laps on the tight 1/4 mile bull ring. Allen started second, but pole sitter Rex White jumped out and led the first 22 laps, but Allen bypassed White at that point. It was a real battle until the end with White right on Allen's tail. When the checkers flew, Allen and White were side by side, and Allen pulled out the win by a scant six inches. Allen added three fourth place finishes that season and had a total of 11 top ten finishes in 22 starts. Allen made 19 starts in the Cup Series over the
Win at Bowman Gray 1962
Atlanta crash 1963
next five years. His best finish over that span was a ninth place run at Speedway Park in Jacksonville FL. After poor showings in 1963 to 1967, Allen hung up his helmet and retired from NASCAR. It should be noted that Allen also ran eight races in NASCAR's Convertible series. He made four starts each year in 1958 and 1959. He failed to finish any of his starts in 1958, with a best finish of 15th. 1959 saw him have three finishes of eleventh or better. His best finish was eighth at Bowman Gray Stadium where he started seventh and finished in eighth place, five laps down. He was ninth in the Rebel 300 at Darlington. He started 20th and ended up nine laps behind winner Fireball
Roberts. His final Convertible start came at Martinsville in the Old Dominion 500, where he had an engine expire about mid race and finished 29th. His final Cup start came at Rockingham in 1967. He would start 26th, but have a differential fail on lap 71 of the 500 lap race. He would end up finishing 35th in a race won by Richard Petty. Allen filled in for Jack Smith in the 1961 Volunteer 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway and won the race, but the win was credited to Smith because Smith had started the race. The photo at right is from a 1960 Darlington Cup race. NASCAR phased out the Convertible series after 1959, but Darlington still had convertibles race.
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