Bobby Allison, NASCAR Hall of Famer and 3-time Daytona 500 winner, dies at 86

Bobby Allison, founder of racing’s “Alabama Gang” and a NASCAR Hall of Famer, died Saturday. He was 86.

NASCAR released a statement from Allison’s family that said he died at home in Mooresville, North Carolina. A cause of death wasn’t given, but Allison had been in declining health for years.

Allison moved to fourth on NASCAR’s Cup Series victory list last month when chairman Jim France recognized him as the winner of the Meyers Brothers Memorial at Bowman Gray Stadium in North Carolina in 1971. The sanctioning body updated its record books to reflect the decision, giving Allison 85 wins and moving him out of a tie with Darrell Waltrip.

France and longtime NASCAR executive Mike Helton presented Allison with a plaque commemorating the victory. With it, Allison trails only fellow Hall of Famers Richard Petty (200), David Pearson (105) and Jeff Gordon (93) in Cup wins.

Allison was inducted into NASCAR’s second Hall of Fame class, in 2011. He was the 1983 NASCAR champion, finished second in the series title race five times, and a three-time winner of the Daytona 500.

“Bobby was the ultimate fan’s driver,” Allison’s family said in a statement. “He thoroughly enjoyed spending time with his fans and would stop to sign autographs and have conversations with them everywhere he went. He was a dedicated family man and friend, and a devout Catholic.”

He helped put NASCAR on the map with more than his driving. His infamous fight with Cale Yarborough in the closing laps of the 1979 Daytona 500 served as one of the sport’s defining moments.

“Cale went to beating on my fist with his nose,” Allison has said repeatedly, often using that phrase to describe the fight. “Cale understands like I do that it really was a benefit to the interest of racing. It proves that we were sincere.”

Born in Miami in 1937, Allison started searching for more racing opportunities outside the Sunshine State. He landed in central Alabama, where he found a number of small, dirt tracks.

He returned to Florida to get brother Donnie and close friend Red Farmer. They set up shop in Hueytown, Alabama, and dominated regional races throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. They were later joined in the Alabama Gang by Jimmy Mears, Neil Bonnett and Bonnett and Allison’s sons Davey and Clifford.

Allison retired in 1988 following a crash at Pocono that nearly killed him. He was initially declared dead upon reaching a local hospital but was later resuscitated.

He eventually regained his memory, re-learned everyday activities and attempted a comeback. But a series of tragedies led Allison to retire. His son, Clifford, was fatally injured during a crash in practice for the second-tier Busch Series at Michigan International Speedway in 1992. A year later, son Davey was killed in a helicopter crash at Talladega.

Three years after that, Bobby and wife Judy divorced. They reconnected four years later at their daughter-in-law’s wedding and were remarried in 2000. They remained together until Judy’s death in 2015.

Allison was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1992 and into the NASCAR Hall of Fame along with Ned Jarrett, Bud Moore, Pearson and Lee Petty.

“Bobby Allison personified the term ‘racer,’” France said in statement. “Though he is best known as one of the winningest drivers in NASCAR Cup Series history, his impact on the sport extends far beyond the record books.

Allison is one of 10 drivers to have won NASCAR’s career “grand slam” that includes the Cup Series’ most iconic races: the Daytona 500, the Winston 500, the Coca-Cola 600 and the Southern 500.

Allison made six IndyCar Series starts for Roger Penske, including a pair of Indy 500s.

AP Sports Writer Mark Long contributed to this report.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

FILE - Bobby Allison of Hueytown, Ala., at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla., Feb. 26, 1968. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Bobby Allison at the 2024 NASCAR Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Charlotte, N.C., Friday, Jan. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond, File)

FILE - Bobby Allison, left, is given his ring by brother Donnie Allison, right, as he is inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C., Monday, May 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton, File)

FILE - Bobby Allison speaks after being inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C., Monday, May 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Terry Renna, File)

FILE - Bobby Allison stands beside his car and talks with the press after winning the pole position during qualifying for the 500 mile grand national stock car race at Pocono Raceway, Aug. 2, 1975, in Long Pond, Pa. (AP Photo/File)

PHOENIX (AP) — A judge recused himself Tuesday from presiding over Arizona's fake electors case after an email surfaced in which he told fellow judges to speak out against attacks on Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign for the presidency.

In the Aug. 29 email, Maricopa County Judge Bruce Cohen lamented that he didn’t speak out when Harris was called a “DEI hire,” believes that white men must speak out against unfair treatment of women, and raised a historical lesson from the Holocaust about the need to speak up when people are attacked. Cohen didn’t specify who made the comment regarding Harris.

“We cannot allow our colleagues who identify as being a ‘person of color’ to stand alone when there are those (who) may claim that their ascension was an ‘equity hire’ rather than based solely upon exceptionalism,” the judge told his colleagues in the email. Cohen later wrote another email telling his fellow judges that he let his passion cloud his views and apologized to anyone affected by his lapse in judgment.

Lawyers for Republican state Sen. Jake Hoffman, who faces nine felony charges in the case, sought the judge’s removal, arguing Cohen “bears a deep-seated personal political bias that overcame his professional judgment” and that their client has lost confidence in the judge’s impartiality.

Hoffman is one of 11 Republicans who submitted a document to Congress falsely declaring that then-President Donald Trump won Arizona in the 2020 election. They include the former state party chair, a 2022 U.S. Senate candidate and two sitting state lawmakers. Two former Trump aides and five lawyers connected to Trump, including Rudy Giuliani, also were charged in the case. All 18 people were charged with charged with forgery, fraud and conspiracy.

In a court record, Cohen said the original email was a stand for decency and didn’t reflect a personal bias, but he recognized that others may view it differently than he intended. Cohen, who was appointed to the bench by Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano in 2005, was scheduled to retire in January. Most of the defendants had asked Cohen to throw out the charges under an Arizona law that bars using baseless legal actions in a bid to silence critics. The law had long offered protections in civil cases but was amended in 2022 by the Republican-led Legislature to cover people facing most criminal charges. Cohen recused himself before deciding whether to dismiss the case, which will be assigned to another judge.

The defendants argued that Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes tried to use the charges to silence them for their constitutionally protected speech about the 2020 election and actions taken in response to the race’s outcome. They say Mayes campaigned on investigating the fake elector case and had shown a bias against Trump and his supporters.

Prosecutors said the defendants didn’t have evidence to back up their retaliation claim and that they had crossed the line from protected speech to fraud. Mayes’ office also has said the grand jury that brought the indictment wanted to consider charging Trump, but prosecutors urged them not to. Two defendants have already resolved their cases.

Former Trump campaign attorney Jenna Ellis, who worked closely with Giuliani, signed a cooperation agreement with prosecutors that led to the dismissal of her charges. Republican activist Loraine Pellegrino also became the first person to be convicted in the Arizona case when she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and was sentenced to probation.

The remaining defendants have pleaded not guilty to the charges. Trump wasn’t charged in Arizona, but the indictment refers to him as an unindicted coconspirator.

FILE - Arizona Rep. Jake Hoffman, R-Queen Creek, left, and his attorney Timothy La Sota appear virtually for Hoffman's arraignment in Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix, June 6, 2024. (Mark Henle/The Arizona Republic via AP, Pool, File)