Davey Allison

Davey Allison was part of a famed racing family with a legacy for excellence—and tragedy. He knew the dangers of his sport, as did the other Allisons. "Through this whole thing, nobody ever heard me say, 'why me?'" he said after his brother, Clifford's death. "The thing to do is retain the memories and prepare to live every day the best I can, on and off the track."

"Davey Allison grew up in this sport and, from a small child into adulthood, dedicated his life to it," NASCAR president Bill France, Jr., said upon Allison's death.

"There are no guarantees in life," John Sonderegger wrote in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "Davey Allison knew all too well how precarious this world can be….Davey once said that if he were killed in a racing crash, 'I'd die with a smile on my face.' That pretty much is the way race-car drivers accept the risk. But Allison didn't die on the track."

Noting Kulwicki's death in a plane crash three months earlier, Sonderegger wrote, "That's one reason there is so much pain in the NASCAR family. Two of the sport's brightest young stars died in accidents that had nothing to do with racing cars."