Loy Allen Jr. #19 Hooters Ford

    Hello and welcome back to the NASCAR Racing Champions diecast blog~ In today's post, I'm going to be looking back on Loy Allen Jr.'s time in the #19 Hooters Ford, owned by Mark Smith~ Allen drove this car in 19 races during the 1994 Winston Cup season, as well as failed to qualify for another twelve~

                                                      Allen poses with the Hooters Ford~

     Of all the drivers I can recall, Loy Allen Jr. stands out as one of the biggest busts in NASCAR history~ During his 6 year Cup career, which spanned a total of 48 races, Allen amassed a total of 3 poles (Daytona, Atlanta, Michigan), all coming in 1994, 1 top 10 (Talladega), and 29 DNQ's, including 12 during his rookie campaign alone~  His biggest accomplishment was winning the pole for the 1994 Daytona 500, although he never led a lap of the race~

                                                           Allen celebrates a pole win~

 
    Allen suffered a severe neck injury, and broken shoulder during the 1996 Goodwrench Service 400 at Rockingham, halting the race for 9 minutes and 15 seconds while he was removed from his car and air lifted to a Charlotte medical center~  After this accident, Allen never really bounced back.. making only sporadic starts the rest of his career~ He ran his final 2 races in 1999 for SBIII Motorsports, finishing 40th in both events~ He was replaced by Hut Stricklin, and never raced again~

                                             Loy Allen #19 Hooters Ford Thunderbird~

                                                               Click pics to enlarge~

  

      As you can see in the photos, they did a great job with this car~ All the paint is pristine, and the card compliments it nicely~ The car has Hoosier tires, whereas usually with R.C. cars, the tires will say "Racing Champions"~ Allen changed to Goodyear tires for the 94 Daytona 500 due to drivers being uneasy about being around drivers who chose Hoosiers, due to the recent deaths of both Neil Bonnett, and Rodney Orr~

   There was a lot of hype when Loy Allen first came into NASCAR~ I can remember people feeling like he was given a free ride to the top, and wasn't worthy of being in NASCAR's top division~ And perhaps they're right.. Allen lucked into his ride with an ARCA win in a car that was sponsored for 2 races by Hooter's~ The Hooters execs were in the stands that day, and the rest is history~ Sadly for Allen, it wasn't much good history~ Now on to the bonus car~

                                **BONUS CAR** Coy Allen #37 Naturally Fresh Foods Ford~

    This was the car Loy drove during his first Cup races~ His best race in the car came in the 1993 "DieHard 500" @ Talladega, where he started 18th, and finished 26th~ Along with the 4 races he made in this car, he also failed to qualify for 3 more races~ (Michigan, North Wilkesboro, Charlotte)~

    This car was made by Matchbox, and was never released by Racing Champions~ As you can see, they misspelled his name, calling him "Coy" instead of Loy~ I'm not a big fan of Matchbox cars, but I do pick them up if Racing Champions didn't make a version of the car~ It's cool to have a diecast of Loy's very first Winston Cup car~ Thanks for stopping by the blog again!~ Below are some videos from Loy's career... enjoy them, and until next time.. Stay alive, don't drink and drive!~ :)

                                                       Loy on the pole @ Daytona 1994~

1994 Food World 300~

                                                                    1996 Napa 500 Atlanta~

                                          1996 Goodwrench 400 Rockingham (Skip to 3:55)