Allison drove his own cars for portions of the early 1970s, including the full 1973 season. Allison won six races as an owner-driver from 1970 to 1974. Allison also ran for his own team in 1977 after splitting with Penske Racing, with a best finish of second at Nashville. Other drivers who drove for Allison's team in its first stint in the Cup Series were Paul Lewis (1 race in 1968), G. C. Spencer (1 race in 1968), Dave Marcis (1 race in 1970) and Neil Bonnett (1 race in 1974 and 2 in 1975).[1]
In 1985, Allison returned to being an owner-driver after leaving DiGard Motorsports, taking his number (22) and sponsor Miller Brewing Company with him to his own team. His best finish as an owner-driver in 1985 was a fourth-place finish at Dover.[2] Following the 1985 season, he brought his number and sponsor with him to the Stavola Brothers Racing team.
Spencer also left for Junior Johnson's team in 1994 and was replaced by rookie Chuck Bown who moved up from the Busch Series. Bown suffered injuries from a crash at Pocono Raceway that year, which kept him out for the rest of the season. He was replaced by ARCA driver Tim Steele and later Derrike Cope. For the 1994 season, the team partnered with Ron Zook.[5][6] Also from 1990 until the team's closure in 1996, Jimmy Fennig was the team's crew chief. Fennig had crew chiefed Bobby Allison to his 1988 Daytona 500 win with the Stavola Brothers and after his time at BAM, he crew chiefed for Roush Racing for the rest of his career, winning several races and a championship.
Cope drove full-time for BAM in the No. 12 car in 1995 and 1996 with primary sponsorship from Mane 'n Tail. Allison was forced to close down the team due to financial problems after the 1996 season,[3] with Cope moving to the new MB2 Motorsports team for 1997.
Busch, Truck and ARCA Series
The team made their ARCA debut in 1980 with Davey Allison, Ferrel Harris and John Rezek each running a race. Davey would run 1 race in 1982 and 2 in 1983 for his father's team in ARCA. Clifford Allison, Bobby's other son and Davey's brother, ran a combined total of 12 ARCA races for the family team between 1988 and 1992.[1]
From 1982 to 1988, Allison fielded a Busch Series entry on a part-time basis. His son Davey drove 4 races in 1983, 7 races in 1984 and 4 races in 1985, all in the team's No. 23 car. Bobby himself drove 1 race in 1982 in a No. 25 car and would next run a Busch race as an owner-driver in 1986, running the Nos. 7 and 85 in seven races combined. He ran five more races in 1987 with the No. 33 as his number. In 1988, the team switched numbers again to the No. 12, their Cup Series number. Allison started the season by scoring the team's only Busch Series win in the season-opener at Daytona, sweeping the weekend with a win in the Daytona 500 the next day. After running four more races in the car, Neil Bonnett drove it in the race at Charlotte in October, which ended up being BAM's final Busch Series race.[1]
BAM fielded an entry in the Truck Series in 1 race in the inaugural season of the series in 1995. Derrike Cope, the team's Cup Series driver, drove a No. 32 truck in the race at Richmond and finished 7th.[1]
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