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DiGard Motorsports
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DiGard Motorsports was a championship-winning race team in NASCAR Winston Cup (now Sprint Cup) that had its most success in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The team won the 1983 Winston Cup championship with Bobby Allison at the wheel.
The team was started in 1973.
In its history, the team fielded cars for Donnie Allison in 1973 and 1974 before replacing him with Darrell Waltrip mid-way through 1975 (the #88 Gatorade car), who won multiple times for the team.
The team later fell from the top echelon of the sport in the mid-1980s and had its last Winston Cup start in 1987.
Robert Yates, who later founded an eponymous championship-winning NASCAR team, was an important member of the DiGard team as its engine builder from 1976 to 1986.
team was founded in part by Mike DiProspero and Bill Gardner, who were brothers-in-law.
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Encyclopedia
DiGard Motorsports was a championship-winning race team in NASCAR Winston Cup (now Sprint Cup) that had its most success in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The team won the 1983 Winston Cup championship with Bobby Allison at the wheel.
The team was started in 1973.
In its history, the team fielded cars for Donnie Allison in 1973 and 1974 before replacing him with Darrell Waltrip mid-way through 1975 (the #88 Gatorade car), who won multiple times for the team.
The team later fell from the top echelon of the sport in the mid-1980s and had its last Winston Cup start in 1987.
Robert Yates, who later founded an eponymous championship-winning NASCAR team, was an important member of the DiGard team as its engine builder from 1976 to 1986.
Opening history
The team was founded in part by Mike DiProspero and Bill Gardner, who were brothers-in-law. The team name came from combining their last names: DiProspero and Gardner.
Donnie Allison, already established on the circuit, was their first driver.
He stayed with the team and had an invested stock in it but things fell apart. Darrell Waltrip was their next driver. and Bobby Allison came in later.
The #88 Gatorade car and Darrell Waltrip
The team fired Donnie Allison and signed Darrell Waltrip partway through the 1975 season, with Gatorade on board as a sponsor.
Waltrip nearly won the 1979 championship, coming second and losing by 11 points to Richard Petty in the championship. Waltrip and DiGard had led for most of the season that year, leading the championship with a wide lead until the last races.
The impact of the loss was reportedly hard on D.W. and during the 1980 season, Waltrip began being disillusioned with the team. His crew chief Buddy Parrott had been fired at the end of 1979 and rehired in 1980, before being sacked again mid-season.
To get out, Waltrip had a contract buyout set up to leave DiGard for Junior Johnson Racing.
#88 car post-Darrell Waltrip
The #88 Gatorade car was driven by Ricky Rudd for 1981, garnering three pole positions that season.
The #88 changed to the #22 car for Bobby Allison for 1982 onward. The Gatorade sponsorship moved to another team and left the sport entirely 1983.
The #22 Miller car and Bobby Allison
Allison raced with the team, driving the Miller American brand beer car, and won the 1983 NASCAR Winston Cup championship.
Allison left midway during the 1985 season after the 1985 Firecracker 400 race.
1985 Firecracker 400 win
In 1985, DiGard had Bobby Allison battling for the championship. For the Firecracker 400 at Daytona, DiGard set up and raced what is called a Research & Development car (a one-off car entered to a race primarily for team improvement) with Greg Sacks at the helm.
Instead of simply collecting data for the team, Sacks won the race.
However, it has been alleged -- reportedly admitted by DiGard crew chief Gary Nelson -- that the car sneaked through inspection with an oversize engine, and thus the team cheated.
The impact of the R&D car was significant: Reportedly angered that the team was focusing its attention elsewhere, Bobby Allison left the team mid-season -- two weeks after Sacks' July 4 win. Sacks was hired to race for the rest of the year, but never captured another Top-5 finish in 1985.
End in NASCAR
The allegations of cheating -- combined with reported money troubles -- shook the team, and some say imploded it. Bobby Allison left the team midseason in 1985, engine builder Robert Yates left during the 1986 season, and the team ran a limited schedule and a myriad of drivers during their final seasons.
The team's last NASCAR Winston Cup entry was in 1987 with Rodney Combs. The team's final three starts were with Combs early in the 1987 season, including entries without sponsorship.
After the team's demise
In 1988, businessman Bob Whitcomb bought the team's assets. This was this team that won the 1990 Daytona 500 with Derrike Cope.
Bill Gardner today is a part of an effort to make a racetrack in Oregon a success.
His brother, Jim Gardner, died.
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