Allison Might Be Back by Sunday : Auto racing: He isn’t hurt as badly as feared. He could drive a few laps this weekend to pick up valuable points.

Anyone who saw the replays of Davey Allison flipping 11 times at Pocono International Raceway during Sunday’s Winston Cup race might find it hard to believe, but Allison might be back in the No. 28 Ford for the start of next Sunday’s Diehard 500 at Talladega, Ala.

“The doctors and Davey told us today that he probably could take the green flag at Talladega and run a lap or two before having someone else finish the race,” Robert Yates, owner of Allison’s car, said Monday from his team’s shop in Charlotte, N.C.

“Don’t count me out,” Allison told Brian VanDercook, the Texaco-Havoline team spokesman. “I’m down, but not out.”

Allison, 31, remained in Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, Pa., for further treatment of a dislocated and broken right wrist, broken right forearm and broken collarbone.

“Sunday night, we didn’t know if he’d be out six weeks or what,” Yates said. “Things looked a lot brighter this morning. Except for some extra repair on his wrist, which was somewhat crushed, Davey would probably be out of the hospital already. Once the doctors get his cast in place, it’ll be up to Davey to see how he feels about Sunday.

“The way I look at it, he’ll go home (to Hueytown, Ala.) Thursday, show up at Talladega Friday, run a few laps Saturday and get the points for starting the race Sunday. We’ll probably follow the same program (Aug. 9) at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) and have him ready to go the distance at Michigan (Aug. 16).”

Allison was leading the points race before the Pocono race--No. 16 on the 29-race schedule--but after failing to finish he trails Bill Elliott by nine points. In Winston Cup races, the driver who starts a race gets all the points, which are determined by the car’s finishing position.

“We’re not giving up on the championship yet, and we’re not giving up on the Winston Million,” Yates said.

Allison, after winning the Daytona 500 and Winston 500 at Talladega, will collect a $1-million bonus if he wins the Southern 500 Sept. 6 at Darlington, S.C. The series champion also receives $1 million.

Yates said a decision will be made today on Allison’s relief driver.

“We aren’t lacking any names in that department,” he said. “We’ve heard from just about anyone who might be a candidate. If we’re sure it’s just for one race, we’ll try to get someone who has proved his worth at Talladega, somebody like Buddy Baker. If it works out we need someone for a longer period of time, we’ll look at our choice differently. It’s a credit to (crew chief) Larry McReynolds to have so many people call.”

Calls to the Allison home in Hueytown were answered with a recording that said, in part: “If you’re calling about Davey, he’s doing fine. He has some pins in his wrist, plates in his arm and a few other bumps and bruises, but he’s looking good.”

Doctors said there was no sign of a concussion, as was originally feared.

“There was no injury to the brain,” a hospital spokesman said. “Doctors did a CAT-scan and it showed no damage to the brain, nor to the area above his left eye, which at first was thought to be fractured.”

Allison’s spectacular crash occurred on the same track, in the same race, in which his father, Bobby, was critically injured in a first-lap accident on June 19, 1988. The elder Allison, a former Winston Cup champion and winner of 84 races, has not returned to driving, but runs his own team with Hut Stricklin as the driver.

“The Allison clan is renowned for its resiliency, determination and pigheadedness,” VanDercook said in discussing Davey’s possible return at Talladega.

This was the fourth major accident involving the younger Allison this season.

On April 5 at Bristol, Tenn., he suffered bruised ribs and internal injuries from a crash into a concrete retaining wall. Seven days later, still black and blue over most of his body, he won the First Union 400 at North Wilkesboro, N.C.

On April 26 at Martinsville, Va., he crashed again, further bruising his already battered body.

On the night of May 26 at Charlotte Motor Speedway--seconds after winning $200,000 in the Winston, an all-star non-points race--his Ford spun and smashed into the grandstand wall on the front straightaway. It took emergency crews 15 minutes to extricate Allison from the crushed car, which hit flush on the driver’s side. The crews needed the Hurst “Jaws of Life” to cut through the roof to pull him from the cockpit.

After being airlifted to a Charlotte hospital, Allison was treated for a concussion, bruised lung and bruised left ankle and knee. For three days, he underwent physical therapy in a whirlpool and swimming pool. Eight days after the crash, he drove the entire Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, finishing fourth.

“I didn’t feel the injuries at all,” Allison said after the long race.

Allison was hospitalized last week for an unknown virus that bothered him for two weeks. He was discharged Friday and went to Pocono speedway and set a track record during qualifying.

Sunday, he led 115 laps before the accident on lap 150 that occurred when his car was tapped in the rear by Darrell Waltrip’s Chevrolet. The impact bumped Allison into the grass infield where the Ford flipped and barrel-rolled over a guard rail before coming to rest 75 feet from a spectator area.

“There was nothing I could do about it, we were both going for the same spot,” Waltrip said after the race, which he won.