In The Spotlight: DiGard - The Winning R&D Car

In 1985, DiGard had Allison battling for the championship in the No. 22 Miller High Life car. For the Firecracker 400 at Daytona, DiGard set up and raced what is called a Research & Development car (a one-off unsponsored car numbered 10 entered to a race primarily for team improvement) with Greg Sacks at the helm. Instead of simply doing its intended purpose — running a small number of laps and collecting data about the track that DiGard could use for Allison's car — Sacks drove the car to an unexpected victory. It was later alleged that the car snuck through inspection with an oversized engine, and thus the team cheated. NASCAR did not find anything wrong with the No. 10 in post-race inspection, however, and Sacks' win stood.

The impact of the R&D car's victory was significant. Reportedly angered that the team was focusing its attention elsewhere, Allison, who had won the 1983 championship driving for the team, quit and Sacks was hired to race for the rest of the year, but did not capture another Top-5 finish in 1985. Allison went on to drive for Stavola Brothers Racing and took the Miller sponsorship with him following the season.


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