Ten years ago, on July 13, 1993, Winston Cup driver Davey Allison died from injuries sustained in a helicopter crash at Talladega Superspeedway.

And while 10 years is a long period, grief can easily stand the test of time.

"I had not really dwelled on the fact that today was the day," Davey Allison's father Bobby Allison told the Roanoke Times on Saturday. "It comes every year and we wished it didn't but there's nothing we can do about that. I haven't had any extra grief over it. My grief remains pretty consistent. It never goes away."

Davey Allison earned the rising-star label when he won two races as a Winston Cup rookie in 1987. He cemented his status as a legend-in-waiting when he claimed victory in the 1992 Daytona 500.

The 10-year anniversary of Allison's death makes one wonder how the 1990s would have unfolded in NASCAR if Allison had been around to compete. How many races and championships would he have won? Would Dale Earnhardt have been able to equal Richard Petty's seven championships? Would Jeff Gordon have been able to dominate in such a fashion (four titles since 1993)?

	How many races and championships would Davey Allison have won had he not been killed in a helicopter crash in 1993?

Yes, Allison and his Robert Yates Racing team were that good.

In a perfect world, Allison's Daytona 500 victory would have signaled the beginning of a decade run of excellence. But as we all know, hardly anything in life remains perfect for long, and when Allison lost his life in July of 1993, he was robbed of the chance to ultimately take his place alongside the greatest drivers of all time.

Allison's run might have been short, but he had legions of fans and left a lasting mark on the sport. Few drivers matched his accomplishments from 1987-92. In addition to his two wins as a rookie, Allison won five poles. He won a combined 10 races in 1991-92 alone, narrowly missing the title both years.

For Allison, though, no victory or honor compared to his most cherished moment -- finishing second to his father, Bobby, in the 1988 Daytona 500. At the time of his death, the 32-year-old Davey had 19 Winston Cup wins.

With a little better luck in 1992, Allison would also have a championship next to his name. That year, six drivers entered the season finale at Atlanta with a mathematical chance of winning the title (Allison, Alan Kulwicki, Bill Elliott, Harry Gant, Kyle Petty and Mark Martin).

Allison and Kulwicki, however, were the prime contenders.

Running sixth in the middle of the race, just where he needed to be, Allison's title hopes ended when he couldn't avoid slamming into Ernie Irvan, who lost a tire and spun right in Allison's path. Kulwicki went on to finish second and edge Elliott by 10 points in the final standings.

It was a storybook ending of the season for Kulwicki, NASCAR and its fans. Allison and Kulwicki were expected to be chief principals in many more championship battles in the years to come, but they never got the chance.

Like Allison, Kulwicki died too young (age 38) when his sponsor's private plane crashed near Bristol, Tenn., in April 1993. He was just entering his prime as a racer.

In a sport as dangerous as auto racing, it was surreal to see two of the sport's rising stars lose their lives outside of a race car in the same year. There's no denying the loss of the two drivers changed the landscape of the sport in the '90s. Certainly, some of today's drivers would have fewer victories if they were still racing.

Looking back, Kulwicki's championship could have been the beginning of something truly special in racing: a single-car, driver-owner team becoming a dominant force at a time when mutli-car, high-financed operations were starting to rule the sport.

Allison never got to fulfill his championship destiny, but at least he got that Daytona 500 victory. Even if he didn't, his legacy was already secure.