Editor’s Note: NASCAR is celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2023. SPEED SPORT was founded in 1934 and was already on its way to becoming America’s Motorsports Authority when NASCAR was formed. As a result, we will bring you Part 38 of a 75-part series on the history of NASCAR as told in the pages of National Speed Sport News and SPEED SPORT Magazine.
“With all the money that Winston has on the line in 1985, we want to make sure we are in position to win some of it,” said Bill Elliott in the Feb. 6 issue of National Speed Sport News.
Elliott’s comments came two weeks prior to his Daytona 500 victory from the pole, which he won registering a record 205.114 mph lap.
Elliott dominated 137 of the 200 laps at Daytona lnt’l Speedway, but a lap-197 yellow for Neil Bonnett’s blown engine reduced the race to a one-lap race to the stripe. As was the case throughout the event, the No. 9 Ford Thunderbird carried Elliott into the lead, beating Lake Speed and Darrell Waltrip for the victory.
Elliott earned a record $185,500 for his efforts and took the first step toward R.J. Reynolds’ inaugural Winston Million.
RJR announced The Winston Million during the 1984 Winston Cup banquet in New York. The $1 million bonus was promised to any driver who captured three of NASCAR’s four most prestigious races: the Daytona 500, the Winston 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
At the same time, RJR announced a hike in its point-fund contribution for 1985 from $500,000 to $750,000 and The Winston, a $500,000 non-points race featuring the winners from last season.
RJR’s contribution to all levels of NASCAR racing would total $11.25 million over the next five seasons.
Elliott Is On A Tear
Elliott’s Melling Racing team, led by engine builder Ernie Elliott, was ready to grab a lion’s share of RJR’s offering.
From the end of the 1984, which Elliott had closed with two victories and four top-five finishes in the final four superspeedway races of the season to the beginning of 1985, when he joined Cale Yarborough and Fireball Roberts as the only three drivers to capture the Daytona pole, a qualifying race and the 500, Elliott was on a tear.
“The rules have allowed the Fords to be an inch lower in the front,” explained Chevrolet Monte Carlo devotee Junior Johnson. “When you have the rules permitting this advantage and then you have a good team like the Elliotts hammering on a car, they’re going to be hard to beat.”
The Elliotts were difficult to beat on superspeedways. After a lap-332 accident placed Elliott 22nd Richmond Raceway a week after the Daytona 500, Elliott broke his left leg in an accident at North Carolina Motor Speedway. Despite the injury, Elliott triumphed at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 20.
A third superspeedway victory at Darlington gave Elliott a .500 winning average on the season.
At the end of April, NASCAR rules changes aimed at slowing Elliott went into effect after Neil Bonnett’s victory at North Wilkesboro Speedway. The rule raised minimum roof height on all cars to 50.5 inches. This was a one-half inch increase for Thunderbirds and a one-half-inch decrease for all General Motors cars.
However, the Sunday following Chevrolet driver Harry Gant’s Martinsville Speedway triumph, the Winston Cup circuit went back to Talladega and found nothing had changed.
Elliott began pulling away from the Winston 500 field on the sixth lap, but was forced to pit on lap 49 because his car was smoking.
The crew raised the hood and tightened an oil line connection to correct the problem, but during the 1-minute, 9-second stop, Elliott lost almost two laps on the 2.66-mile track.
As if he was toying with the field, Elliott made up the distance on the track without the aid of a caution flag and won by more than 300 yards over fellow Ford pilots Kyle Petty and Yarborough.
He overtook Yarborough on lap 145 for the lead while traveling upwards of 206 mph.
“In all my days of racing, I’ve never seen a car that awesome,” said Yarborough after Elliott averaged a record 186.288 mph in his victory. “There’s just no way to run with Elliott.”
Elliott paced the Winston Cup field two weeks later at Dover Downs Int’l Speedway. He lapped the field as he led 337 laps, including the final 180. His fifth victory in 10 starts also catapulted him from third to first in the standings.
Now the question was: Why is the No. 9 Thunderbird so dominant?
Harry Ranier’s team engine builder for Yarborough’s Hardee’s Thunderbird, Waddell Wilson, answered in the June 19 edition of NSSN: “Bill and Ernie have a good combination going … a sound engine program, a good working chassis and a pit crew that is in harmony. What they have going is no different than what certain other teams have had going in previous years, such as Richard Petty at times, us at times, Holman-Moody at times and the Wood Brothers at times.
“There have been different eras when different teams have been on a roll and right now the Elliotts are on a big roll.”
The Winston Falls To Waltrip
As Elliott continued his success with victories at Pocono Raceway and at Michigan Int’l Speedway, the irrepressible Darrell Waltrip was out of the media spotlight, if only briefly.
Waltrip won for the first time in 1985 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The inaugural The Winston fell to Waltrip as leader Harry Gant’s engine blew under the white flag. He then won the Coca-Cola 600 as Gant was forced to pit for gas with only nine laps remaining and ceded the point to Waltrip. The Charlotte victory moved Waltrip into fifth in the championship race and three races, and three top-10 finishes later, he moved into second in the points behind Elliott.
The duo held form at the top as sponsorless DiGard Racing research-and-development driver Greg Sacks won the Firecracker 400 at Daytona. Sacks had been hired to run six races in test cars for the team, which, to the chagrin of DiGard driver Bobby Allison, included the car Sacks drove in the Firecracker.
Allison later resigned from DiGard, charging team owner Bill Gardner with breach of a contract he said forbade a two-car team.
Firecracker runner-up Elliott expanded his lead over Waltrip with his second Pocono victory and a fourth-place finish in the Talladega 500. He led 100 of the 188 laps and held a 22-second lead until a late yellow flag brought Yarborough to his bumper.
When the green waved for the final time, the No. 9 Thunderbird started missing and fell to fourth at the finish.
Elliott posted his ninth victory of the season on Aug. 11 at Michigan, with Waltrip finishing second for the fourth time this season.
The following week the roles reversed as Waltrip led Elliott across the stripe behind the winner, Dale Earnhardt.
The Southern 500 was next and all eyes were on the possible Winston millionaire, who needed the race to go with his Daytona and Winston 500 victories for the RJR jackpot. Yet, Elliott was virtually unseen the week of the race, except at a mandatory press conference where he was escorted by South Carolina state troopers.
“The only guard anybody in this garage area needs is Right Guard,” Waltrip quipped in the Sept. 4 edition of NSSN. “But please don’t come around me. I just can’t get anything done for all the press. I just hope our pit stall is not close enough to that circus that we’ll get sawdust on our car.”
No matter what anyone said about Elliott, he survived the media circus and with 48 laps remaining in the race, was running in the top five. Then Earnhardt spun in turn two on lap 319 and slid down the track at Elliott, who dived low enough to barely escape a collision.
Six laps later, Yarborough lost his power steering fluid while directly in front of Elliott, but because it caught fire, did not cause Elliott to spin. On lap 333, Elliott, who was now in the lead, lapped Tim Richmond coming off the backstretch, narrowly avoiding Richmond’s hood as it flew off.
At the finish, Elliott held off Yarborough for the race and the Winston Million.
“The whole race was scary,” said a relieved, yet exuberant Ernie Elliott. “Our goal now is to win the title.”
Waltrip finished 17th and fell 206 points behind Elliott.
Elliott Loses Championship Edge
Waltrip’s first short-track victory of the season at Richmond, combined with Elliott’s 12th, cut 53 points off the point leader’s advantage. Another 67 points fell away after Waltrip made up a three-lap deficit to finish second behind Harry Gant at Dover Downs. Elliott earned his 11th pole of the season with a record 141.543-mph lap, but a broken axle relegated him to 20th.
Like a spin he could not steer out of, Elliott’s lead diminished to 23 points after his 17th-place and Waltrip’s second to Earnhardt at Martinsville Speedway. Elliott lost the championship edge, falling behind Waltrip for the duration when a bad transmission left him in 30th at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
His 11th victory of the season at Atlanta and three top fives in the final four races left him with a single-season record $2,433,187 in earnings but 101 points behind Waltrip.
Ken Schrader was named rookie of the year, while Elliott won the Most Popular Driver award for the second consecutive season. Jim Robinson earned the Winston West title for the third consecutive season and Ronnie Johnson was the Busch All-Star Super Series titlist.
In the Busch Late Model Sportsman class, Jack Ingram reigned. Mike Swaim repeated as Daytona Dash champion and Randy LaJoie was the NASCAR North Coors Tour’s top driver. The All-American Challenge division fell to Dave Mader.
Tragically, the NASCAR modified champion, Richie Evans, was killed while practicing at Martinsville.
The 44-year-old driver who had 25 modified victories in 1985, was a nine-time champion in the modified ranks.