
WINSTON 500, Alabama International Motor Speedway - May 5, 1985

As teams readied
for the fastest track on the circuit, the unanswered question was whether
NASCAR's new rule regarding the roof height of its race cars would slow down
Bill Elliott and the other Fords enough for the General Motors cars in the field
to catch the flying Thunderbirds.
The Winston 500 at Talladega was the second event counting
for the Winston Million — and after Elliott's runaway victory at Daytona, he was
the odds-on favorite to win again — and set up the chance to collect the $1
million bonus from R. J. Reynolds at one of the remaining races in the
four-event program — at Charlotte or Darlington.
The Elliotts had been busy in the piney forests north of
Atlanta. They rolled out a new Thunderbird for Talladega, and Bill left no doubt
he would be the man at the point after a pre-event testing lap in excess of 206
miles per hour.
For many drivers, the 200-mph barrier had been one they had not cracked in their entire career. On qualifying day at Talladega, a total of 16 drivers smashed through the barrier in an awesome display of horsepower, handling, skill and guts.
For Richard and Kyle Petty, Bobby Hillin, Jr., Darrell Waltrip and Sterling Marlin, it was the first time over 200. It may have been a personal best for them, but in the grand scope of things (make that the Bill Elliott scope of things) it mattered little. Elliott simply eviscerated the field.
Despite NASCAR's new rule, Elliott's Coors Ford set a new NASCAR qualifying record with a stunning lap of 209.398 miles per hour — more than 3.7 miles an hour faster than his closest competitor, Cale Yarborough. It was an unbelievable lap — and one that left the driver himself shaking.
"I was on the ragged edge," Elliott said, drawing his first deep breath after the performance. "I just wanted one full lap under control. At that speed, a puff of wind, a sprinkle of rain on the track, could break the car's traction, as loose as we had it set up for qualifying. And when you wreck here, it's a real wreck. You don't just slide down in the grass and stop." How impressive was his lap? It erased the previous fast lap at Talladega by nearly seven mph. And it left the entire garage full of onlookers shattered as they watched their hopes for victory vanish.
In the days following, as the teams worked their charges into race set-ups, several others, including Yarborough, found some additional speed running in the draft together. Elliott's lap times came back into the "real world" of the 205-206 mph area, and several drivers felt they had a shot at the flying redhead. At the same time, however, some veteran crew chiefs began manufacturing their own ways to beat Elliott. "Hold him for four laps at the start of the race and make him pit every ten laps," one crew chief said with a wink. "Make him use a six cylinder motor and let us use turbos," joked another when asked how they could beat the Georgian. Darrell Waltrip, however, put the entire Elliott package into a perspective every driver could relate to. "Our running faster than 200 was just a good as we could run," Waltrip said of his first career 200-mph lap. "I'm excited to go that fast, but it's real disheartening when another guy is seven miles-an-hour faster. It just really changes your perspective. It puts me and every other driver in here in a David and Goliath situation."
While Waltrip and the rest of the drivers went searching for the right size stones for their slingshots, the Harry Melling-owned team of Georgians was double-, triple- and quadruple-checking every fitting on the Thunderbird. Every night, the red Ford was rolled back into its transporter and locked away for safe-keeping.
Sunday, the
Interstate leading to Talladega was a parking lot as more than 122,000 fans made
their way to the mammoth 2.66 mile su-perspeedway. They hoped to see Elliott try
to win his second event in the Winston Million and gain a stranglehold on the
bonus. Little did they know that this day, Elliott would gain the nickname that
would follow him the rest of his career. Truly, this day he would become
"Awesome Bill from Dawsonville."
It took the redheaded one six laps to take the lead as Cale
Yarborough jumped to the front on the start, soon to be drafted past by Kyle
Petty. Then Elliott moved to the fore and led for 21 laps before Dale Earnhardt
and company drafted past the red Ford to lead for five laps. Then it was
Elliott's turn again, going to the front on lap 34 for three laps before Terry
Labonte, Earnhardt, Kyle Petty and Cale took turns at the head of the pack.
Suddenly, on lap 48, disaster struck Elliott. Trailing a plume of smoke, the red
Ford hit pit road. Was the Elliott team really mortal? Had they suffered their
first engine failure in two years? Was this all ending with a broken part? The
hood went up, and a loose oil line was found. Quickly repaired, Elliott and the
Thunderbird returned to the fray — but by now, the Georgian was nearly two laps
— five MILES — behind the race leaders. Fans in the grandstands stood and slowly
began making their way up the steps, disappointed that Elliott's challenge was,
in their judgment, over for the day. But wait....
What followed was to become one of the most storied comebacks
in the history of NASCAR stock car racing. Back to full song, the red Ford began
running race laps in excess of 205 miles per hour. Lap after lap, Elliott
chopped at the deficit. A yellow flag would have been helpful, but none flew. It
was all up to the 29-year-old driver behind the wheel. He would receive no help.
And he needed none.
While Richard Petty, Kyle, Cale, Neil Bonnett, Benny Parsons, Bobby Allison and Terry Labonte took turns leading the rumbling train around the track, Elliott kept his Thunderbird flying, gaining eight-tenths here, a second there, 1.2 seconds somewhere else. Little by little, he worked his way back into the same straightaway as the leaders, then the same draft. On lap 125, he unlapped himself, blasting past Cale Yarborough and driving away. The race was still under green flag conditions and Elliott had another 2.6 miles to make up by himself if no cautions flew.
It was an
unbelievable performance of man and machine. Just 20 laps later — 20 laps to
make up 2.66 miles — he flashed past Yarborough again (lap 145) and the world
had seen a performance unmatched in stock car history. By himself, without the
aid of a yellow flag or a drafting partner, Elliott had made up five miles on
the field under green to regain the lead. It was an incredible performance — one
that will be talked about whenever great comebacks are discussed in stock car
racing. Elliott then pulled away from the field until finally, with only 28 laps
remaining in the race, the first caution flag flew. After the restart, Cale
again took the lead, but Elliott went past him with 20 laps to go in the 188-lap
event. A final yellow flag in the last 15 laps did nothing to alter the results.
Elliott pulled away to a two-second victory, leaving the
field to fight for the scraps. And fight they did. Yarborough and Kyle had
battled throughout the day with their Fords, and the usual Talladega
photo-finish again came into play — but this time it was for second place, not
for the win. Kyle, on a wing and a prayer, took the outside line off the fourth
turn and beat Yarborough by inches at the line for second place.
The winning
average speed was in excess of 186 mph, the fastest stock car race in history.
But that didn't provide the real numbers. Elliott, while on the track, had
AVERAGED well over 203 miles per hour in his chase to run down the leaders. When
it was over, the redhead had won the second round of the Winston Million, and as
the first driver to win two of the four events, he clinched the "consolation"
bonus of $100,000 if he was unable to win either of the remaining races.
The 1-2-3 finish for the Thunderbirds was the first time
since the 1969 Dixie 500 at Atlanta that Fords had swept the top three positions
in a NASCAR Winston Cup race. The victory was the fourth in five races on
superspeedways at the beginning of the season for Elliott, tying him with David
Pearson's record start with the Wood Brothers in 1976. Dating back to the fall
of the previous year, it marked the sixth victory in the last nine events on
superspeedways for the Elliotts.
"I tell you
what, we worked our tails off to reach this stage," Elliott said. And when asked
about his performance this particular Sunday, the redhead continued, "and we had
to work, awful hard today after we got behind ..." A modest statement, indeed,
after one of the most rousing comebacks in the history of the sport.