|| *Comments on the 1985 Southern 500:* View the most recent comment <#38> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. Chris Cadiz posted: 03.20.2004 - 2:41 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) The 1985 Southern 500 was a classic. The ever popular Bill Elliott captured the victory and won the Winston Million. It was then the richest single race payday in motorsports history. 2. Aaron Camp posted: 12.02.2004 - 9:15 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) This race will forever be a classic. Bill Elliott earned the nickname "Million-Dollar Bill" after winning the Winston Million. 3. je24go posted: 07.30.2005 - 3:16 am Rate this comment: (1) (1) Earnhardt dominated and was on his way to preventing Bill from getting the popular nick-name, but he spun off of turn two, hit the wall, messed up his engine and fell out of the race... 4. MOST posted: 05.07.2006 - 7:20 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) What about Cale, remember he had the lead when the famous plume of smoke came out of the car. 5. mcmurrayfan posted: 06.24.2006 - 3:28 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) First start for Pancho Carter. 6. Daggs posted: 10.12.2007 - 12:31 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) A.J. Foyt had to go through rookie orientation since this was his first race at Darlington. Ricky Rudd thought Darrell Waltrip was playing a practical joke on him. 7. RaceFanX posted: 11.28.2007 - 3:48 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Last Cup race for Busch Series legend Tommy Houston. 8. Scott posted: 05.03.2008 - 7:43 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) I was a huge fan of Earnhardt. Went to the race, my heart sank when he spun. Was happy to see Bill win the Million, though. Couldn't believe he lost the championship to Waltrip. 9. Clayton posted: 06.09.2008 - 10:38 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Like the old song goes: "With his Big Smile Red Hair they called him Huck Fin, when he started Racin, he started out to win! In '85 he came alive and he gave the fans a thrill Now they call him Huck, Mr. Million Dollar Bill!!!" 10. Jim posted: 09.10.2009 - 4:29 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Cale finished 2nd on the lead lap, hard to believe after he blew a power steering hose ! 11. most posted: 10.09.2011 - 11:48 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) My favorite race ever, this was a great time for NASCAR, back when races told a story! 12. Schroeder51 posted: 06.29.2012 - 11:46 am Rate this comment: (2) (0) Probably of absolutely no interest to anyone but myself, but this race happened to be run on the same day the wreck of the RMS Titanic was discovered. 13. nascarfan2234 posted: 07.23.2012 - 9:02 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) A CLASSIC 14. The Great Dave posted: 06.01.2013 - 6:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sponsor Corrections #3 Wrangler / 1-800-FARMAID #36 Almeda Auto Parts / National Motors #49 Fleet Service / R.L. Monroe #51 Rozier-War Eagle 15. Ryan W posted: 06.23.2013 - 9:10 pm Rate this comment: (1) (3) Bill Elliott blows a 206 point lead with eight races left... probably blew the million, too. 16. Ryan W posted: 07.24.2013 - 12:24 am Rate this comment: (2) (3) Truth be known Bill had about the 4th or 5th best car this day. Just like Jeff Gordon did in '97. 17. 83andJoe posted: 09.16.2013 - 5:57 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Joe Ruttman received 138 points Ken Ragan received 103 points Pancho Carter received 97 points 18. Walleyewhacker posted: 02.15.2014 - 11:18 am Rate this comment: (1) (3) Bill was a much more patient and smoother driver than Earnhardt ever was. He could wait for Earnhardt to blow an engine or Cale's power steering pump to fail in the biggest race of the year. Elliott and his team had weak points to be sure. The #9 short track program was not near as good as the #11 was in 1985, or Kulwicki's was in 1992. He was a bigger fan favorite than Dale was from 1984-1994. Where was Earnhardt durring the greatest Championship battle ever in 1992? Oh yes, I remember now. He finished 11th. 19. Tim posted: 12.13.2014 - 6:12 pm Rate this comment: (0) (2) Earnhardt fans have conveniently forgot about 1992...you know when Bill was blowing by him most of the season. 20. Dave posted: 04.11.2015 - 2:35 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Truth be known Bill won the race and a million dollars, just like Gordon did in 1997. That's all that matters. Believe it or not Ryan there ARE plenty of great drivers not named Dale Earnhardt, deal with it 21. saltsburgtrojanfan posted: 08.31.2015 - 9:16 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Caution 1: Lap 23-30: #2,66 accident turn 4 Caution 2: Lap 36-39: rain Caution 3: Lap 61-64: debris Caution 4: Lap 100-107: #36 accident turn 2 Caution 5: Lap 148-154: #49 accident Caution 6: Lap 169-174: oil on track Caution 7: Lap 189-193: #51 accident Caution 8: Lap 267-272: #64 accident frontstretch Caution 9: Lap 294-297: debris backstretch Caution 10: Lap 318-322: #3 spun turn 2 Caution 11: Lap 325-329: #28 smoking Caution 12: Lap 333-335: debris Caution 13: Lap 338-342: oil on track Caution 14: Lap 350-354: 22. saltsburgtrojanfan posted: 08.31.2015 - 9:33 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Corrections Caution 6 was from lap 169-173 Caution 8 was from lap 267-271 Caution 12 was from lap 333-334 Caution 13 was from lap 338-341 Caution 14 was from lap 351-354 23. Ryan W posted: 09.24.2015 - 9:08 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Walleyewhacker do you really want to compare stats of Bill Elliott and Dale Earnhardt? One year in 1992 (the year where Nascar handicapped Dale and the Chevrolets and allowed the Ford's to run camber)? Btw, Elliott blew it that year, too, just like in 1985. However he lost to a underfunded team in Alan Kulwicki. Kulwicki was awesome. I'm not a hater on Elliott or his fans (a few in my family were) I just know Earnhardt was better all around. It sure doesn't mean Elliott wasn't good though. I think it was pretty cool he won this race and I think it's a shame that there's only 23 comments for one of the biggest races in Nascar history. 24. Windows Millennium Edition posted: 02.21.2016 - 8:54 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Last Winston Cup attempt for Ferrel Harris. 25. Amanda K posted: 07.01.2017 - 7:47 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) How many bad years did Elliott have in his career? Earnhardt had 4 in a 22 year career (1982, 1992, 1997 and 1998) and finished outside the top 10 in points 2 times in same 22 year career. Bill Elliott had more bad years in the late 90's and missed the top 10 in points more times from 1997-2000 than Earnhardt did his entire careeer. Oh and last I checked, 7 is greater than 1. What a foolish argument that anyone could argue Bill Elliott was in the same league as Earnhardt was. 26. Chuck1 posted: 07.01.2017 - 10:38 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I would say you could also throw in 1981 as a bad year for Earnhardt being as his team was sold to JD Stacy in June or July that year and he left in August and finished out the year with Childress and won no races coming off of a championship year. 27. RaceFanX posted: 07.07.2017 - 8:16 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Winston actually paid Elliott the $1 million prize themselves. The company thought the Winston Million would be so hard to win they didn't take out the standard prize indemnity insurance like most companies offering that large a prize would. 28. cjs3872 posted: 07.07.2017 - 9:34 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @28, the reason that RJR/Winston didn't budget the $1,000,000 bonus into their program was that only two drivers had ever won the necessary races in the same season prior to 1985. Only LeeRoy Yarbrough (1969) and David Pearson (1976) had won the requisite races in one season to get the bonus, though quite a number had previously won two of the four races in the Winston Million program, which offered a pretty handsome consolation prize of $100,000, something that would be won with regularity over the next 12 years (Darrell Waltrip in 1989, Dale Earnhardt in '90, Harry Gant in '91, Davey Allison in '92, and Dale Jarrett in '96) even if the Million wasn't won, and they had planned it as a promotional tool for both the company and for NASCAR, having no idea that the Million would be won the very first year that it was offered. It was even possible for two different drivers to get that $100,000 bonus for taking two legs of the Winston Million in the same season, though that never happened in the 13 years the program was in existence. One interesting thing that never came up was that, if a driver had swept the first three legs of the Winston Million, thus taking the Million at Charlotte, what kind of bonus would RJR have put up if a driver swept all four races in the Winston Million program in the same season? 29. 48johnsonfan posted: 11.02.2017 - 5:18 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Last caution was for debris. 30. JSPorts posted: 11.02.2017 - 5:49 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Elliott won 10 of the first 20 races, but won only one of the final 8 and his 206 point lead evaporated, losing the title to Darrell Waltrip. He was on pace for 14 wins after this race. 31. Yahboi posted: 10.03.2019 - 6:30 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @30, just imagine if Bill Elliott had done that. Winning 14 races in a season in the modern era would've beaten Both two goats of the sport; Jeff Gordon, who is an amazing driver, and Richard Petty; do you really have to ask how great the "king of stock car racing" was? Can you imagine? 32. possum posted: 10.03.2019 - 7:52 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) @31 - there weren't enough long tracks. Ford had a significant aero advantage that year, and all the long track races were won by Fords (10 by Elliott, one each by Yarborough and Rudd). The Fords were down on power, tho, compared to the Chevy engined cars, and all the shorter track races were won by Chevies. That was the good ol' days, when differences in the production car still showed up as differences on the track. 33. wisconsinracefan posted: 10.03.2019 - 8:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Yahboi, That was not likely in 1985 although 13 cup wins would've his best. Bill to me had the capabilities of winning at Dover and Rockingham in 1985. With 8 races left after the Southern 500 in 1985, 3 of them are on short tracks. Bill was not known for his short track ability. Darrell Waltrip in his own words earlier this year said Bill Elliott was a speedway driver, not a short track driver or a road course driver. Bill's reputation as he's a wonderful driver on oval tracks 1 mile or more. Bills a talented driver based on the amount of Darlington, Rockingham, and Dover wins. While Bill won at Riverside in 1983 and a Busch series race at Watkins Glen, Bill was not for being a road racing compare to Ricky Rudd, Tim Richmond and Rusty Wallace in his prime. 34. wisconsinracefan posted: 10.03.2019 - 8:34 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ford not winning a short track is on what Ford had for drivers in 1985. Ricky Rudd was the only short track they had in his prime. Bobby Allison in 1985 was not washed up, but not in his prime. Chevy had great short track drivers in their prime 1985. Darrell Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt has to be on a person's top 5 or top 10 cup series short track drivers ever. Harry Gant, Terry Labonte, and Geoff Bodine were very good short track drivers are. 35. Ryan posted: 10.03.2019 - 10:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @32 I have a 1985 program for the Coca-Cola 600 and there was an article in there talking about how dominant Bill's car was that year. Rivals Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison both discussed how difficult it was to draft off of Elliott's car mainly due to Bill's power AND the shape of the Ford Thunderbird that year in particular the rear end of it. It was a very interesting read. They both expected Bill to win every super speedway race as long as he didn't have problems. 36. SweetRich posted: 02.27.2020 - 5:34 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The commentators for the race were Larry Nuber and Jack Arute. The pit road reporter was Dick Berggren. 37. NewGuyOnTheBlock posted: 04.20.2020 - 3:05 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) ESPN broadcast this race. 38. Tigerman posted: 05.20.2020 - 12:21 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Suggestions regarding DNQ's please correct me if I am wrong. Johnathan Lee Edwards, self-owned Buick Rick Newsom, self-owned #20 Chevrolet Connie Saylor, Ralph Ball-owned #99 Chevrolet Bobby Wawak, self-owned #74 Buick ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: