Awesome Bill from Dawsonville! That Tbird had wings in those days! This is how things should have stayed just add the safer barrier and hans device and let them run flat out! Miss those days!
On the small tracks he was no better than anybody else. What made him so good on the big track was those two years he was allowed to run a 351 Cleveland because NASCAR had a rule and I'm pretty sure it was $ 357 in³ but the rule didn't specify be blocked or small block. Common sense will tell anyone a big block will outrun a small block on the big end
I won't be long they'll be trying electric cars 😂😂 back then we had ford Chevy Buick dodge now it's Toyota ford Chevy All the rules that's why I quit watching
All the computer crap took the racing out of racing. Before it was the mechanic and the tuner, now the computer tells you what to do. Me street racing is me and my people, not some computer telling us we are stupid. What's the point of learning anything?
This is when it wasn’t just a competition between drivers. Back then it was a competition between entire teams, including mechanics and no one could build a Ford engine better than Ernie Elliot.
@@BamaShinesDistillery Nope. He just ported the heads. His Dad bought the first dyno in Nascar from Penske before Penske had even thought about running Nascar, in his Indy days. I'm sure if the Elliott's could afford a dyno they afforded a cam grinder as well.... When you're hungry you are hungry. Johnson just wished he had gotten that dyno.
Not all of them. The car’s illegality was it was physically smaller than the rules allowed; once teams finally figured this out Elliott was far less competitive
I rather watch these old races over the new Nascrap of today and besides I did miss some of these old races back then it’s a nice way to revisit and catch up remembering life of a simpler time a time before all this toxic politics of today I am so sick of it
Open faced helmets, concrete retaining walls with paint missing, rusting retaining fence, 200mph steel cages surrounded by sheet metal flying around track, cigarettes, Confederate flags waving in the breeze.......this is when racing was racing my friends. God I miss it. Thank you for uploading these old races.
I agree..with everything but the confederate flags..the confederate traitors entire leadership should have been hung publicly for leading So many to their deaths. I think if it happened today you would agree and want the same...Lincoln showed a TON of restraint
i thank god for safe walls and the hans...i had that idea before its advent but could not figure out where to tether my helmet too great safty inovation cars could have been safe back 60s 70s i dont get it why werent window nets a no brainer
@@jaydesrochers3276 Buzz kill Jay that makes everything into something terrible and evil. We learn from our past dumb ass. The rebel flag is thought of Southern pride by the majority of people. Nobody saying hang black people and tear the country apart now or during the race in the video. Of course my comment to you is pointless because you will always be a troll asshole spew your bs.
This is awesome…the familiar iconic voices, the famous driver names (Garrett, Bodine, Elliott, Baker, Waltrip, etc…), the sponsors (Skoal Bandits, Mountain Dew, etc…), talking to the pit crew right after a pit stop, and the best part…NO RESTRICTOR PLATES!!! Those were the days.
I personally prefer the new racing than old racing, todays, you can watch the race live at cell phones, you can see the big screen broadcasting the TV live
Look up Isle of Mann TT racing on youtube. It is motorcycle racing, but it is unregulated and will get your adrenaline pumping. People die every year there, but it is one of the only places left on the planet where you can see pure racing still. Trust me it is worth watching at least one time to remember just how amazing pure speed can be with no crazy rules. What the hell I will even give you all the link. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-iRWp9rhfS_0.html
BP was a great human being. I was raised about 2 miles from the Rock and he lived his whole life in the one caution light town of Ellerbe just north of Rockingham.
I've heard he lived his whole life their an ant disputing you but back in the 80s when they introduced him an his brother from Detroit Michigan an their dad owned the taxi service up their.dont no if that's true but it's how they were announced during races
He wasn't up in Michigan much after he started racing. My friend drove cab for his dad and brother. My father in law worked for Benny's sponsor as a advertising company. We got tickets to some races and I built my father in laws company a Nascar model of Benny's winning #55 Oldsmobile to display in their lobby. They loved it ,put in under lights even.
Brought what you had and raced it. Man... I was a child and these are my first memories watching NASCAR. Bill had two nicknames already, Awesome Bill from Dawsonville and Million Dollar Bill.
I wish they never introduced restrictor plates but downsized the carburetors instead. That would keep the competition and make it safer. RIP David Pearson 1934-2018
They did reduce the carburetors the second half of 1987. It didn’t work. People should have accepted and embraced the restrictor plates and worked to make the cars far more stuck to the track (also to make the draft unstoppable again like it is today)
The GM boys had an entire year of test&tune with restrictor plates..everyone else had but a couple months to set up their cars for that season..The restrictor plates were implemented specifically to choke power on the Ford Guys running Clevelands...GM guys crying that Fomoco had an unfair advantage
Ernie Elliott motors. His brother is one of the elite engine builders in NASCAR history. Other engineers that come to mind Smokey Yunick, Maurice Petty, the Wood Brothers, Waddell Wilson for Ranier-Lundy, Robert Yates and later his son Doug who still builds the motors for essentially all the Ford teams today, Richie Gilmore for DEI, and the late Randy Dorton for Hendrick. Michael McDowell's Daytona 500-winning car...the engine under the hood of that #34 Ford was crafted by Doug Yates. All of the Toyotas get their engines from TRD (Toyota Racing Development).
@@mattkowal90I think Ernie should be in hall of fame that's a exclusive bunch you named plus Erie won 33 times a cup crewcheif only person I can think of that has that many wins as crewcheif an 41 wins as engine builder is wadelll Wilson. ernie should be in hall of fame
@@mattkowal90 I read something somewhere that indicated the Toyota motors were more or less clones of small block Chevrolets. Anything to that or not? Thanks.
Don’t know. The Elliott car wasn’t about power. The body was physically smaller than was legal; they were able to beat the templates. Earnhardt’s guys would likewise cheat the templates the next year plus by shaving the roofline greenhouse area
Sure it was because the only thing Chevrolet had that would compete as far as cubic inches was a 350 base block. You could only run 357 cubic inches and Ford had a big block and NASCAR didn't have a rule that it had to be a small block. I've had big blocks and small blocks and I can tell you like this. From zero to a hundred miles an hour I can take a small block and eat a big block's ass but on top end stretched out as fast as we can run on a two and a half mile track a big block Cleveland could give that small block Chevrolet a two-lap head start and in 80 to 100 laps he would pass him the second time. No comparison so Bill Elliot in my opinion was never that damn great of a race car driver and that's just my opinion
@@mastercarpenter1970 Except they weren't running the 351C. What they were running was a special engine Ford had made based more on the 351W but incorporated design features of the Cleveland engine. It wasn't a big block. Those went bye bye around '74 or so when then made 358 cu in. the max displacement. You have your opinion about Bill Elliot, I disagree. Nobody ever has had a season like he did in 1985. As good as it was he didn't win the Winston Cup in '85. He had another great year in '87 when he did win it just edging Rusty Wallace in a tremendous battle the last one third of the season.
Man Mike Joy is fantastic isn’t he? He started as the track announcer at riverside speedway in Agawam mass, where I first saw the sights, and smelled the smells of modifieds and late models..in fact, I will take the Whelen tour over the cup cars nowadays.
Something to think about: I'm from Finland (yeah, the happiest country in the world) and what upsets me is that I've stopped watching and being interested in Nascar, despite the fact that I loved it from when I was a kid. Even though it was possible to watch or see something about Nascar from TV in Finland starting I think back in the 1980s (I believe Sky Channel or some other), I learned to know the drivers and the teams from that on and I even studied the history of the sport. Nowadays we have all kinds of pay TVs, cable, internet etc., but I'm not interested anymore. I don't even know most of the current drivers... I know it's impossible to go back in time, but Nascar used to rock. It was a sport of real men. I miss the good old days, the legendary cars, the legendary clashes on track and the legendary drivers. I want the original Nascar back.The same has happened with Formula One, sad to say... One more thing: my greetings to David Pearson, among the very best or perhaps even the greatest ever. Thanks for the memories.
I feel the same. Although I wasn't a Jeff Gordon fan, I stopped watching when he retired. Seemed a fitting time to end it all for me too. Been hitting up the local dirt tracks ever since. It's not like the old days of NASCAR but it is still a lot of fun. I love Finland, been there many times....Tampere, Finland.
I agree the fist fights Pearson petty Yarbrough the fire and passion they had there missed by me the NASCAR OF OLD WAS the one to watch awesome bill from Dawsonville and ernie the engine guru that to atleast a page of three from smokey yunicks book on speed yes its sad a real tragedy what has happened to NASCAR
Those cars were so cool, beautiful and very fast. And, they were built better/ tougher and could take a beating better than today's NASCAR cars. I wish it was still like this today. 😟☹️😩
I missed this race on TV. I was 16 and working on Sundays pumping gas at a FULL-SERVICE gas station. Remember those? They went extinct when *good racing* did.
my first job, all the way through highschool, was working at a full service conoco station. filled er up, washed the bugs off the glass and checked the oil if you wanted!
@@ghomerhust Yes, I took pride in my skill with the squeegee, but that didn't stop the occasional, "you missed a spot" customer. Sorry, ma'am, that is a chip, not a bug. Yes, that's a chip also.
My Mama would have driven to where you worked just to get gas. She HATED pumping her own gas! Of course she started driving in 1954 when there was no such thing as a self-service gas station!
At 57:00 or so listen carefully as Bobby Allison accelerates out of the pits....you can hear the car in the background as the announcers are talking....it sounds awesome, and I miss that exhaust tone!!
They use to do that everywhere when it rains that was standard track drying equipment till Bruton an humpy invented the jet dryers which now have been replaced by the air titans but I always thought dragging tires was cool an it also put rubber back in track that had been washed away.
These superspeedway races for a few years all had the same sponsor and name, the we're all the elliot 500. Nobody in same league, there has never been and never will be a car that dominant again.
Had nascsr not changed so many rules to let gm catch up elliots would won alot more.nascar did everything that they could to catch gm up even let them stick that bubble they call the areo coupe which is nuthing more than a areo dynamics band aid nascar gave gm jus to keep up with the elliots.
@@mrnascar9129 absolutely had Nascar made the manufacturer run what they built an not restricted them it would been 1990 atleasy before anyone would have touched the Elliott even if they jus run what they were running here in 85 but the gace the gm cars them aero dynamic band aid cars in 86 .
It was his penultimate career win, he would win his final later that year at the National 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Notice I didn't spoil it! That means it could be anyone, but who? Find out by watching the whole race.
Well, not spoiled totally, but partly. I guessed immediately who it was after seeing your comment. I always seem to screw up my viewing experience by scrolling down to see the comments. Should have already learned not to after so many times.
@@backporchdriver3763 Finished 10th, then finished 7th the next year substituting for his good buddy Neil Bonnett in the 12. Somehow he avoided his Father's accident in T1 on the final lap.
I'd rather watch these old races than what their calling nascar racing now. These dudes were balls to the walls....no restrictor plates...just cool heads and heavy feet...and you gotta love how badass these stock cars look...sitting low and mean..
Ned Jarrett had several shows where he stated that most of the top contenders were around 875hp. But Ernie Elliott's engine package was cooling the heads down and was reaching 13.9:1 compression because of being slightly cooler. The best of the rest was only getting 13:1 barely. He guessed by math that Bill was sitting on 925hp or so. Many will say BS to the 875hp, but just remember a Hellcat @707hp wouldn't really hit but about 186 mph. These cars are lighter, but way less aerodynamic than a Hellcat. They were talking about Ernie had a cam and heads that no one else had. Well His Dad had bought a Penske Racing dyno back in 79-80 and started work on the 351 cleveland. I am sure his Dad had a cam grinder as well, if he had the money for a dyno. As far as showing actual horsepower, I am not so sure it would tell you that. Most likely it was more of just a tuning dyno that added brake and you worked the engine to get the best mixture at certain RPM. Really a high dollar carb tuner... To this day though, I've never seen anything of Ernie saying anything about the dyno, but they way the entire Southeast was after his ass, I doubt he wanted to reveal anything while it counted...
Clever is correct. They did what every racer in history has tried to do, they found a loophole in the rules and brilliantly engineered an engine that, within the rules, could not be beaten. Especially with that slippery Ford Thunderbird body to complete the idea.
Bill's T-Bird was the same size as every other T-Bird in the field, and fit all the template measurements of that time. The "downsized car" story is nothing but a farcical urban legend....
Cleveland Engine with clever Ernie Elliott engineering! And Bill's car fit the templates, so you GM fans can cry all you want but he whupped yer asses in 1985 big time!
@@knobdikker not only whipped their asses he sent them home crying to their mommies he was unbelievable that year they talk about him making up 5 miles under green I think him lapping the entire field expt 2 place waltripin his twin 125 an he'd laped him in 2 more laps in his he won by 40 seconds in his twin 125
Shows how dam strong that car was I heard Greg sack bragin about beating bill in firecracker 85 which he did but they forget to mention bill had to pit with a couple laps To go an Greg stretched his fuel so its not like he out run bill..bill made up over 5 miles at Winston 5pp an his twin 125 at Daytona in 85 he laped entire field except 2nd place waltrip an he was almost 40 seconds behind an would been laped in another 2 laps thats getting it done in a 125
@@brianbooher7318bill also had a severe vibration because of a bent drive shaft. If not for that and a pit stop near the end, the world would have never heard of Greg Sacks
Finished 10th in his debut, then 7th the next year substituting for Neil Bonnett after he was injured in a crash at Pocono the week prior in the Junior Johnson #12. A year and half after this he won his first Cup race, and followed it up with wins there in 1989 and 1992.
@@coca-colatrackhousewarrior9925 19 wins in 191 starts too, so just under a 10% winning average. Probably 9.999%. Includes 3 Winston 500's, 1992 Daytona 500, 1989 Pepsi 400, unfortunately didn't the Talladega 500, and quite a few road course wins.
An estimated 35k was on hand for the 2019 California race. Was more like 25k to 28k. Please Nascar stop the Chase silliness so we can have a true season champ. Bring back a race at the Rock or N wilkesboro. Drop Cali or Indy. Sorry guys but I have to watch old races to get my fix now and it's not right.
The Rock was dull the last eight years it ran. North Wilkesboro is the LEAST competitive track in NASCAR history - just seven lead changes per race (the road courses used to average nine; it’s ticked upward to 11-12 lead changes per race the last few years). We need to stop kidding ourselves and admit a lot of changes have been good (certainly not all like radial tires, the raindrop body style without coke bottle and long snout wedge body styles as competition, lack of downforce and stupid warring against downforce, shifting on ovals, no real points value given to wins and most laps led)
When the drivers had balls of steel, their women loved them for it, and NASCAR didn't regulate EVERY FREAKIN THING! Racing was racing...today's crap is unwatchable...
Watch the Isle of Mann TT racing if you want to see the only real unregulated racing left on the planet. Several people die a year there though and have something like over 200 have died since it started. I still enjoy watching real racing with few rules though. It is motorcycle racing, but it will get your adrenaline rushing just watching it as they scream at near 200MPH on narrow country island roads.
In 85 the only guy who could really run with the 9 was Cale. And that was only occasionally. When the 9 was on...it was untouchable. Wadell Wilson knew how to screw together a Windsor about as good as Ernie knew how to put together a Cleavor. And the GM boys needed rule changes or they were just running for fastest in-brand.
Yes Cale was about the only real competition in those days! If bill was on there was nothing they could do with him! They just had that motor and body chiseled to perfection!! Not to mention a fantastic driver behind the wheel! If their short track program had been even remotely close they would have won at least three or four championships!!
Hell nascar let them alter their whole back half of their car .gm called it the areo coupe but in all reality it waz jus an areo dynamics band aid nascar gave gm jus to keep up with the elliots
@@toddjohnson7133 yea jus enuff to let them alter the 86 race car with that areo dynamic band aid back window simply to keep bill from lapping the field on the big tracks.
Very good question. The answer is how did he finish in the rest of the schedule?? I wish the point system was still the same as it was in the 70s and 80s and until the playoff deal started. Playoffs are for Baseball. And they ain't but 1 Baseball team......THE NEW YORK YANKEES,,,,Period.
Bill Elliott either won or crashed. He broke his leg 3rd race of the season. Crashed at Richmond, lost his breaks at martinsville and Charlotte. Had mechanical failures at dover, wilkesboro and riverside. Ole DW was in the top 10 every single race.
@@jarflymystique6545 yes if bill had a good short track program they would have won 3 or 4 championships! They were very inconsistent on short tracks period! Plus waltrip was a master at closing races out with good finishes! It’s really sad he didn’t win the championship that year!!
Still a bit of dampness on the track when the green finally fell. Today's drivers would poop their pants at the thought. "We can't race. My Daddy spent a lot of his trucking/construction company money to buy me this ride!"
It's a shame junior destroyed that 92 team an fired Tim brewer cause he got suppenaed by flossie in her an juniors divorce an he destroyed what was set to be a dynasty an certainly would won attest 1 cup but junior destroyed it all
I have many Daytona and Talladega on VHS; condition unknown. Roughly 1989 to 2000. Most should be full races; some with all commercials and some without. Would you be interested in them? All I would ask is a DVD copy for my personal collection. I know I have but not limited to the races: Earnhardt/Elliott tri-oval crash(es). The Swerving Irvin era, The HUGE wreck at the Firecracker 400 with Petty, many full Twin 125s, Waltrip's 400 crash, Martin's caution free win, etc.
Man that man was fast until the very end. Of coarse I'm talking about the late great David Pearson. Shoestring budget team and he still has that car 3rd starting spot. It was very nice of the Wood Bros. to let David use #21, doubt anyone else would've been able to. To bad he couldn't hookup with Purolator as a sponsor....that would've been fun seeing that paint scheme again.
Like Tim Brewer once said that car never fit a template it was so suspect that Nascar couldn't figure it out which led to side templates and rear clip and nose templates starting in 1988
They broke that joker down so many times, If you at cheating, you ain't trying. How much do you think the rest of the drivers were doing trying to keep up. Back then Ford was a long stroke engine. Chevy was a shorter stroke. Physics will tell one that Ford's were better on Superspeedways. Chevys were better on small short stroke tracks. But what wins on Sunday sells on Monday.
Many Indy fans here in Brazil always ask why Indy does not compete in races like Talladega, Daytona or even Darlington. Indy even came to race in Daytona in the 50's if I'm not mistaken, but due to accidents and lack of safety the category never ran any more there. Today with the safety of the category I do not know, I find it very risky for the type of track that these 3 are ... even if they are oval, there are clues that would not be very safe for single-seaters.
Put it to them this way. The turn banking at the IMS is 9.2 degrees. Talladega has 32.5-33 degrees. Meaning that it's very possible to make laps at Talladega without ever having to touch the brake. NASCAR toned down the cars' speed shortly after Bill Elliott's record of 212.8 MPH at qualifying for the 1987 spring race at Talladega because of Bobby's Allison's later crash. Bill made that speed in a car that weighed roughly (can't find exact figures) twice as much as a modern IndyCar does while having about the same power (3rd generation NASCAR cars had roughly 700 HP). So 212.8 MPH with a 700 HP car weighing 3,000-3,500 pounds. Now imagine a 1,600 pound car putting out 600 HP. Cars would go flying everywhere. And yes, in 1980, there was a planned IndyCar race at Talladega. Officially, it was cancelled due to scheduling issues. Unofficially, I'm sure it was because they were scared to do it. On the other hand, you could just tell them to watch this video. It's 1959 at Daytona but obviously, the problems are the same and even much worse with today's cars. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-upSK_8ke4g4.html
most of these come from old VHS recordings of the originally aired races, ripped onto the computer to upload. that's why you have little glitches, like VCR tracking and such.
When Phil Parsons mentioned someone throwing stuff on the race track, same thing in 1994. Bob Jenkins called people who did stuff like that race idiots. Could have caused an even bigger accident.
Its driving the GM camp mad why Fords so fast and its in plain sight and the couldn't see it. Elliott was accused of everything in the book. That made for some interesting conversations. Some got heated.
