Bill and his family operated team found mild success during 1984, but it didn't come until the last half of the season. He won the first race at Michigan, a track where he would see much success in the future, the fall Charlotte 500-miler, and the fall Rockingham race where he won by about a fender over Harry Gant. In fact, if Gant had beaten Elliott to the line of that race at the Rock, 'Handsome Harry' might have been that year's champion. He finished second to Terry Labonte in points that year with Elliott, for the second year in a row, 3rd in the final standings. Although finishing within the top 3 in the final standings, in just the two years he'd been running a full-time schedule was great, the team wanted better.

So, after the truck got home from the last race that year at Riverside, the Elliott's went to work....and they didn't stop till it was time for that year's Busch Clash. The Elliott's needed to understand aerodynamics on speedways. They worked even on Christmas day, trying to figure out an advantage that no one else would have. That's when they found it! While reading the rulebook several times a day for some kind of loophole, Bill's brother, head engine builder and crew chief, Ernie, found that there was no requirement for how wide a Winston Cup car had to be. Needless to say, the quickly prepared a narrowed car to study it in the wind-tunnel; their theory worked. When the team got to Daytona, they didn't stop either. Though he didn't win the Busch Clash that year, he did win the pole, setting a new record of just over 210 mph. He also won his qualifying race and to top it all off - the Daytona 500! He did have to work for it though. There was some controversy involving Elliott and NASCAR during the race. At one point, he had the entire field lapped except for Darrell Waltrip, who was running second, but in danger of too, going down a lap. Bill was then black-flagged to come in the pits. The reason - a hole had been found on his right-side headlight cover. NASCAR officials deemed it unsafe and demanded the Coors-Melling team to fix it. Ernie Elliott spent 43 seconds of putting duct tape over the hole and sent Bill back out. That year, Bill's qualifying record was about 42 seconds. Needless to say, during those 43 seconds in the pits, most of the field was now back on the lead lap. However, Bill went back out and back to the lead. After a caution flag for Neil Bonnett spinning, Bill was left with one lap to go and the field on his bumper. He got a good restart and led them all back to the line to earn his first of two Daytona 500's. It also meant that Elliott had won the first leg of the new "Winston Millon" bonus. It was announced at the 1984 awards banquet that any driver who could win 3 out of the 4 biggest races of the year - the Daytona 500, Winston 500 (Talladega), Coca-Cola 600 (Charlotte) or the legendary Southern 500 (Darlington) would recieve $1,000,000 or $100,000 if you won two of those races. So, when the Talladega race rolled around, eyes were on the Elliott's as if they won this race, they would be atleast $100K richer. Just like in Daytona, Bill won the pole position, breaking the previous record. It looked very good for the Elliott's as Bill was already out to a very early lead, but fate changed. Not even at the half-way point in the race, the oil pump belt failed and Elliott came in the pits, with a smoking car. All the fans and the media was in shock, that maybe for once, the unstoppable Elliott's, might have to retire from the race early! It took about 2 laps for Ernie to change the belt and Bill was back on track, just 2 laps down. So far, the race hadn't seen a caution and one wasn't looking likely. Bill was told to run the car as hard as he could run it, and that's what he done. It took roughly 100 laps, but within those 100 or so laps, Bill had caught the leaders, 3 times. 2 were to make up lost laps, and the third was to take the lead. He took over 1st place with about 45 laps to go, and within a matter of laps, the first caution of the day came out. Remember, Bill Elliott made up 2 laps at the biggest track on the circuit....UNDER GREEN!!!!! It's hard to make up a lap under green on a short track, let alone on the largest track!

So now, while the Elliott's were sitting in victory lane, they were now $100,000 richer and half-way to the $1,000,000 bonus from Winston. All they had to do was win at either Charlotte or Darlington, two of Bill's best tracks.

The Coca-Cola 600 was the sport's longest race and the Elliott's were ready. However, things didn't go as well as planned. The brakes failed going into the pits among many other things. Bill finished 29th. Darlington would be his last chance for a cool million.

When it was time for the Southern 500, security was tight. Bill didn't do many interviews, and there were 3 empty garage stalls on both sides of where the Melling team was working. They earned the pole and won the race. With about 30 to go, Cale Yarborough lost his power steering pump and almost caused Bill to wreck, but he held on. The Elliott's were on top of the world, and the point standings. But over the next month and a half, it was nothing but short tracks, something they weren't prepared for. After several weeks of bad luck, Bill was now in bad danger of losing his year-long points lead. With two races to go, Bill completed his home-track sweep at Atlanta and retained his lead by 8 points. The only race left on the schedule was Riverside, where two years ago, the red-head earned his first win. During the race, he was off to a good start, but around 30 laps in, the transmission linkage broke. In reality, a part that was less than $5 lost Bill the 1985 Winston Cup to Darrell Waltrip, who won his third in 5 years.

For Bill, he would come back in 88' and get his year in the spotlight to win the Winston Cup. Next week, we'll pick up in 1986, all the way to his last year driving for the family team in 1991.