GM's test to out perform the Ford's worked at Daytona - Geoff Bodine, driving a new Monte Carlo won the Daytona 500. Elliott still wont the pole and was in contention, but he was out-dueled by a GM product. In fact, Bill only won 2 races in 1986 - both races at Michigan, making Elliott a four-time consecutive winner at the Motor City track. All in all, Ford only claimed 5 victories during the season. 2 from Elliott, 2 by Ricky Rudd and one victory from Kyle Petty at Richmond. Ford could see that something was needed to be done to compete with the new line of GM cars.
So when 1987 rolled around, all the Ford teams unveiled their new, sleek and even more aerodynamic Thunderbird. The new design fared well as Elliott, for the 3rd consecutive year, broke the pole record for the Daytona 500. With the new record now at just over 210 mph, he was hard to catch. Leading 104 out of 200 laps, Elliott easily won over Benny Parsons and Richard Petty. On April 30th of that year, Elliott once again wrote a new page of the record book. During his qualifying attempt for the Winston 500, Elliott made a staggering lap of 212.809 mph or about 44 seconds. It is a record that still stands today. In reality, Bill possibly could of had a better lap than that. That morning, it came a moderate rain. So the qualifying session was delayed by a little bit. When a track is wet, it loses most of it's rubber build up, making it a looser track. To top all that off, Bill picked the first spot to start - meaning that he was the first to qualify, making him the first to test out a newly dried track with no rubber. It's still quite amazing that he turned the fastest lap, right out of the box.
So from the pole, he lead the early laps over upstart Davey Allison, who would eventually win, and Dale Earnhardt, a 2-time champion going for 3. With almost 30 laps to go, the fastest engine in NASCAR expired and sent Elliott out of the race. This race was also marred by fan-favorite Bobby Allison blowing a tire coming out of the tri-oval and lifting his Buick into the catch-fence, separating fans from the racing action. Track officials spent more than 4 hours repairing and cleaning up the damage.
However, Bill would not see victory lane again until the second Talladega race. Like always, he sat on the pole and won in dominating fashion. His next win would be the second Michigan race, making Bill a 5-time winner there. He would go on to win three more races for 87', all within the last 4 races. He won the Charlotte 500 miler and Rockingham, and finishing off the season with a pole and victory at his hometown track of Atlanta International Raceway. Overall, he had a great year - 6 wins, 8 poles and 20 top 10 finishes, but he still finished second in points once again. It sounds great, but he was almost 500 points behind Dale Earnhardt, who earned his 3rd Winston Cup. In the 5 years of running full-time in the Winston Cup Series, Bill had finished no worse than 4th. I'd say a nice accomplishment!
For 1988, still running the class "Aero-Bird" the team had a new associate sponsor, Motorcraft. Instead of the familiar red/gold, the #9 was now red/blue. The Elliott's knew that after claiming the 'bridesmaid position' in points, they ought to win the cup one day. For the Coors/Melling team, 1988 was the year. For the first time since 1984, the red #9 did NOT sit on pole position for the Daytona 500. After Bobby Allison's violent crash the year before at Talladega, all teams were required to slow cars down by adding a 'restrictor plate' Although he finished 12th in the 500, he certainly wasn't the most dominant driver on track. In fact, he failed to even lead a lap. During the season, Elliott would win 6 races, the first of which on a short track - Bristol. A track that Elliott has never performed well on. That Bristol win was Bill's only short track victory in his career. Back in those days, you just about needed to win on every type of race course that was offered to be in contention for the championship. Bill did just that, and in dominating fashion. With 10 laps to go, Geoff Bodine tapped Elliott in the turn and spun out. Elliott then proceeded to get 4 fresh tires and get back out on track. Within those 10 laps, he came from the end of the lead lap cars to first to claim the victory. His other wins that year included both Dover races, Pocono, the Southern 500 and the Daytona Firecracker event, the last that was held on the 4th of July, no matter the day of week. The Firecracker ended in a photo finish with Tennessean Rick Wilson. All day long, both the #9 Coors car and the #4 Kodak car were terrible, both almost going down a lap under green. But when both found each other and the draft, they worked together to get to the front, ultimately getting Elliott to the line by about a fender over the Morgan-McClure owned Oldsmobile. All throughout 1988, Elliott was consistent. With 6 wins, 6 poles, 15 top 5's and 22 top 10 finishes, Elliott had a great year, just barely beating out Rusty Wallace by 24 points. Rusty tried hard, winning 4 out of the last 5 races, but for the #27 Pontiac, he would have to wait one more year.
Elliott's championship was one of the most popular in years, which propelled him into even more popularity during the 1989 season. Also for 89, a entire new fleet of cars rolled out into the racetracks. The Buick, Olds and Pontiacs were brought over from the previous season and Ford designed the Thunderbird into a more rounded and even more aero-friendly car. Chevrolet still ran the old and trusty Monte Carlo for the first couple of races while the new and much talked-about Lumina was still being produced. Unfortunately for Bill Elliott, a broken wrist sidelined him throughout most of the Daytona Speedweeks. He did start the 500, but let his long-time friend, Jody Ridley take over after a couple of laps. In fact, Jody was running well, even into the top 10, but a large wreck towards the end of the race made him retire from the race early. Now with legendary crew chief, Mike Beam, Elliott earned 3 wins in his new styled car - Another Michigan race, Pocono and the second Winston Cup race at Phoenix. For the first time since 1982, he finished outside of the top 5 in points, coming in in 6th.
1990 and 91' weren't good years to Bill. Each year, he only earned earned one victory. Dover in 1990, and the Pepsi Firecracker race in 1991. 1991 brought new colors to the field. With exchanging his classic red/gold/blue Coors Thunderbird in for a nice Blue and White #9 car, now with Coors Light on the hood. A sharp looking car in my opinion. His last win for the family team was very fitting. Going into the race, he lost both his mother and grandmother within 2 weeks. It was also the first win without rear tire changer, Mike Rich, who was killed in a pit road accident during the season finale at Atlanta in 1990. His death brought in mandatory pit road speeds at all tracks. When Bill won that July afternoon at Daytona, he dedicated his win to all three of those individuals.
Towards the end of the season, the Adolf Coors Brewing Company announced they would not be returning to sponsor the #9 Ford and Bill Elliott, ending one of the most popular partnerships of 7 years. Sources say it was because team owner Harry Melling asked Coors for a renewal of $10 Million, way more than the old contract was worth. He stated to "Take it or leave it" and well....they left it. It was assumed that Elliott didn't want to drive an unsponsored car and that his family team had been in a slump during the last couple of years. Going into the 1992 season, Geoff Bodine left Junior Johnson's #11 car for Bud Moore's 15. So, Elliott signed a 3-year contract to drive the Junior Johnson owned #11 Budweiser Thunderbird. His move was much like when Richard Petty left his own, Petty Enterprises in the early 80's. The sport was shocked.
Next week, I'll continue on with this saga of Bill Elliott racing history featuring the years 1992-2000.
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