WOOHOO! Million Dollar Bill!! Record setting 11 wins (85')in addition to winning the Winston Million(Daytona,Darlington,Talledega) He's the reason for restrictor plates! A Talledega 202.398mph pole and the 1987 record setting lap of 212.809mph and up during the race. 1988 Champ!! Although he really should have been in 85',87',and 92'.From 84 - 02' voted most popular driver 16 times.ESPN driver of decade (80's). Hall of Fame 2007! One of the BEST! AWESOME BILL from DAWSONVILLE!!!

AMEN BRO!!!! Elliott was EVERY inch just as good as Dale! Just a different type of driver. One Clean and one who would do ANYTHING to get ahead. Still I believe when it came down to speed, ol' Bill had him.

That Melling Ford was one beautiful race car.just sayin'

"Staying out there was the only chance we had," Bodine said. "We couldn't outrun Bill, so we had to outlast him." EXACT quote from Bodine...The PURE POWER of Awesome Bill from Dawsonville!! Along with his 6.3 sec pit Although...it was only the 3rd time in History that the 500 had NO accidents...so ALL the top drivers were still in the thick of it at the end. Just makes the victory that much more Sweet Bill!! \m/

It's heartbreaking (to me) to see what has happened to NASCAR racing in recent years...and watching old races like this reminds me of what I loved about it.

Damn right! And Elliott was nominated most popular 16 times!

awesome Bill! One of the best of all time!

I was at this race along with my wife and parents, it was my parents first race and my father talked about it every time the daytona 500 came on till he passed away 2 years ago he became a big race fan that day.

awesome bill was the man and nascar couldn't stand it. changed the rules every other weekend in 85 trying to slow him down. plate racing is a joke.

The last non-restrictor plate Daytona 500. Almost 30 years and NASCAR still has not found a fix...........

That's what I'm screaming man, NASCAR says they have restrictor plates cause Allison's wreck, that's BS. Look at carl edwards wreck at dega when Brad won. I have always believed NASCAR was biased towards chevy giving them breaks. rememer when Bill had like a 30 sec. lead and NASCAR held him in the pits, making them put more tape on the headlight so the field could catch up, complete BS

I believe this was the year nascar let GM put sloped rear windows down on the trunk decks just so they had a chance to keep up with Ford's on the superspeedway's .that was the beginning of the end to nascar.

1987 was the year that NASCAR really started to screw up the cars. '87 was the year they added the air-dam to the front of the cars and removed the stock bumper. The air dam is what caused the cars to start going so fast through the corners, and to flip over. When the air rushes under the car when it spins around backwards it has no where to go so it picks the car up like a toy.

boy i used to love watching those fords beat up everybody back then! how bout those fords!! i havent watch nascar since. boring ass shit..

Oh, your absolutely right about that. The '87 bird was more aerodynamic than the '86, but the air dam definitely helped as well. Because the GM teams were running the same car in '87 that they were in '86, and they picked up a considerable amount of speed in '87 from the '86 Daytona and Talladega qualifying speeds. So the air dam definitely was a major factor in the increased speeds as well.

NASCAR hates ford i know that for a fact.NASCAR now a days is a complete joke.i used to be a faithful follower every weekend for as long as i can remember but since earnhardt sr and chevrolet did most of the cheating and winning and since they brought this gooffy as hell COT in,i could give a shit less.whenever i hear or see a ford win in NASCAR,that just makes my day that much better.way to go awesome bill,FORD power all the way!

Powered by FORD! # 9 best !

Fuel my ass!! Elliott (with over 3 LTG) had Geoff anyway. No doubt.

Seeing this race makes me proud to be from Georgia.

Amazing that CBS went to an ad break in this race with only 6 laps to go! But it was a great race though, last 500 without plates, and only I believe 3 minor cautions during the race, no wrecks!

The Pride of Georgia...

Awesome Bill from Dawsonville

@chad2909 You said that right. GM gives them more money than anyone else..Nascar is the most crooked sport I've ever seen. If most people only knew what went on.

The cars did go upside down before the air dams but the dams made it worse. Just ask Bobby Allison. lol. They do speed up the cars however. When you block the air from going underneath the car it forces it over the hood which in turn creates downforce, and allows the cars to move through the air easier. Thats why in '86 they qualified at 205 at Talladega and a year later they qualified at 212. That's a huge pick up! The air dam was the only change on all the cars from 86 to 87, hence the speed.

@svo65 Very well said. Nascar is a JOKE now. Plate racing is the biggest piece of crap racing I've ever seen.

i have a pit cherw uniform from 87

Today's race commentators could learn alot from Ken Squire.

We knew him as the fastest man alive.

The final Daytona 500 race without restrictor plates.

And just to think yesterday Daytona 500 his son lost the race by running out of fuel

the cars sound evil!!! and plate racing is terrible when they all get in a line... and follow each other.. for 500 miles. youd think theyd try to pass each other at the end.. but noo.. surely theres another way. i agree that the cars flying into the stands was bad but theres got to be another way besides plates..

Awesome bill from Dawsonville to me there was nobody better well maybe Chase

Restrictor plate is a solution to slow down car... Today, with COT, is not as much need because of the aerodynamic... But, it steel a good way to slow down car, but... There is other way, and I know some of them: More complex "Bridled" like FIA does with WRC car, but it's a bit like the plate... Smaller engine. A electronic Rev limiter. Tapered carburetor spacer. Special air intake. "Bad" Aerodynamic.

Didn't we hear Bodine cussing in the original broadcast?

One of the biggest factors with the T-bird is that it was a couple inches lower than the GM cars, as Nascar took measurements. So ford had a faster car at the time.

I miss non-restrictor plate racing. Even with the restrictor plate, they (cars) still can go airborne anyways. Happened plenty of times already. Especially, when Edwards went airborne into the catch fence at Talledega. The plate didn't keep the car on the ground. Lol! 😠

Now this was racing. Nascar can go to hell for all I care these days. They have turned it into nothing more than a circus. I never missed a race and it has gown down hill since Dale died (and I couldn't stand him). It's just to fake now.

Awsome bill wearing them out an sending home crying to their mommies

I have to disagree with you there. The air dams actually slowed the cars down and kept them on the ground when they got sideways. If you are going fast enough and get backwards your car will go in the air no matter what, it happened in the early 80's too before the air dams, but without the side skirts the car will get airborne easier when sideways, like Yarborough in 1983 qualifying for the 500.

Should be called the elliott plate cause nascar did it to catch feild up to Elliott

1987

how long has it been since there was 125,000 fans been to a race now we got half empty stands

BTW,this was the 2nd fastest 500(176.263) to date--only Baker's 1980 win(finished 4th in in this race)was faster(177.602)!!!

Your right about that, but I believe they were both because of a green white checkered weren't they? I know the 500 was.

geoff had it covered

I've watched enough to know that before the plates it was routine to have only 3 or 4 cars on the lead lap at the end of the Daytona 500. Petty and Pearson were the only 2 on the lead lap during the infamous '76 500. Because the crew tried pushing him across the line, Petty wasn't scored for the final lap so in reality there was 1 car on the lead lap (Pearson) at the end. I'd rather have 20-25 cars in contention for the win than 3-4, thanks.

Uh...two near heart attack finishes?

speak english

I so wish we could go back to this king of Nascar Racing. This shit they got now is some Gay ass California Boy Racing Series. Racing Sucks now.

Ahh I miss the speed, but don't be fooled. Races without the plates were, by in large, boring. Bodine was running alone with a 23 second lead before he ran out of gas. I'll take the pack racing over the speed any day.