Bill Elliott

They called him Awesome Bill from Dawsonville, and in 1985, Bill Elliott put on one of the most spectacular single-season performances in NASCAR history. He won 11 races and swept the majors at Daytona, Talladega, and Darlington to claim the Winston Million bonus, becoming the first and only driver to collect that prize. With 44 wins and 55 poles across 828 Cup Series starts, Elliott's career numbers tell the story of a driver who could flat-out fly. His 1988 championship -- the only title of his career -- was a workmanlike campaign that showcased the consistency beneath the raw speed. Elliott won six races that year and beat Rusty Wallace for the crown, cementing a legacy that the people of Dawsonville, Georgia celebrate to this day with a siren that wails through the mountain town every time one of their own wins. Elliott was voted NASCAR's Most Popular Driver a record 16 times, a testament to the genuine, everyman quality that fans saw in the red-haired Georgian who never lost his small-town humility despite becoming one of the biggest stars the sport has ever produced. His son Chase followed him into the Cup Series and won a championship of his own, creating one of NASCAR's great father-son legacies. But for a generation of fans who watched Bill Elliott qualify at 212 miles per hour at Talladega in 1987, no one will ever be faster.

Written by Richard R. Glover, NASCAR Reference