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April 14 in NASCAR: Bill Elliott wins at Darlington

1985 TranSouth 500

DARLINGTON, SC - APRIL 14, 1985: Bill Elliott (No. 9) and David Pearson (No. 21) lead the field into turn one at the start of the TranSouth 500 NASCAR Cup race at Darlington Raceway. Elliott went on to win the race, while Pearson dropped out after crashing into the spinning car of Trevor Boys. (Photo by ISC Images & Archives via Getty Images)

ISC Archives/CQ-Roll Call Group

It was the prelude to greatness. In the 1985 season that Bill Elliott would win the Winston Million at Darlington in September, he won at the track on April 14.

Elliott took the lead from Tim Richmond with 36 laps to go and went on to win the TranSouth 500 that day.

Elliott started on the pole and led 146 of 367 laps to score his third win of the year. He would go on to win 11 times that season. Darrell Waltrip finished second, followed by Tim Richmond, Terry Labonte and Rusty Wallace.

Also on this date:

1957: Fireball Roberts led the final 65 laps to score the win at Langhorne Speedway in Pennsylvania. It was his second of three consecutive Grand National wins. He scored a career-high eight wins that season.

1963: Richard Petty led 325 of 400 laps to win at South Boston Speedway in Virginia. Runner-up Jim Paschal finished two laps behind Petty.

1991: Rusty Wallace took the lead with 23 laps to go to win at Bristol. It was his third career victory at that track. He would go on to score nine Cup wins in his career there.

1996: Terry Labonte won at North Wilkesboro in the next-to-last Cup race at that track.

2002: Bobby Labonte scored his lone Cup win at Martinsville Speedway in 42 attempts.