Eight-dollar part decides Cup in '85 final at Riverside (cont'd)

While Elliott sat in his car during the repair period, as the minutes -- and laps -- ticked away, he pondered the nature of things.

"All that time I was sitting in the pits, I kept thinking about how we'd done everything we set out to do this year but sometimes things just didn't go our way," Elliott later said. "I guess I did say something to myself like, 'This just ain't my day.'"

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In an odd twist of irony, the broken shifter pin -- which Elliott said was the only General Motors part on his Ford -- was manufactured in Franklin, Tenn., Waltrip's hometown.

However, Waltrip still had to take care of business. While Ricky Rudd and Terry Labonte dueled up front, Waltrip bided his time in the top 10, eventually finishing seventh and winning his third Cup championship by 101 points, as Elliott wound up 31st.

"I was telling somebody a little while ago that I call the three championships good, better and best," Waltrip said. "This one means a great deal to me because we had to overcome a great year by another driver to do it."

Rudd overcame a flat tire and several scrapes with lapped traffic to chase down Labonte over the final 30 laps, finally taking the lead for good on Lap 96 when Labonte pitted for service, then holding off a furious late-lap rally for a .45-second margin of victory.

"It was really a catchup race all day for us," Rudd said. "I didn't want to think about what this [win] could mean to our team, because it might have got me too excited. It's a good thing I kept a cool head or I could have overdriven into one of the turns, and that could have been disastrous.

"[Labonte] was on my back bumper, shoving me right to the last, waiting for me to make a mistake. I really had to drive with the mirror quite a bit. But I knew what he was going to do before he did it. I anticipated him and just went with him."

When asked if he'd be willing to trade his season for Waltrip's championship, Elliott didn't hesitate.

"There's no way I would swap with Darrell," Elliott said. "He and his guys deserve congratulations for winning the championship, but we had an excellent year and it probably will be a long time before anyone does again what we did this year.

"After Darrell won his first race, it took him 188 races to win the first championship. We haven't run 188 races yet. And every year we keep getting better. We may have lost the championship, but we never lost our pride or determination. We came here 20 points behind and gave it our best shot. It just wasn't enough. But this whole year has been very special."

Elliott would have the opportunity to celebrate his own championship three seasons later, in what would be Riverside's last hurrah. The track closed shortly thereafter and the property was partially developed into a shopping mall.