Winston Million

The Grand Slam in NASCAR is the achievement of winning all of NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series majors in a calendar year.

The R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company announced at the Waldorf Astoria New York during the annual end of season prizegiving ceremony in 1984 two new events that would define NASCAR for years to come. One of them was the winner-only race, which has been known since 2008 as the Sprint All-Star Race. The other that they were formally elevating the sport's four majors into a formal Grand Slam with a cash bonus, the Winston Million. The events were as follows:

No driver had ever won all four races in the same season. Twice prior to 1985, a driver claimed a "Small Slam" (three out of the four races): Lee Roy Yarbrough (1969, although it was considered a "Triple Crown," as the Talladega event was not established until 1970) and David Pearson (1976). Starting in 1985, R.J. Reynolds, and brand sponsor Winston, began offering a $1 million bonus to any driver that won a Small Slam in the same season. If there was no million-dollar winner, a $100,000 consolation bonus would be given to the first driver to win two of the races. If a driver went into the Coca-Cola 600 or the Southern 500 with a chance to win the million, the race was advertised as "The Winston Million Running of the Coca-Cola 600" or "The Winston Million Running of the (Heinz / Mountain Dew) Southern 500." From 1994 to 1996, the program was advertised as the "Winston Select Million," as R.J. Reynolds chose to promote Winston's "Select" brand of cigarettes in NASCAR.

From 1985 to 1997, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, then the title sponsor of NASCAR's premier circuit, offered an award of $1 million for any driver who won three of the four "crown jewel" races on the schedule.

In the program's first year, Bill Elliott captured the million-dollar bonus, and the victory thrust him into notoriety. He became known as "Million Dollar Bill," and appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated. The relative ease with which Elliott won the bonus led many to believe that the prize would be awarded fairly often in subsequent seasons. This, however, was ultimately deceiving, as the award proved difficult to win, and at times, it was difficult to even have a candidate in contention to win.

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