If there was ever a theme for Bill Elliott and the annual Southern 500 Labor Day weekend classic at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway this weekend, the Seals and Crofts classic "We May Never Pass This Way Again" would fit the bill perfectly.

Elliott returns to the noted "track too tough to tame" for the 51st -- and perhaps last -- time in his Winston Cup career, while, after 53 years, the fabled "Lady in Black" will play host to the last Southern 500 to be held on the Labor Day weekend.

"That's about like eating hot dogs and apple pie," Elliott says of the Southern 500's holiday weekend tradition. "That's the way people know it to be. Whether they can change or not, I don't know. I guess that will be the test of the sport. That was a surprise even for me when they ended up moving that date. That was a very surprising move."

Next season, NASCAR's annual Labor Day race will move to a new event at the two-mile California Speedway in suburban Los Angeles. The Southern 500 at Darlington will still exist, but it will move to early November, thus losing its tradition as being the last big race of the summer.

One of the questions that will be constantly asked this weekend is whether Elliott will ever come back for that new race in L.A. or return to Darlington, where he's a five-time career winner, second only to Jeff Gordon for most wins among currently active drivers.

That's why this weekend's race holds such added significance for all drivers in Winston Cup, with the honor and distinction that comes along with being the last winner of the Southern 500/Labor Day weekend match up.

That significance is not lost on Elliott, who leads all active drivers with five poles earned at Darlington. In a season that has seen the veteran Georgia-native struggle -- his current ranking of 17th-place, which he's held for the last four weeks, is a season-high -- rumors of pending retirement at season's end have reached near-wildfire proportions.

	Elliott has been one of the best at Darlington.

The frustration of this season -- just three top-five finishes in the first 24 races, with no wins or poles -- is obviously wearing on him. It's no wonder that Elliott, who turns 48 in less than two months, is feeling a bit testy when asked what his future holds -- be it still inside or permanently outside a driver's compartment in a race car.

"Well, let me tell you like this," he says bluntly. "When I'm ready to talk, I'll talk. When I ain't, I ain't. That's just plain and simple. When it's time, it's time and I'll let you know. When it's not, it's not, and then I'll let you know. I'm almost 50 now. I've given it thought because I'm definitely on the shorter end of the stick."

Whether this will be Elliott's last visit to Darlington Raceway as a full-time driver will only be discovered in due time. But if it is, the veteran pilot of the No. 9 Dodge intends to go out with the best finish he possibly can on the gritty, demanding 1.366-mile oval.

While Elliott trails Gordon for most wins by a currently active driver at Darlington (six), no one in the present crop of drivers can match Elliott's overall record at Darlington, which is nothing short of phenomenal.

In addition to the five wins -- 1985 (twice), 1988, 1992 and 1994 -- and five poles he's earned there in 50 career starts, Elliott has 21 top-five and an incredible 34 top-10 finishes there. He's also led 27 races for a total of 980 laps, and holds an average finish of 9.04, tops among all active drivers.

Lest anyone think Elliott is washed up given the struggles he's had overall this season, one need look at his most recent runs at Darlington to be persuaded otherwise: he's earned top-10 finishes in each of his last four starts there, making him the first driver in Darlington history to have compiled four consecutive top-10 finishes. Of particular note, he was third in last year's Southern 500 and finished ninth at Darlington this past spring.

Darlington also has been the site of one of Elliott's biggest victories, when he earned a cool $1 million of Winston bonus money when he won the 1985 Southern 500.

"It's the first race I won a pole at," he recalled. "I've had a lot of good runs there, a lot of success there. It's been a good race track for me. It's changed a lot over the years, but it's been a pretty strong race track."

What further embellishes Elliott's win at Darlington in 1985 was his battle with Cale Yarborough down the stretch of that race toward the checkered flag, one of the more epic battles the sport has seen -- and one long-time fans still love to talk and reminisce about.

"It's no different than anytime you're driving a race car," Elliott said. "Your main goal is to beat the competition. I don't even believe I was thinking about the million dollars at the time. All I was thinking about was how I was going to continue to stay ahead of the competition.

"Cale was very strong that day. He probably should have won the race. I remember very well. (Dale) Earnhardt was good that day. (Harry) Gant was good that day. They all had problems. Cale was good that day. When you're in a race car, you concentrate on what's happening at that second. You don't think beyond it, and you don't think behind it. You're just concentrating on getting everything you can out of the race car. Everything else you don't think about. I don't.

"I think I had everything pretty much in place (that day). I had it in my head what I was going to go through, so on and so forth. Things just kind of unfolded and fell into my favor, but it was just one of them days that luck was on your side."

But to show how flippant a sport Winston Cup racing can be, less than a year after winning the $1 million Winston bonus, Elliott returned to and then left Darlington in a much different manner.

"Probably the worst thing was in '86, when I was leading the race with a handful of laps to go and I ran into the wall on the first turn," Elliott recalls. "I just drove in too deep. I think (Tim) Richmond ended up winning the race. I think I wound up third. I just drove straight into the wall. I didn't pass go. I didn't collect $200. I just drove straight into the wall."

While the veteran pilot certainly hopes to stay off the wall in Sunday's Mountain Dew Southern 500, and would love nothing more than to tie Gordon for the top number of wins there, don't be surprised if Elliott takes a little extra time to look around at the sights, hear the sounds and smell the sweetness that Darlington emits.

For, indeed, it may very well be the last time Elliott ever passes that way again.

Jerry Bonkowski covers NASCAR for ESPN.com. He can be reached at Motorsportwriter@MSN.com