Bill Elliott

This article is about the NASCAR driver Bill Elliott. For the similarly named film, see Billy Elliot.

William Clyde "Bill" Elliott (Born October 8, 1955 in Dawsonville, Georgia) is a part-time driver in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup series. Prior to retiring from full-time competition, Elliott drove the #9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Intrepid for Evernham Motorsports from 2001 to 2003 and won four events including the Brickyard 400 in 2002. Elliott is no longer officially part of Evernham Motorsports since his contact with Dodge ended, but he is still associated with the team and is expected to drive for Evernham again sometime during the 2006 season.

NASCAR career

Elliott made his first Winston Cup start at Rockingham in 1976. In 1983, Elliott gained financial support from Harry Melling of Melling Racing and earned his first Winston Cup win at Riverside the same year. He gained sponsorship from Coors the following year.

In 1985, Elliott earned 11 wins and 11 poles and also won the first Winston Million in the Southern 500 at Darlington. This earned him the nicknames "Wild Bill," "Million Dollar Bill," and "Awesome Bill From Dawsonville." This also led to him becoming the first NASCAR driver to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Despite his success during that time, Elliott did not win the Winston Cup Championship until 1988. He left the Melling Racing team after the 1991 season and began driving the #11 Budweiser Ford Thunderbird for the legendary Junior Johnson in 1992. For that season, Elliott finished second in the points standings and lost the Winston Cup Championship to Alan Kulwicki by a mere 10 points.

After leaving Johnson's team, Elliott fielded his own Winston Cup race team from 1995 to 2000. Unfortunately, he was never as successful as he was with his previous teams and was even winless during that time. Elliott sold his team to Evernham in 2000 and began driving the #9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Intrepid the following year. In his first qualifying effort while driving the #9 Dodge, Elliott won the pole for the 2001 Daytona 500. Later in the season, he won the Pennzoil Freedom 400 at Homestead from the pole (with then-teammate Casey Atwood starting second and finishing third), which was his first win since the Mountain Dew Southern 500 in 1994. From 2002 to 2003, he went on to win races at Pocono, Indianapolis, and Rockingham, along with four more pole positions. At the 2003 Ford 400 at Homestead, Elliott led 189 of 267 laps and was well on his way to victory, but a cut tire on the final lap relinquished the win to Bobby Labonte. Luckily, he still finished the race and kept his ninth-place position in the final points standings. A few weeks later, Elliott announced that he was relinquishing the #9 car to then-rookie Kasey Kahne and switching to a part-time schedule driving R&D cars for Evernham.

In 2004, Elliott drove the #91 Dodge Intrepid for Evernham in three events (along with the Budweiser Shootout) and also drove the #98 Dodge Intrepid in three other events because of sponsorship issues between Coca-Cola (Elliott's sponsor) and Pepsi (Evernham's sponsor). Elliott was listed as the owner of the #98 car, but Evernham leased the car to him. Although he only made six starts during his first part-time season, he still managed to have some success which included a ninth-place finish at Indianapolis and second and third-place qualifying efforts at Texas and California respectively.

In 2005, Elliott continued his part-time driving duties which included driving the #39 Coors Dodge Charger for Chip Ganassi Racing in the Budweiser Shootout and the #91 Evernham Dodge Charger in several events. Although he made three more starts than the previous season, he did not have the same amount of success. He managed to get an eleventh-place finish and a tenth-place qualifying effort at Michigan, along with a ninth-place qualifying effort at Texas. He also competed in several NASCAR Busch Series events driving for both Evernham and Rusty Wallace.

For the 2006 season, the 2005 owners' points for the #91 team went to the new #10 Evernham team and driver Scott Riggs. On January 4, 2006, Elliott announced that he would pilot the #36 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS for MB2 Motorsports in the 2006 Daytona Speedweeks events. This included the Budweiser Shootout, the Gatorade Duel, and the Daytona 500, which Elliott had not competed in since 2003. Elliott stated that he felt it was best to let Evernham concentrate on his new #10 team for the first few races, and then he will more than likely resume his part-time driving duties for Evernham later in the season. On March 17, 2006, it was announced that Elliott will drive the #00 Burger King Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS for Michael Waltrip Racing in five NEXTEL Cup events which include Chicagoland, New Hampshire, Indianapolis, California, and Homestead.

Throughout his career, Elliott has garnered 44 wins in the Cup series, including 2 victories in the Daytona 500, as well as one Busch Series win at Watkins Glen. Elliott is the current holder of the track qualifying record at Texas. Elliott also holds the track record at both Talladega and Daytona, neither of which is likely to be broken due to the current use of restrictor plates at both tracks. Also, he has won NASCAR's Most Popular Driver Award a record 16 times, which he last won in 2002. He withdrew his name from the ballot after that and the award will be renamed after Elliott when he officially retires from the sport.

NASCAR Video Games

Datei:91Stanley.JPG

Bill Elliott's #91 Stanley Tools car that was later removed from NASCAR 06: Total Team Control.

In 1990, Konami released the first officially-licensed NASCAR game, Bill Elliott's NASCAR Challenge for MS-DOS. The game featured four official NASCAR tracks and it also made Elliott the first NASCAR driver to be featured in a video game. The game was released for the NES and Amiga in 1991, and Bill Elliott's NASCAR Fast Tracks was released for the Game Boy at the same time. Elliott continued to appear in most NASCAR games until the release of EA Sports' NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup in 2004 when he began his semi-retirement. The following year, he was seen in several screenshots and videos for EA Sports' NASCAR 06: Total Team Control driving the #91 Stanley Tools Dodge. However, he was removed from the game before its release and the #91 was removed from the Custom Car Garage feature for NEXTEL Cup. Ironically, Elliott's teammate Jeremy Mayfield was also absent from NASCAR 2005 (though he reappeared in NASCAR 06) and an official explanation was never given for their absences from the two games. Unlike Elliott in NASCAR 06, Mayfield had not been seen in any screenshots or videos for NASCAR 2005. However, Kasey Kahne was featured in the #9 Evernham Dodge, and Mayfield and the #19 Evernham Dodge had been featured in previous NASCAR games.

Teams and Sponsors

Teams

Elliott Racing (George Elliott, Owner)- 1976-1981 (also drove for car owners Bill Champion and Roger Hamby)
Melling Racing (Harry Melling, Owner)- 1982-1991
Junior Johnson and Associates (Junior Johnson, Owner)- 1992-1994
Elliott-Hardy Racing (Co-owned with Charles Hardy)-1995
Bill Elliott Racing- 1996-2000
Evernham Motorsports (Ray Evernham, Owner)- 2001-Present
Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates- 2005 Budweiser Shootout
MB2 Motorsports- 2006 Daytona Speedweeks
Michael Waltrip Racing- 2006 (five events)

Sponsors

Dahlonega Ford Sales- 1976-1980 (Majority of races...others include Aaron's Automatic Transmission, Knutson's Ski-Doo, Yandle/Thermol King, Knutson's RV, Kings Inn, Evans' Toyota-GMC, Jackson Special, Melling Timing Components)
Mell-Gear- 1981
Melling Tool- 1982
Melling Oil Pumps- 1983
Coors- 1984-1990, 2005*
Motorcraft- 1988-1989 (Major Associate)
Coors Light- 1991
Budweiser- 1992-1994
McDonald's- 1995-2000, 2004-2005*
Dodge Dealers- 2001-2003
Leukemia-Lymphoma Society- 2004*
UAW/DaimlerChrysler- 2004*
Coca-Cola C2- 2004*
Visteon- 2004-2005*
Stanley Tools- 2005*
Auto Value/Bumper To Bumper- 2005*
Ginn Clubs & Resorts- 2006*
Burger King- 2006*