Bill Elliott

Going into the season finale, Elliott looked to win his first NASCAR Winston Cup championship at his home track of Atlanta. His only threat to the championship was Rusty Wallace, who entered the race winning three of the last four races and was 79 points behind Elliott. Elliott started 29th, but needed to finish 18th or better to clinch the championship regardless of what Rusty Wallace did in the race. Rusty dominated the race, starting on the pole, leading 166 of the 325 laps, and winning the race. Elliott drove careful and conservatively through the field and finished 11th to claim the 1988 Winston Cup Championship by 24 points over Rusty Wallace. Elliott finished the season with six wins, six poles, 15 Top 5s, 22 Top 10s (including at one point 16 in a row), and an average finish of 6.6.

The Final Years at Melling Racing

Following his championship season, Elliott broke his wrist in a crash during testing at Daytona and required relief by Jody Ridley during several races in the first part of the 1989 season. Elliott won two poles and three races, at Michigan, Pocono, and Phoenix, and finished 6th in the championship standings.

In

The 1992 Season and the Hooters 500 Season Finale

Elliott left Melling to join

After the fall Dover race, Elliott found himself with a 154 point lead in the championship standings with six races remaining. However, much like the ending of the 1985 season, Elliott would lose the point lead after a string of poor finishes. Elliott's lead disappeared thanks to a batch of poor finishes, which included mechanical problems beginning with an engine failure at Martinsville leading to a 30th place finish, a 26th place finish at North Wilkesboro, a broken sway bar while running in the Top 5 with less than 40 laps to go at Charlotte leading to a 30th place finish, and a cracked cylinder head leading to another engine failure at Phoenix, finishing 31st. The string of poor finishes dropped Elliott out of the points lead to 3rd place, 40 points behind 1st place Davey Allison and 10 points behind 2nd place Alan Kulwicki, with one race to go.

The season finale in 1992 was the

After leaving Johnson's team, Elliott fielded his own Winston Cup race team from 1995 to 2000. He used the No. 94 in honor of his nephew, Casey Elliott, who was battling cancer at the time he formed the team and would die in 1996. The team also fielded entries in the Busch Series and Truck Series. Elliott failed to win a race during this time, though he did manage two top-ten finishes in the championship standings, with 8th-place finishes in 1995 and 1997. In 1996, Elliott missed five races to recover from injuring a broken hip at Talladega^[15] and was replaced by Dorsey Schroeder and Todd Bodine.

Bill Elliott Racing

In July 1996, the partnership between Elliott and Hardy was dissolved, the team being renamed Bill Elliott Racing. Later in

In 1998, Elliott teamed up with Dan Marino to form a multi-car team, the team was renamed Elliott-Marino Motorsports, adding the No. 13 and keeping the No. 94, Marino owned the No. 13 while Elliott owned the No. 94. The year was marked with sadness for Elliott when he had to miss the fall Dover race to attend the funeral of his father. Matt Kenseth drove Elliott's No. 94 and finished sixth in his Cup debut.

After a disappointing 1999 season which saw Elliott's multi-car operation dissolve back into No. 94, Elliott announced in early 2000 he was selling his equipment to championship-winning crew chief Ray Evernham to become part of Dodge's return to NASCAR. The team would also switch to No. 9, which was owned by Melling, his championship-winning team. Even though he struggled the entire six years as a driver/owner and did not win a single race, Elliott's fans still voted him as NASCAR's Most Popular Driver. He would hold the record for 10 straight years as a most popular driver from 1991 to 2000, a record that would stand until 2013, when Dale Earnhardt Jr. would win his 11th straight award. Earnhardt would win the award for 15 straight years from 2003 to 2017, a NASCAR record.

Evernham Motorsports

The 2001 Season: Dodge's return to NASCAR and Elliott's first win in 7 years

In 2000, Elliott sold his team to Ray Evernham and began driving the No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Intrepid the following year. Melling Racing, who ran the No. 9 for Bill Elliott from 1981 to 1991, yielded that number to Ray Evernham for 2001. Elliott asked Evernham to drive that number out of respect for his old team. Elliott and Evernham however found success in its very first race in the No. 9 Dodge, as Elliott won the pole for the 2001 Daytona 500. It would also be the 50th pole of his career. By winning the pole, Bill Elliott would become the first, and as of 2018, the only driver in NASCAR history to score his 50th career pole in the Daytona 500. He would finish the race in the Top 5, bringing home a 5th-place finish, even though the race will forever be remembered for the death of fan-favorite Dale Earnhardt.

Elliott finished his first season with

After the back-to-back victories at Pocono and Indy, Elliott was 6th in points. Four weeks later after a 3rd place finish in the Southern 500 at Darlington, Elliott then found himself 7th in points with 11 races to go, and on his way to finishing the season in the Top 10 in points for the first time since 1997. After a 5th-place finish at Kansas and a 19th-place finish at Talladega, Elliott was 8th in points with six races to go. However, a string of five consecutive finishes of 30th or worse, which included a 42nd-place finish after a crash at Martinsville, and a bad water pump leading to a 39th-place finish at Rockingham, ultimately dropped Elliott from 8th to finishing a disappointing 13th in the final points standings. Elliott finished the 2002 season with two wins, four poles, six Top 5s, 13 Top 10s, and for the 16th and final time in his career, Elliott was voted as NASCAR's Most Popular Driver.

The 2003 Season: Final Full-Time Season

The 2003 season ultimately became Elliott's final full-time season. It was a struggle through the first 26 races of the season, as Bill only had five Top 10 finishes and was 16th in points. In the final 10 races, Elliott went from 16th in points to finishing 9th in the overall standings, as he finished in the Top 15 in all 10 races, had five Top 5 finishes, seven Top 10 finishes, and led the most laps in three of the final seven races which included Elliott's final victory of his career.

In the final seven races of the season starting at Kansas, Elliott started 8th and led the most laps, 115 of 267 laps, and finished 2nd to

Elliott officially withdrew from the ballot as NASCAR's Most Popular Driver, giving the award to Dale Earnhardt Jr., who would go on to win for 15 straight years from 2003 to 2017, a NASCAR record. A few weeks later after the 2003 season ended, Elliott announced that he was relinquishing the No. 9 car to Kasey Kahne and switching to a part-time schedule driving R&D cars for Evernham.

Semi-retirement years

Evernham Motorsports

In

In

For the 2006 season, the 2005 owners' points for the No. 91 team went to the new No. 10 Evernham team and driver Scott Riggs and the No. 91 team was discontinued.

On August 8, 2006, Evernham Motorsports announced that Elliott would return to the organization for

Mach 1 Racing

Elliott also drove the No. 98 Dodge Intrepid for Mach 1 Racing in three other events in 2004 because of sponsorship issues between Coca-Cola (Elliott's sponsor) and Pepsi (Evernham's sponsor). but Evernham leased the car to him. Although he only made three starts during his first part-time season as a driver, he still managed to have some success which included a 3rd-place qualifying effort at California respectively.

MB2 Motorsports

On January 4, 2006, Elliott announced that he would pilot the No. 36

Elliott attempted to qualify for the 2007 Daytona 500, but failed to make the race in the No. 37.^[17][18]

Wood Brothers Racing

Later that season, Elliott signed to drive the No. 21 for

On September 23, 2007, in an interview with Charlotte Observer, Len Wood the co-owner of the No. 21 said Elliott would have his own sponsor and share a ride with Jon Wood and Marcos Ambrose for 2008.^[20][21] Elliott returned to the No. 21 to try to get the car back into the Top 35 points at

Elliott qualified for ten races that season, with a best finish of 20th in the Sunoco Presents: The American Red Cross

In 2009, Elliott ran 12 races in the No. 21 Motorcraft Ford for the Wood Brothers, including the Daytona 500.^[23] His best finish in 2009 was 15th place at Lowe's Motor Speedway.^[23]

On Memorial Day May 25, 2009, Elliott became the 7th member of the "800 club", with his 800th career Sprint Cup start at

Elliott ran for the Wood Brothers in 2010. He also drove at Talladega for Latitude 43 Motorsports.

Phoenix Racing

In 2011, Elliott did not return to Wood Brothers Racing, but ran four races for

For the 2012 season, Elliott joined Joe Nemechek at NEMCO Motorsports to drive the No. 97 Toyota in the 2012 Daytona 500,^[26] but failed to qualify for the race.^[27] Elliott successfully qualified for the Sprint Cup race at Talladega driving the No. 97, but finished in 37th.

Turner Motorsports

Elliott made his third start of the 2012 season driving for

On August 4, 2018, GMS Racing announced that Elliott would return to NASCAR, driving the No. 23 Chevrolet Camaro at Road America in the Xfinity Series on August 25.^[29] It was Elliott's first Xfinity start since 2005 and first National Series start since 2012.^[30] He finished in 20th on the lead lap.^[30] After the race, he quipped "I feel like I hit everything but the lottery, I mean it was a great day."^[30]

Superstar Racing Experience

In 2021, Elliott was a full-time driver at the inaugural season of the Superstar Racing Experience, Tony Stewart's new stock car racing series. His best result was third at the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, and he finished 9th in points. Elliott entered two rounds of the 2022 season.

NASCAR video games

In 1990,

Legacy and Honors

At the time of Elliott's "semi-retirement", he ranked 14th on NASCAR's all-time win list with 44 wins. As of 2022, he ranks 19th on NASCAR's all-time wins list. His 44 career wins does not include six exhibition wins, which include one "

• Fastest qualifying speed at Daytona International Speedway; 1987 Daytona 500 - 210.364 MPH (338.548 km/h)
• Fastest qualifying speed at Talladega Superspeedway; 1987 Winston 500 - 212.809 MPH (342.483 km/h)
• Modern-era record of 11 superspeedway victories in one season; 11 in 1985
• Modern-era record of 4 season sweeps in one season; 1985 - Pocono, Michigan, Darlington, and Atlanta (The next closest is 3 season sweeps by Dale Earnhardt in 1987, at Bristol, Richmond, and Darlington and twice by Jimmie Johnson in 2004 at Charlotte, Darlington, and Atlanta, then once again in 2007 at Atlanta, Martinsville, and Richmond)
• 4 consecutive wins at one superspeedway; Michigan from 1985-1986 (Tied with
  Dale Earnhardt Jr
  . at Talladega from 2001-2003)
• Modern-era record 4 consecutive race wins; 1992 at Rockingham, Richmond, Atlanta and Darlington (Tied with Cale Yarborough in 1976, Darrell Waltrip in 1981, Dale Earnhardt in 1987, Harry Gant in 1991, Mark Martin in 1993, Jeff Gordon in 1998, and Jimmie Johnson in 2007)
• Most career Daytona 500 poles; 4 in 1985-1987, 2001 (Tied with Buddy Baker and Cale Yarborough)
• 3 consecutive Daytona 500 poles; 1985-1987 (Tied with Fireball Roberts 1961-1963 and Ken Schrader 1988-1990)
• Most career pole positions at Talladega Superspeedway; 8 (2×1985, 2×1986, 2×1987, 1990, 1993)
• 6 consecutive pole positions at Talladega Superspeedway; 1985-1987
• Longest winless drought between wins; 226 races (1994 Southern 500 at Darlington - 2001 Pennzoil Freedom 400 at Homestead-Miami)

Bill Elliott is widely considered as one of the greatest and most well-respected racecar drivers, not only in NASCAR history, but in motorsports history as a whole. In 1998, Elliott was selected as one of

• Georgia Sports Hall of Fame inductee in 1998
• An inaugural inductee into the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame in 2002 (Along with Elliott, the inaugural Georgia Racing Hall of Fame Class of 2002 also included Red Byron, Tim Flock, Roy Hall, Raymond Parks, Lloyd Seay, Gober Sosebee, and Red Vogt). Elliott's father George (Class of 2011), and his two older brothers Ernie (Class of 2010), and Dan (Class of 2018) would also become inductees into the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame.
• Motorsports Hall of Fame of America inductee in 2007
• National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame inductee in 2015
• NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2015 (inducted along with Fred Lorenzen, Wendell Scott, Joe Weatherly, and Rex White). Elliott was presented into the NASCAR Hall of Fame by his former Evernham Motorsports car owner, and future NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2018 inductee, Ray Evernham, and the driver who followed Bill in the famed #9 car, Kasey Kahne.

Elliott has been honored by the State of Georgia and the city of Dawsonville, Georgia in Dawson County with a number of roads renamed in honor of him and his family, as well as a date named in his honor.

• In 2005, the Georgia State Legislature declared October 8 (Elliott's birthday) as Bill Elliott Day in the state of Georgia.^[31]
• In downtown Dawsonville, East 1st Street N & S (North and South) was renamed "Bill Elliott Street N & S", which is also conveniently, where the famous Dawsonville Pool Room is located (at the address of "9 Bill Elliott Street S"), along with the infamous "siren" that traditionally went off when Bill Elliott won a race. Today, the tradition continues with Bill's son Chase, as the siren goes off every time Chase wins a race.
• Elliott was also honored by the state legislature with a stretch of roadway (the entirety of Georgia State Route 183) in his native Dawson County renamed "Elliott Family Parkway".

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Cup Series

Daytona 500

Xfinity Series

Craftsman Truck Series

Winston West Series

^* Season still in progress
¹ Ineligible for series points

International Race of Champions

(key) (Bold – Pole position. * – Most laps led.)

Superstar Racing Experience

(key) * – Most laps led. ¹ – Heat 1 winner. ² – Heat 2 winner.

^* Season still in progress

References