Harrisburg, NC (November 6, 2008) - Bill Elliott in the no. 21 Wood Brothers Little Debbie Ford Fusion is no stranger to Phoenix International Raceway. He had a victory in 1989, two pole position starts and four top five finishes. As he looks at going to PIR in a new era, he sees the challenges it brings with the COT car, but also looks at the season winding down for the 2008 season.

The win, in 1989 came as a surprise to Elliott with a 13th place starting position. He didn’t feel all that confident when he first got behind the wheel of his Ford Thunderbird and in the original post race interview on that memorable day Elliott explained, “I’ll tell you what. At the first of the race, I thought I would be lucky to be in the top 20 by the end of the day. The guys kept working and we never gave up.” He continued to convey how the track changed in their favor and the team worked together to adjust the car accordingly to ultimately bring home the win.

Looking forward to this weekend, he mentions some of the challenges he expects at Phoenix. “Those were the good old days. It’s not a bad place. I mean, the main thing is that it’s just so different. [Turns] one and two are so much different than three and four and it drives so much different. I mean, I really don’t have a problem with the place and I think the car we’re carrying out there will be pretty good but we’re just so far behind. I mean, you don’t have anybody else that you can lean on and share information and I know we’ve kind of beat that horse to death but, that’s the problem that I see,” Bill said.
Elliott continued commenting on PIR, “I don’t dislike it [the track]and I don’t really like it. It’s just a racetrack that if you get your car setup right, you can run well, if not, then to me, it’s more of a struggle. It’s like some of these places, I can go run three Bristol races in a row or Martinsville or wherever and I seem like I can get a handle on what I’m doing but, then there are these other places, it seems like I can’t get what I’m looking for.”

With the 2008 season winding down and Phoenix being one of the two events left to run, Elliott expressed how the season has progressed for the Wood Brothers Racing and how he views his situation for next year. “I mean whatever I decide to do after the next two races. If I come back to run a few races, it’s going to be short lived,” said Elliott. “I like the group that we have together here. It’s the one thing that’s kind of helped me see some light. I like [crew chief David] Hyder, I like Hoyt [Overbagh] and Dean [Johnson], Dwayne [Doucette] and all of the guys that we have right here. When I come to the race track it’s kind of enjoyable to me. Now, when you look at Bristol, we qualified well, look at Martinsville, we had a decent day. We had some signs of being relatively competitive to a lot of different cars, now granted we are not a car that will win a race but, for us to be put in a place where we can keep making gains, that’s what we need to do and that’s what the team needs to do. That’s the thing that I look at, is to keep building and growing and keep that car out there.”

Elliott: I'm done with Cup series after 2008 (02/15/08) - Daytona Beach, Fla. - After 33 years on the NASCAR trail, Dawsonville's Bill Elliott is ready to head down another path. Elliott, who did not finish high enough in Thursday's 150-mile qualifier to start Sunday's Daytona 500, said 2008 will be his last year as a Sprint Cup driver. "I've thoroughly enjoyed it, but it's time to move on and let this other generation have it," Elliott said. "I just feel like it's good to let everyone know what my thinking is. I've kind of put it off and rolled with the flow these last few years, but it's time. It's time to go do something different." He said he'll continue to drive the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford on a part-time basis as he had planned, but if the Woods' other drivers, Marcos Ambrose and Jon Wood, seem ready to take on a larger role, he might cut short his planned 17-race schedule. "Ambrose might fall into place, or Jon might fall into place, and that would be what the Woods need to do to make the next step," he said. Another young racer is figuring into Elliott's decision, too —- his 12-year-old son Chase, who is rapidly developing into a formidable competitor in the Bandolero racing series. Traveling to Chase's races and also competing in Cup races has proved to be a logistical nightmare. "Last summer, I'd go race with Chase on Thursday night, then I'd pick up and go to wherever the Cup race was," Elliott said. "The earliest I got anywhere was 10 p.m., and it could be up to 4 in the morning to get where I was going, depending on when we raced. "That's crazy."

Daytona Duel: Wood brothers, Elliott out of the 2008 Daytona 500 (2008-02-14) - Bill Elliott, driver of the No. 21 Little Debbie Ford Fusion, finished 16th -- and fifth among teams that didn't finish last season in the top 35 in points -- in the Gatorade Duel #1 on Thursday, failing to qualify for Sunday's Daytona 500. The Wood Brothers had competed in 47 of the previous 49 Daytona 500s, including the very first one in 1959. The Woods won the The Great American Race in 1963, '68, '72 and '76. Elliott won the Daytona 500 in 1985 and '87.

BILL ELLIOTT -- No. 21 Little Debbie Ford Fusion (Finished 16th) - "I don't think there are words that can describe it, but that's life. There will be days like this."

DID THE LAST CAUTION, LATE IN THE RACE, HELP OR HURT? OR, DID IT NOT MATTER? "I don't know. I'm just bummed out."

***
EDDIE WOOD -- co-owner, No. 21 Little Debbie Ford Fusion

"Let's say there are 10 things you do that you shouldn't do, but you're going to do them because if you don't, you still get beat. Let's say nine out of 10 work and one didn't, that's what kind of started it. You know, it is what it is. Everybody talks about the top 35 and what they need to do, but if I was running this show, I don't know what I'd do about it. I'm not saying anything against it. I was always brought up to say, 'If you can't make it any better, don't say anything.' I wouldn't know what to say or how to change it or make it any different than what it is. So, that being said, it is what it is, and here we are. I'm really proud of my guys, the whole group. Our race team is better than it was last year, by far. We don't have the results. Our practice times and everything we did this week were better than what we've had in the past. It's hard being a single-car team like we are. We didn't make the Daytona 500, but we were here to attempt to make the Daytona 500, and there are a lot of people that can't say that. All the sponsors I have and all that, are very loyal to us, to continue to sponsor us this year -- knowing full well when they signed on that we were out of the top 35. And that makes you feel good that they've got confidence in you that you can turn your stuff around, and we're going to turn our stuff around. We've been doing this too long not to. Like I said, it is what it is. I don't know another word for it."

HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO KNOW THAT YOU'RE NOT GOING TO BE HERE ON SUNDAY? "I'm going to be here. The car won't be. I don't know what that'll feel like. I'm sure it's going to be bad."

DO YOU FEEL WORSE ABOUT MISSING THE DAYTONA 500 OR THAT THIS PUTS YOU BEHIND IN YOUR QUEST TO GET BACK IN THE TOP 35 IN POINTS? "Both. One's just as bad as the other. That top-35 thing is just a night-and-day fight, day-in and day-out. This starts it. But, we won't be alone. There's going to be company with us. You can't let it get the best of you because it will. It will eat you alive. You just have to stand up and continue to do what you're doing because the worst thing you can do is panic. If you panic, you're done. You've got to keep doing what you're doing, and we've come a long way with what we've got going. Like I said, we don't have any results to prove that; you'll just have to take my word for it. It is a lot better, and it's going to be better. So, we'll just continue on."

CAN YOU PUT MISSING THIS RACE IN PERSPECTIVE? "The Daytona 500 is just not another race. It is the Daytona 500. To me, it's bigger than the Indy 500 and all that. We're still a part of it. We're not going to be there Sunday. I'm going to tell you a story. The Tuesday that we had off, you know the lighthouse down at the other end? Where they used to turn left on the beach? I went down there. I walked up it, which I won't do again. As I was leaving, I went through the little gift shop and they had some DVDs of old '50s and '60s racing, and I had to buy it. I left there, and the lighthouse is kind of inland a little bit, a couple of blocks.

"So, I was sitting there in the street and I knew that they turned left there and went across and came back up the other side, and I didn't which street it was, so I called my dad [Glen Wood]. I said, 'Which street was it that was turn one?' And he said, 'It was Peach Street.' I looked up, and that's where I was. I left there, and I'm getting ready to pull out, and I look over, and there's Richard Petty. He was there, too. That's what the Daytona 500 is."

WHAT DID BILL ELLIOTT SAY AFTER THE RACE? "He's down. But, he's been through hard stuff in his career, too. Bill doesn't have to help us. He didn't have to come back and do what's he's doing, but I think he wants to help us rebuild. It's not about the money, or this or that. Bill wants to help. And he has. That, to me, is big."

***
LEN WOOD -- co-owner, No. 21 Little Debbie Ford Fusion

DID THE LATE CAUTION HELP OR HURT. OR DID IT NOT MATTER? "I think I would've liked to have it, but about five laps extra, not just a couple laps shootout. Enough to get a line straight going, a line to choose, but it didn't work out."

Daytona 500 - Bill Elliott Media Day Quotes - BILL ELLIOTT – No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion (2-7-2008)

ARE YOU STILL HAVING FUN DOING THIS? “I have a good time. To me, it’s a lot of fun just to come out and hang out. To do it full-time, I don’t think I could ever go back because I’ve had a taste of the other side of life. Now it’s just a pretty good balance. Last fall I ended up running a little bit more than I wanted to run, but I was trying to help Len and Eddie out and trying to get things sorted out from that standpoint, and now I’m just trying to help them out a little bit at the start of the season. They’ve got some plans as far as Jon (Wood) and Marcos (Ambrose) and trying to get all that done for the rest of the year, so, hopefully, we’ll transition them in and it all works out.”

HOW DO YOU BALANCE YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH THESE YOUNG GUYS WHO ARE COMING IN THESE DAYS? “Let me say this, the youth of today – the guys that will come in – they’ve been exposed to more racing than I ever thought about doing at their age. Take Jeff Gordon, he was racing at three or four years old, or whatever it was, racing go-karts. Those cats could run 160-170 sprint car races in a year. Granted, by the time I started running Cup, maybe I ran 30 races or 40 races, but they’d run 150-160 a year since the age of three. Do the math, as Michael (Waltrip) would say. You look at these kids today, they’ve been exposed to so much and now you look at the stuff that they’ve been able to come up in, they learn fast, they do what they need to do. Granted, I can’t tell them anything because I don’t know what to tell them. They know more than I ever thought about knowing at their age, so from the standpoint of looking at the youth and what they’ve done, my hat’s off to them. They’ve done a hell of a job.”

FELLOW GEORGIAN DAVID RAGAN WAS BORN IN 1985 WHEN YOU WON THE WINSTON MILLION. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT HIM AND RACING AGAINST GUYS HIS AGE? “I’m proud of him. He’s done a good job. A lot of these kids – win, lose or draw – they work hard. A lot of them have gotten opportunities that a lot of us never would have at that point in time, but I can’t say anything negative about that because they’ve been able to come in and either win races or run competitively and that’s the name of the game.”

YOU ARE THE LAST GUY TO WIN AN UNRESTRICTED RACE AT DAYTONA. YOU KNOW THE DIFFERENCE MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE ABOUT RESTRICTED AND UNRESTRICTED RACING HERE. WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE? “Back then you had to work so hard on the handling of the race car because that was the most important part. The motor was part of it, but the way the race track was and bias-ply tires and cars with no downforce, it didn’t take long to use it up. That’s the thing that I thought more than anything was trying to get my car to where I could run it as hard as I could as long as I could because that was the biggest key to winning this deal.”

SO THAT’S THE MAIN DIFFERENCE? “When restricted came, you could pretty much run it flat-out the whole deal. It eventually got slick enough that you had to give up some as the race went on, but, really, when these things were unrestricted it was like crazy-fast when you got to the corner at that point in time. I’ve said it several times and I’ll say it again today, if I looked at everything in my career that most impressed me – not of things that I’ve accomplished, but most impressed me as far as what we did as a race team – I think to come down here and run 210 around this race track and sit on the pole here in ’87 and win this race is the most impressive thing to myself that I’ve ever done.”

THIS IS YOUR KIND OF TRACK. “I enjoy running here. I enjoy the calculating side of how to race here, but sometimes that doesn’t play a part in what you can do at the end of the day. Today, with NASCAR not being afraid to throw the caution as frequently as they do, where in the past they never threw a caution, so you really had to be strategic in where you placed yourself as the race progressed. That’s what I keep coming back and saying is that in the eighties you could have a lot of problems and overcome it, whereas today if you have any problem, you’re probably not gonna overcome it. You’ve got to have the best stops on pit road. You’ve got to have the fastest times on pit road. You’ve got to have an awful good race car. You’ve got to have somebody that will help you get to the front. You’ve got to have somebody that will stick with you through some moves that you do on the race track, and if you don’t have that, you’re not gonna run.”

DieCast Checklist Updated - For those that collect Bill's Diecast, I have updated the Diecast Checklist Page. You can click on it on the left side nav bar link.

2008 - #21 Motorcraft Paint Scheme Preview - Click the Thumbnail preview for full sized image!

Awesome Bill returns for 23th Shootout start (Tues., Feb. 5, 2008) - How much is Bill Elliott a part of Budweiser Shootout history? It's simple. Out of 29 Shootouts, the tall, red-head driver from Dawsonville, Ga., has competed in all but seven of them, and he has missed only four since 1982 - the year mullets were cool, Pac Man was hot, and E.T. was becoming America's favorite alien.
In four days, the quiet man known as "Awesome Bill from Dawsonville" will be making his 23rd start in the Budweiser Shootout, the most of any driver. He holds the distinction of being one of only three drivers to win the Shootout from the pole (1987). Elliott also holds Budweiser Shootout records in the following categories: most miles completed (1,682.5), most laps completed (727) and fastest average speed (197.802 mph in 1987).
The Budweiser Shootout at Daytona will be the first race of a part-time schedule for Elliott in 2008. He announced in the off-season that he would return on a part-time basis, running a limited slate of races in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Ford. Elliott plans to compete in 20 events this year. This is the first year Elliott has been in a Ford since the 1998 Bud Shootout. The 30th running of the Budweiser Shootout is scheduled for Sat., Feb. 9. It can be seen live on FOX at 8 p.m. EST.

Elliott In the Budweiser Shootout: (Shootout finish in parenthesis)

1979 -- N/A
1980 -- N/A
1981 -- N/A
1982 -- #9 Ford (10)
1983 -- #9 Ford (3)
1984 -- N/A
1985 -- #9 Ford (3)
1986 -- #9 Ford (2)
1987 -- #9 Ford (1)
1988 -- #9 Ford (5)
1989 -- #9 Ford (12)
1990 -- #9 Ford (5)
1991 -- #9 Ford (4)
1992 -- #11 Ford (7)
1993 -- #11 Ford (9)
1994 -- #11 Ford (7)
1995 -- #94 Ford (3)
1996 -- #94 Ford (8)
1997 -- N/A
1998 -- #94 Ford (3)
1999 -- N/A
2000 -- N/A
2001 -- #9 Dodge (12)
2002 -- #9 Dodge (18)
2003 -- #9 Dodge (16)
2004 -- #91 Dodge(14)
2005 -- #39 Dodge(17)
2006 -- #36 Chevy(12)
2007 -- #37 Dodge(19)
2008 -- #21 Ford(??)

Ford NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona Testing With Bill Elliott - Bill Elliott is testing the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford Fusion this week in preparation for the Daytona 500, and will be running a limited schedule for the team in 2008. Elliott spoke about his schedule between testing sessions on Monday at Daytona International Speedway.

DO YOU HAVE THE PERFECT RACING LIFE RIGHT NOW AS FAR AS PICKING YOUR OWN SCHEDULE?
“When Len and Eddie asked me what I wanted to do I said that I really didn’t know. They came back to me with an opportunity to run some and I just as soon run a good bit at the start and then let (Marcos) Ambrose and Jon (Wood) run as time goes on here. I kind of like that plan – let’s get started and run a little bit. But, really, it is a perfect world for me and I can’t argue with it. I kind of want to get back to working with Chase. He’s been racing this winter in a Winter Flurry Series with the Bandoleros and the Legends. We’ve been trying to run all of those races and if he races some this summer, it makes it pretty hectic. I just want to try to devote as much time to him and doing that, especially when the summer gets here.”

YOU’VE WON THE DAYTONA 500 TWICE, SO WHAT DOES THIS PLACE MEAN TO YOU?
“It is exciting to be a part of the history of this race track. I didn’t run Talladega with the COT car, so I’ve got a good bit of a learning curve from that standpoint, but Daytona is Daytona. It’s so much different than Talladega. The race track has a lot of character and it’s such a unique place. I enjoy running here. I don’t mind this race track.”

ARE YOUR TWO WINS HERE THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS AND MEANINGFUL OF YOUR CAREER?
“If you add those two and probably Indy. Daytona is what stock car racing is and there are no ifs, ands or buts. But then I kind of look at Indy and even though it doesn’t mean as much from a stock car racing standpoint, in terms of racing history overall it means so much because it’s been around for over 100 years. So when you look at it from that standpoint, it’s two totally different worlds. But to me, for the stock car world, Daytona is where it is.”

Wood plans comeback for Ford, Elliott set to provide leadership for one of NASCAR's flagship operations (Jan. 25, 2008) - Team Ford was center stage at Roush Racing yesterday, and Edsel Ford took the lead role. “A lot has been written about us the past year, much of it negative,” Ford said. “People have written us off, saying we couldn’t compete. I’m here today to tell you, don’t underestimate our resolve.” Dan Davis, Ford’s racing boss, said that 2007 “didn’t go as well as we expected. We got caught a little off guard with the car of tomorrow.” But Davis then pointed to a host of new engineering initiatives that he said will help Ford teams, as well as to a new boss, Jim Farley, who just came over from Toyota’s TRD where he helped Toyota move into NASCAR. But success in stock-car racing comes down to a very personal level. Perhaps a better way to look at Ford is not to focus on Jack Roush, the biggest car owner in the sport, but on one of the smallest teams - the Wood brothers’. When it comes to Ford and NASCAR, the racing roots of Eddie and Len Wood and their family go very deep, to the sport’s earliest days. And Eddie Wood said he has completely revamped his team for 2008, after a rough couple of seasons. “I just want to get settled back in this year,” Wood said. “We’ve have a couple of bad years, and we’ve made some big changes in the offseason. We’ve been doing a lot of testing, a lot of work on the ‘shake’ rig over at Roush’s, and a lot of time in the wind tunnel. “I think we’ll be a lot better this year. In fact, I know we’ll be a lot better. We just need to get where we need to get. The Wood family, which revolutionized pit stops in the 1960s and had some awesome runs with legendary David Pearson, has struggled recently as a single-car team in this era of multi-car operations. So for the coming season the Woods, taking a cue from NASCAR CEO Brian France, are going back to basics, with Bill Elliott, “Awesome Bill from Dawsonville,” at the wheel for much of the season in their Fords. This will be the Woods’ third season running out of Charlotte, after moving down from Stuart, Va. “We’re a small team, and one advantage for a small team is it’s easier to turn this boat around,” Wood said. “It’s hard enough just to do one team, and I can’t imagine how hard it is for someone like Jack Roush and Rick Hendrick, who have so many teams.” So the Woods will be banking heavily on Elliott to make it all work: Adding Elliott, Wood said, is “big. And it’s just a handshake. It’s the way life used to be. I trust him, and he trusts me. You don’t have a lot of that now. “When I think about Bill driving my car, I really get choked up about it.” Elliott, now nearly 54 and semi-retired, maybe, joined the Woods late last season when Eddie Wood asked for some help. NASCAR’s top-35 rule - with the top 35 teams in owners standings guaranteed spots in the 43-car fields, and the other 15 to 18 teams scrambling for those few remaining spots - “is a hard deal to overcome, if you’re out of the top 35,” Wood said. “Bill just brings so much experience, and that will help Jon and everyone. Because he’s a guy who’s been there and done it. “And he knows how aggravating this business is. So he just looks at me sometimes and says ‘You’ve got to be nuts.’” The Woods have been working to bring Jon Wood, Eddie’s son, up to the Sprint Cup series, but it hasn’t been easy. This season, Elliott will handle the bulk of the tour, with Jon running eight or nine races, and newcomer Marcos Ambrose also doing eight or nine. “I can’t tell you how much it means to me for Bill to come on like this,” Eddie Wood says. “It’s like in that movie Tombstone, when Doc says to Wyatt ‘I just don’t have the words….’ That’s kind of like where I am. “Bill is an old friend, and we just sat down one day and I gave him a sheet of paper with all the races on it and asked him which ones he wanted to do. “It’s ironic, perhaps, because through the ‘80s Bill was one of our biggest competitors; he was the guy you had to beat.”

Motorcraft, Elliot and Wood Brothers Team Up in 2008 (1-24-2008) -Three longtime Ford Motor Company icons are teaming up again in 2008: The Motorcraft brand, Bill Elliott and the Wood Brothers. Motorcraft, a Ford Motor Company brand of automotive parts ranging from filters and spark plugs to engines and transmissions, will be the primary sponsor on the famed Wood Brothers No. 21 NASCAR Sprint Cup Ford Fusion for eight races (see schedule below), beginning in April at Texas and culminating with the season-ending Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The Motorcraft brand will also be an associate sponsor for all other 2008 NASCAR events. “We’re very pleased and proud to continue our long-standing relationship with Wood Brothers Racing. The Woods are synonymous with Ford, and we are delighted to be associated with such a tremendous group of people,” said Geoff Smith, Motorcraft Motorsports Manager. “And, we’re really excited that Bill Elliott is back with the Motorcraft team. He’s a legend. We see NASCAR as a perfect venue to serve as a reward and recognition opportunity for our customers."

Bill Elliott, the 1988 NASCAR champion driving a Coors/Motorcraft Thunderbird, is scheduled to be the driver for all of Motorcraft’s races. Elliott, Motorcraft and the Wood Brothers first joined forces last season. “Motorcraft has always been great to me,” said Elliott. “It’s a great brand, and they’re a great bunch of people, and I’m just excited to be back in the Motorcraft program. My association with them began in the middle-to-late ’80s and they were on my car when we won a championship, so the opportunity to represent them again near the end of my career means a lot.” Motorcraft first sponsored Wood Brothers Racing in 2001. “It’s great to have Motorcraft back with us again this year,” said Wood Brothers Racing co-owner Eddie Wood. “This will be the eighth consecutive year that Motorcraft has been involved with our program, and I’m really proud of that. They have been loyal to us, we have always been loyal to them and Ford Motor Company. It makes you feel good. It makes you feel like family. The Wood Brothers are acknowledged pioneers in the sport of stock-car racing, and have earned 96 wins in over 50 years of NASCAR competition – second most in Ford Racing history. Elliot's schedule begins on April 6th with NASCAR Racing from Texas at Texas Motor Speedway, along with the Subway Fresh Fit 500, Michigan 400, Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, Sharpie 500, Sylvania 300, UAW-Ford 500, and the season-ending Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.