Right out of the box, Elliott was fast. He won a Gatorade Duel at Daytona and was in contention to win that year's 500, but a late race crash took out several cars. Elliott was leading at that time. However, the new team rebounded back and won the next 4 races on the schedule - Rockingham, Richmond (by a fender over Kulwicki), Atlanta, and Darlington. And after taking the points lead in the early summer portion of the season, it appeared that Elliott was well on his way to a second championship. Bill kept the lead too until the Fall. Like many of his successful seasons in the past, the Fall stretch of short track races always hurt Elliott. He was a speedway racer, not a "short-tracker".
Although he kept his points lead until late September or early October, he had a consistent string of DNF's and top 20/top30 finishes. He lost the points lead in late October, and would have to work over the next couple of weeks to earn it back. It came down to the season finale at Atlanta. It was the biggest crowd, the Hampton, Georgia facility had ever seen in fact. Going into the race, Davey Allison was the points leader with 5 other drivers that had a mathematical shot at winning that year's Winston Cup - Alan Kulwicki in 2nd, Bill Elliott, Mark Martin, Kyle Petty and Harry Gant. An early accident put Allison off the top, and after a little while, Kyle Petty, Martin and Gant were out of contention. It was down to Kulwicki and Elliott, who for most of the day ran 1-2. What earned Alan his championship was when he beat Bill to the line by a fender to lead one more lap than Bill did. 103 compared to Bill's 102. By leading one more lap, Alan Kulwicki led the most laps, earning him 10 bonus points, making him the 1992 Winston Cup Champion. Even though Elliott won the race, I'm sure it was hard to swallow. However, being the good sport he is, Bill went over to the other victory lane and congratulated Kulwicki, for less than 6 months later, he would perish in a Hooter's airplane crash near Bristol Tennessee.
Coming back in 1993, Bill sort of lost his touch. He only received one victory, and that wasn't even in the Winston Cup. Bill did win the Busch race at Watkins Glen that year, but that was it. Again in 94', he would only earn one victory - the Mountain Dew Southern 500 at Darlington. Some say it was because of the super-star rookie, Jeff Gordon taking the spot-light and the wins. Others say it was because of Junior Johnson's personal life. In 1992, his two cars was some of the best in the sport. But just two years later, after battling a divorce, Johnson put more money into saving his farm than into his race team. Elliott's contract was up, and he had to do something. Johnson was closing his doors and an opportunity came to Elliott that he couldn't refuse. He took the sponsor of his Junior Johnson team car, McDonalds and joined with North Georgia car dealer, Charles Hardy, to form Elliott-Hardy Racing. He chose #94 since his nephew, Ernie Elliott's son, Casey drove that number on his late model. Mike Beam was brought back as crew chief. And best of all, the operation was back where it all started, in Dawsonville of course. In fact, a brand new building was built behind the older Coors buildings from the previous decade. It looked like a match made in Heaven. Bill finished 8th in the overall standings with 4 top 5's and 11 top 10 finishes, not bad, but the team was building. Also at the end of the season, Bill had a child, his first son Chase, who in the coming years would be a racing star of his own.
At the start of 1996, again Elliott looked strong. He had some decent finishes up until Talladega. During the 77th lap of the 188 scheduled, Elliott's number #94 Ford spun on the back stretch and got airborne. Upon impact, Elliott broke his hip and had to be extricated out of the car. He would miss many races during the summer months because of this. He first race back in his car was the July Daytona race, however, he finished 37th. 1996 wasn't good to Bill - he only earned 6 top 10 finishes during the entire season. Owning his own team might have been harder than he thought.
1997 looked to be promising; even coming close to winning the Daytona 500. With a handful of laps to go, he was leading, but with several laps to go, the Hendrick Trio of Jeff Gordon, Terry Labonte, and Ricky Craven drafted together to freight train the lone McDonalds Ford. A late race caution occurred and the race ended under caution. For the season, he earned 5 top 5 finishes along with 14 top ten finishes, certainly better than the year before. And although Elliott ended the season finale at Atlanta early with a bad clutch, Bill was the last driver to drive on the old Atlanta configuration and the first to hop on a Bulldozer and tear up the old surface. For the 1998 season, Atlanta Motor Speedway had a new look. Instead of the oval shape it'd been since construction was finished in late 1959, AMS was now a 1.5 mile D-shaped oval. Almost an identical copy of tracks like Charlotte and Texas Motor Speedway. The front stretch was also flipped to the back along with the back stretch now becoming the front portion of the track. After the revision was made to the track, AMS officials dedicated the 3rd turn grandstands to Bill by naming it the 'Elliott Grandstands'.
When 1998, came along, new changes came to Elliott Racing, now the sole owner as he bought out Charles Hardy's share in 1996. 1997 was the last year that Ford produced it's legendary Thunderbird. In NASCAR, Ford was now going to run the new Taurus, based on a four-door sedan. Bill was also going to run a new paint scheme. With a much anticipated season for NASCAR's Most Popular Driver, came much disappointing finishes. For both the 98' and 99' seasons, Bill led a combined 54 laps during two seasons. In 98', he earned 5 top 10 finishes and 99' earned Elliott just 1 top 5 and two top 10's. Some fans wondered why he was even still on track. The next season, NASCAR entered the new millennium with Bill winning his Gatorade Duel at Daytona. This season fared a bit better than in the past - 3 top 5's and 7 top 10 finishes. At the March Cracker Barrel 500 at Atlanta, it was announced that Bill was forming with Jeff Gordon's championship crew chief, Ray Evernham with Dodge, who was coming back into NASCAR after a couple of decades of being silent.
When we talk next week, I'll cover Bill's years driving for Ray Evernham to the present.
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