It was announced during the weekend of the March edition of the Atlanta race - The Cracker Barrel 500, that Elliott would be back driving a red #9, except for the first time since about 1979, that it was in something other than a Ford. Upstart driver, Casey Atwood, would become Bill's teammate driving an identical #19. After Evernham's announcement of a new team emerged, many teams started switching over to Dodge for the 2001 season including Petty Enterprises and Chip Gannassi Racing, with more teams to come within the coming years. The first time out for Bill and his new car would be the Daytona 500 where he would earn the pole position, his first since 1997. For the season, he would earn 5 top 5's and 9 top 10's including two poles. With three races to go on the schedule, all 43 teams found their-selves at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. With just 4 laps to go, Elliott managed to pass his teammate for the lead and would hold him off to not only give Bill his first win since 94', but also gave Ray Evernham his first 1-2 finish.
Coming off a good 2001, he was sure that 2002 would be even better, and it was. For the first time in 10 years, he earned back to back wins. With 6 top 5 finishes and 13 top 10's, along with 4 pole awards, he earned himself a 13th place finish in the yearly points standings. His wins were the first Pocono race (from the pole) and the next week at the legendary Brickyard 400 at Indy. Late in the race, he passed Rusty Wallace and pulled away for the chance for his family and crew to help him "kiss the bricks". While Bill 46 years old, he showed race fans that he still had something left in him.
From 1984 until 2002, Elliott had won the sport's 'Most Popular Driver Award' a record 16 times. The only times he had been beaten was 1989, 90, and 2001. 89' and 90' went to Darrell Waltrip in a conspiracy with Tide (That's another story) and in 2001, Elliott took his name off the ballot in hopes of getting Dale Earnhardt, who in his 25+ year career in NASCAR had never won the MPD award. Sure enough, since Elliott took his name from the ballot for that year, Dale Earnhardt Sr. was given posthumously the award at that year's awards banquet. For the 2002 season, his name was back on the ballot and won it. After a long thought, Bill decided that 16 of the unique awards were enough and retired himself from the award. Since 2003, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has taken over the position of Most Popular Driver.
2003 brought 9 top 5 finishes and 12 top 10 finishes with one win. That win came with two races to go in the season at Rockingham (the last fall race there). It was fitting since Elliott made his first start in the Winston Cup series at Rockingham way back in 1976, driving a Ford Torino. During the 2003 race, Elliott led the most laps with 149. For Elliott, it would be the last win of his elusive Winston Cup Career.
The next week at the season finale at Homestead, it was also the last race for the Winston sponsorship, which brought NASCAR into the 'Modern Era' starting in mid 1971. It was also the first race of the new updated layout of the track. Before, it was sort of like smaller Indianapolis - flat. Now it resembled somewhat of the old Atlanta layout. Like the week before, Bill also led the most laps, even taking the white flag....but not the checker's. This was the first race that I'd ever watched, and I remember it well. My dad said that "The only way he can't win it, is if he blows a tire". Well, sure enough, coming off of turn two leading on the last lap, Bill cut a tire. Bobby Labonte drove by to win his last race and give Pontiac their last win. Bill nursed his car back to the line to finish 8th. Although he almost won the race, Bill confirmed in a post-race interview was that he was stepping down from full season in racing. He still wanted to be in it, but not every week. For 2004, things were changing, Winston was leaving....and so was the sport's Most Popular Driver
From 2004 to present, he never competed in more than 20 races on the schedule. During the 2004 and 05' seasons, Bill ran an additional car for Ray Evernham, numbered either 91 or 98. He had some cars sponsored by Stanley Tools, Coca-Cola, McDonalds and even a throwback Coors scheme for Gannassi Racing, in addition to some races unsponsored. His last top 10 finish was during the 2004 Brickyard 400 when he finished a solid 10th in the race he had been champion two years before. For the 2006 season, Bill drove for four different owners during the season - Nelson Bowers driving a #36 Chevy, the Burger King #00 Chevy for Michael Waltrip in his first year as an owner. He also drove the #37 Dodge owned by John Carter - these cars were also a throwback by being sponsored by Melling Auto Parts, Bill's main sponsor from 1981-1983. During the Watkins Glen race that year, Bill even drove a #19 Dodge for Evernham. At the time, Jeremy Mayfield had been driving the #19, but was released the week before. Bill drove the car for one race until a permanent replacement could be found.
For the 2007 season, Bill was back in a Ford, in a legendary team - the Wood Brothers. For the first two years of driving the #21, he shared the driving duties with Ken Schrader and occasionally, Jon Wood. The car was sponsored by Little Debbies, Motorcraft, the United States Air Force, and Oreida French Fries. He competed in 20 races with a best finish of 11th at Michigan.
The 2008 season was much the same - sponsor wise, number of races and a best finish of 12th at Homestead. 2009 had the car sponsored by Ford/Motorcraft parts in 12 races with a best finish of 15th during the Charlotte 600-miler race. The next season brought 13 races again with a best finish of 15th.
At the start of 2011, Bill FINALLY decided to slow down. During the Daytona Speedweeks, his son, Chase, had signed a contract to drive for Rick Hendrick in a developmental series. Chase had been racing since the age of 8, and driving late models since 2009. It took him only three starts in a late-model to win his first race. He had basically won everything there was to win in professional late-model racing. Races as far south as Florida, as far west as Mississippi and as far north as Michigan. Rick was going to put Chase in the K&N Pro Series where he raced for two years and earned one victory. This year, he's driving in the ARCA series and the Camping World Truck Series.
Because of this, Bill stepped down his driving to focus more on his rising star son. For 2011, he competed in just 5 races for both James Finch and small-time owner, Dustin Whitney with a best finish of 12th at the Daytona 500.
In 2012, he competed in just two races, one for Joe Nemechek at Talladega in an underfunded team, finishing 37th. 2012 was also the year that Walmart was celebrating its 50th anniversary. They had a custom painted #50 Walmart sponsored car. The company also wanted a legendary driver paired with a legendary company....so they chose NASCAR's 'Most Popular Driver'. He was to run just one race - the July Daytona race. He qualified 3rd and 3/4 of the race, ran in the top 10. Very impressive for a 56 year old driver! The only problem was that his pit crew was inexperience to Sprint Cup pit stops. So if he came in 3rd into the pits, he might go out of the pits 15th. After several pit stops late in the race while running in the 12th position, a crash occurred and while Elliott was avoiding it, a spinning Jeff Gordon clipped Elliott and destroyed the Walmart car. Bill told me personally that it was the best car he'd driven at Daytona since the Coors days. I always wonder what would've happened if he had not been wrecked? Would he have beaten somebody for the win by a fender? Would somebody push him to the win to see the old-school driver earn one more win? I can only wonder.
Bill has told me was that he's done for right now, but he still wants to run a couple of races in the distant future. Right now, he's done with racing for himself at least. Overall, Bill Elliott is just a regular guy - a resident of Dawson County, he's businessman, father, husband, brother, racing legend. If you ever happen to find yourself in Dawsonville, tour the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame and see his trophies cars and life achievements. Go and eat at the legendary Dawsonville Pool Room where the walls are adorned with everything Elliott - you might even be lucky enough to see him enjoying a hamburger. You might see him filling up his Ford truck at the gas station in town. At any local events, you might see him participating or just walking around. Like I said, he's just a regular guy with a good perspective of speed.
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