Elliott

INDIANAPOLIS -- After winning Sunday's NASCAR Brickyard 400, Bill Elliott said it was like living two different lifetimes.

There was the Bill Elliott from the 1980s and early 1990s, the driver who was the king of speed at such tracks as Daytona and Talladega who used to dominate on the superspeedways of NASCAR. During that time, Elliott won the Daytona 500 in 1985 and 1987 and the Winston Cup title in 1988.

Then there was the Elliott who struggled after winning four races in a row in 1992 and losing the Winston Cup championship to the late Alan Kulwicki by 10 points in the closest title race in history.

After winning the Southern 500 in 1994, Elliott was winless from that point until the penultimate race of the 2001 season, when he put team owner Ray Evernham's Dodge into victory lane at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Elliott drove the Dodge to victory in last Sunday's race at Pocono International Raceway and liked the car so much, he wanted to bring it to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The crew took the car back to the team's race shop in Statesville, North Carolina and brought back a bullet for the Brickyard 400.

Elliott was on target all day and was able to score what he considers the biggest victory of his career.

"It feels like it took an eternity to get here," Elliott said. "As I was running along here the last several weeks, I've been reflecting on a lot of different things. My dad passed away back in 1998, my nephew passed away, what all that has meant to me throughout my lifetime. You know, just wishing they were here to celebrate this victory.

"There was a lady here, Darcy Ross, who became a special friend. She passed away of cancer not too long ago. You know, all I could think about was all those folks, you know. It's satisfying to come here and win. I feel like all those people were right in the car with me today ... from my dad, my nephew, to my grandmother, grandfathers ... just kind of holding their hands around me, making me make the right decisions."

Elliott has never been known as a driver who is able to reflect his emotions in public. But it was obvious by looking at the driver who turns 47 in October that this victory stood above almost any other accomplishment he has had in his career.

Elliott's victory is his seventh top-10 finish here. That's pretty impressive considering there have only been nine Brickyard 400s.

It was also team owner Ray Evernham's third Brickyard 400 win. His other two came as Jeff Gordon 's crew chief in 1994 and 1998.

	Bill Elliott has rejuvenated his career since joining Ray Evernham, left, at Dodge.

"It's a stunning day for me," Evernham said. "I really still can't believe this, what these guys have done for me. Dodge, of course, has given me the opportunity. But, you know, Bill and (crew chief) Mike Ford were two of the first people I hired.

"You dream about days like this. But, you know, I know how hard that these guys worked. Mike had a plan coming here. This is something that everybody knew was important to Bill. And they put it together. For the past two weeks, they have put a heck of a race car on the race track. It's just I would say a paternal type of happiness, emotion today."

Evernham was so emotional, he was choked up immediately after the race. For Elliott, however, he enjoyed the quiet sense of satisfaction that came with the win.

"There was a lot of emotion here today," Elliott said. "It seems like it's been a lifetime getting here, and I don't know how to describe it. You just look back, all the hard work, all the dedication. Even the years when I had my own deal, I came here and ran well, but never could make the right decisions to get in Victory Lane.

"It seemed like every time it was always a hard-luck story of why we didn't win at the end of the day. Over the last several weeks, it's been, you know, we kept thinking, 'Oh, my, now we can do it. We can do it each and every week.'"

Elliott believes his Brickyard 400 win provides a cornerstone that Evernham's team can build upon. With two wins in a row, there is no reason to believe that Elliott or the team will slow down.

"We've just got to keep that momentum rolling," Elliott said. "Now I feel like we're going into a stretch where it's wearing a lot of guys down. This race team is really a viable race team, as good as the morale is, as good as these guys are working together, as good as Mike Ford and myself's communications are together, certainly we're not going to get what we want every week, but I think this is a great start to a great future.

"It's a great building block for Ray Evernham and what he wants this race team to be for years down the road."

Elliott is enjoying a sort of rebirth to his racing career, which appeared all but over in the late 1990s when the driver was not longer considered a threat to win anywhere.

"It seems like that everybody's too easy to count you out and then you stop believing in yourself," Elliott said. "When Ray came to me I couldn't even think he was going to hire me, with my past record at that point in time, I hadn't done much of anything. I thought maybe he needed a psychologist -- first off, having a race team, and second off, for hiring me."

It has been Elliott's ability to pick himself up and rejuvenate his racing career that has made him the feel-good story of the summer in the Winston Cup garage area.

Even the driver who lost to Elliott by just 1.269 seconds admitted he was happy to see Elliott get back in Victory Lane.

	“	There was a lot of emotion here today. It seems like it's been a lifetime getting here, and I don't know how to describe it. You just look back, all the hard work, all the dedication. Even the years when I had my own deal, I came here and ran well, but never could make the right decisions to get in Victory Lane. ”
		— Elliott

"When he passed me, I got a grin on me because I remember so vivid when all the media was just blasting Dale Earnhardt and blasting Bill Elliott, time to retire, you guys are washed up," Rusty Wallace said. "They have one bad year, and he's gone. When Earnhardt came back and won the Daytona 500 and won Atlanta and was kicking everybody's butt, that was making me feel good, you know.

"Then Bill, Bill went from like, 'This is a struggle' to all of a sudden, great, he's the guy to beat right now. When he passed me, I was like that's okay. If I get passed by anybody, I would rather it be Ryan Newman or him. That was it."

So, in a year where youth was supposed to be served at the Brickyard 400, the race was decided by a driver who turns 47 in October and a driver who turns 46 in a few weeks.

Instead of drinking milk in victory lane, or in Elliott's case, guzzling a Coke, maybe they should have passed around the bottle of Geritol.

"Looking at the young guys, they're going to be a great part of this sport in the near future," Elliott said. "That's the things that we've got to look at. I still want to make my mark while I'm here. I'm on the shorter end of the stick than these younger guys. They've got a lot of future, a lot of years left to go. I mean, regardless of how long I drive, whether it's next week, next month, 10 years from now, the sport's eventually going to push you out. That's going to be a part of evolution.

"But I'm just proud of where I'm at today. I'm proud of the accomplishment. You know, everybody has been so good to me here of late. I feel it's a joy coming into the garage and driving the race car. I don't think anybody can put it into perspective. I look back on like Darrell Waltrip and several of them guys. I feel like I've had a second chance at life."

And with a victory in Sunday's Brickyard 400, Elliott is making the most out of his second chance.