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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Bill Elliott is outside the Sprint Cup garage on Friday, waiting with crewmen for the gate to open at 9 a.m. A few other drivers are there, but none you probably recognize by name and none with close to the credentials of the 56-year-old Dawsonville, Ga., native.
"I'm old-school," Elliott says.
While many of his peers still are asleep in their opulent motorcoaches on the other side of the fence, the 1988 Sprint Cup champion is under the hood of the No. 97 Toyota he hopes to race in Sunday's Daytona 500.
Short of buying a car off the showroom floor and hauling it to the track with a pickup truck, this is as close to old-school NASCAR as you'll get these days. Elliott will get more grease on his hands prepping for Thursday's qualifying race than most drivers will all season.
The two-time 500 champion and 16-time most popular NASCAR driver award winner doesn't know the names of the makeshift crew around him. He's not even sure who his crew chief is.
"I think it's that guy on the left," Elliott says.
[+] EnlargeBill Elliott
Robert Alexander/Getty ImagesSeeing Bill Elliott take a hands-on approach to his car is nothing new.
It doesn't matter. Elliott treats them with the same respect he would if they were Chad Knaus and the No. 48 crew for five-time champion Jimmie Johnson.
"He's not a prima donna," says Scott Eggleston, the guy on the left who is indeed Elliott's crew chief for the team owned by Joe Nemechek. "He's just a regular guy."
Elliott always has been. He always will be.
He's doing many of the same things now he did at the beginning of his racing career, only most of his effort is focused on the career of 16-year-old son Chase, a promising developmental driver for Hendrick Motorsports.
When he's not off having fun for himself like he is here, Elliott is back at his Dawsonville shop tuning engines, balancing the books, sweeping floors, cleaning toilets … whatever it takes to give his son a chance to compete on the level at which he once excelled.
It's almost as though time has stood still from the early 1970s, when Elliott worked with brothers Ernie and Dan in the speed shop created by their father.
"Pretty much," says Elliott, who on Thursday will compete with six drivers for the four spots left in the 500 field. "The funny thing is, I do more now than I did then. Even when I was racing full time, it seemed like I had more time."
Elliott still has that working man's mentality that made drivers like himself and Dale Earnhardt such icons with fans. He still has that mentality of being able to go from baling hay on the tractor to the spotlight of the biggest race of the year, and that's an image many fans miss.
The sport misses it, too.
"He's just a normal guy and a helluva race car driver," driver Jeff Burton says. "We need people like Bill to be in the garage. He brings a tremendous amount of wisdom and insight into stuff that's happened in the past that will help shape the future."
Work ethic
Chase Elliott stares out the back of the hauler as his dad surveys seemingly every nut and bolt on the navy blue No. 97.
Jayski
Jeff Gordon talks about his wreck at this past weekend's Shootout. Plus, Danica Patrick talks about her 500 qualifying.
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"I'm old-school," Elliott says.
While many of his peers still are asleep in their opulent motorcoaches on the other side of the fence, the 1988 Sprint Cup champion is under the hood of the No. 97 Toyota he hopes to race in Sunday's Daytona 500.
Short of buying a car off the showroom floor and hauling it to the track with a pickup truck, this is as close to old-school NASCAR as you'll get these days. Elliott will get more grease on his hands prepping for Thursday's qualifying race than most drivers will all season.
The two-time 500 champion and 16-time most popular NASCAR driver award winner doesn't know the names of the makeshift crew around him. He's not even sure who his crew chief is.
"I think it's that guy on the left," Elliott says.
[+] EnlargeBill Elliott
Robert Alexander/Getty ImagesSeeing Bill Elliott take a hands-on approach to his car is nothing new.
It doesn't matter. Elliott treats them with the same respect he would if they were Chad Knaus and the No. 48 crew for five-time champion Jimmie Johnson.
"He's not a prima donna," says Scott Eggleston, the guy on the left who is indeed Elliott's crew chief for the team owned by Joe Nemechek. "He's just a regular guy."
Elliott always has been. He always will be.
He's doing many of the same things now he did at the beginning of his racing career, only most of his effort is focused on the career of 16-year-old son Chase, a promising developmental driver for Hendrick Motorsports.
When he's not off having fun for himself like he is here, Elliott is back at his Dawsonville shop tuning engines, balancing the books, sweeping floors, cleaning toilets … whatever it takes to give his son a chance to compete on the level at which he once excelled.
It's almost as though time has stood still from the early 1970s, when Elliott worked with brothers Ernie and Dan in the speed shop created by their father.
"Pretty much," says Elliott, who on Thursday will compete with six drivers for the four spots left in the 500 field. "The funny thing is, I do more now than I did then. Even when I was racing full time, it seemed like I had more time."
Elliott still has that working man's mentality that made drivers like himself and Dale Earnhardt such icons with fans. He still has that mentality of being able to go from baling hay on the tractor to the spotlight of the biggest race of the year, and that's an image many fans miss.
The sport misses it, too.
"He's just a normal guy and a helluva race car driver," driver Jeff Burton says. "We need people like Bill to be in the garage. He brings a tremendous amount of wisdom and insight into stuff that's happened in the past that will help shape the future."
Work ethic
Chase Elliott stares out the back of the hauler as his dad surveys seemingly every nut and bolt on the navy blue No. 97.
Jayski
Jeff Gordon talks about his wreck at this past weekend's Shootout. Plus, Danica Patrick talks about her 500 qualifying.
More Podcasts
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