Bill Elliott -- Bristol Preview
<<ole0.bmp>> Kristine Curley Golin/Harris 704.924.9404 BILL ELLIOTT NO. 9 DODGE DEALERS INTREPID R/T BRISTOL PREVIEW MIKE FORD - TESTING AT BRISTOL "We tested at Bristol the week before last. We wanted to get Bill comfortable in the car and that's a lot of what we focused on. It was pretty hot there those two days, but we ran quite a few laps with a lot of the focus on Bill. Bristol was just one of the tracks that we wanted to improve on and so we decided to test there. You always learn something when you test. We'll just have to wait and see how it all works out this weekend." BILL ELLIOTT ON BRISTOL "I can't say that Bristol is one of my better tracks. I haven't really found what I need to get comfortable in the race car there. That's part of the reason why we tested. I don't know how hot it will be in the car. It can't be any hotter than it was when we tested. It about wore me out. We ran a lot of laps, but you just never now. We'll focus on getting a good starting spot for Saturday night and try to stay out of trouble, which is half the battle at Bristol." BILL ELLIOTT ON RUNNING AT NIGHT "I don't think there's a huge difference in running at night. It might be a little cooler than if we were running it in the day. It took me awhile to get used to the concrete but I've gotten the hang of it. Bristol can be a fun place to race. I know the fans seem to enjoy the night race a lot. It's kind of a special one for them." RACE NOTES This weekend, Evernham Motorsports and the No. 9 Dodge Dealers team will bring the car that Elliott ran at Texas and Charlotte. STATS & FACTS **For a complete 2002 race-by-race statistical report on Bill Elliott, please see the attached document "BillElliott bio.doc"** <<BillElliott bio.doc>> * In his 38 appearances at Bristol, Elliott has one win, one pole, six top fives and 13 top-10 finishes. Elliott's sole victory at the track came in Bristol's 55th race, where he moved from 13th place to victory lane in the spring race of 1988. Elliott's pole position came in fall three years later, as he started from the front in the 1991 Bud 500. His most recent top 10 finish at Bristol came in the track's first race in 1997 when he finished seventh. * Last weekend at Michigan, Elliott continued his qualifying streak by notching his 11th top-10 run in 12 races. He jumped out to second place on lap one and by lap two was challenging for the lead. He would take that position on lap 7 and hold on to it for five laps, earning five bonus points. Elliott began to lose positions as his car slipped out of gear when he got off the throttle. Rather than lose valuable track position, he stayed out, being forced to shift manually every time he needed to decelerate. Elliott worked back through the field from last place to finish 22nd. * In his last visit to Bristol in March, Elliott spent the day making up track position after starting the day in the 30th spot. He managed to keep the No. 9 Dodge Intrepid R/T on the lead lap for the first part of the race while his patient driving kept him out of the trouble. Elliott finished just one lap down in 21st place. * In last summer's Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, Elliott started from the 35th spot. He battled his way around the half-mile track and had moved into the top 15 until an incident on lap 261 sent him in for repairs with damage to the left side of the car. Elliott was able to work his way back toward the front to finish 19th. * Elliott's No. 9 Dodge Dealers Intrepid R/T has led laps in seven of the past 11 races (17 at Dover, 26 in June at Pocono, 31 in June at Michigan, three at Sears Point, 35 in July at Pocono, 93 at Indianapolis and six in August at Michigan). He has led in ten races this year for a total of 228 laps. Elliott led nine races in 2001 for a total of 171 laps. * Elliott looks even better in his No. 9 Dodge Dealers Intrepid R/T than he did at this point last year. Elliott ranks eight spots higher, is finishing more than four spots better in each race, and has two more wins, three more poles, one more top-five and three more top-10s than he did after 23 races in 2001. Currently, Elliott sits in eighth place in the Winston Cup points race, 45 points out of seventh, 86 points out of fifth and 236 points out of first. * Elliott's win at Indianapolis was record-setting as no driver has won from the front row at the Brickyard 400. * When Bill Elliott won the Pennsylvania 500, he became the all-time winningest driver at Pocono Raceway. Driving the No. 9 Dodge Dealers Intrepid R/T, Elliott won his fifth race at the 2.5-mile track. It was also the first time this season that a driver has won from the pole. * Elliott's second-place finish at Dover was his 300th career top-10 finish in 26 years of Winston Cup racing. Elliott has ten top-10s through the first 23 races in 2002. In 2001 Elliott earned nine top-10s. He earned a career-high 24 top-10s in 30 races in 1984, finishing third in the points standings. * * Elliott's wins at Pocono and Indianapolis were his best finishes since his Nov. 11th victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2001. He has 43 victories in his 27 seasons racing in the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit. ###