Bill Elliot: #9, Ford Thunderbird

William Clyde “Bill” Elliot was born in October 8th, 1955 in Dawsonville, Georgia. He is a part-time driver in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup series who currently drives the # 00 Burger King Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS for Michael Waltrip Racing.

Bill made his first Winston Cup start at Rockingham in 1976. In 1983, Elliot gained financial support from Harry Melling of Melling racing and earned his first Winston Cup win at Riverside the same year. The following year his career was supported by the sponsorship from Coors.

During 1985 Elliot earned the nicknames “Wild Bill”, “Million Dollar Bill” and “Awesome Bill from Dawsonville” because of the 11 wins and 11 poles likewise the first Winston Million in the Southern 500 at Darlington. This also led to him becoming the first NASCAR driver to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Despite his success during that time, Elliot did not win the Winston Cup Championship until 1988. When he left the Melling Racing team, in 1991, he began driving the # 11 Budweiser Ford Thunderbird for the legendary Junior Johnson. For that season, Elliot finished second in the points standings and lost the Winston Cup Championship to Alan Kulwicki by only 10 points.

After a not very successful period during 1995 and 2000, Elliot began driving the # 9 Dodge Dealers / UAW Dodge Intrepid. In his first qualifying effort while driving the # 9 Dodge, Elliot won the pole for the 2001 Daytona 500. Later in the season, he won the Pennzoil Freedom 400 at Homestead from the pole, which was the first win since the 1994 Mountain Dew Southern 500.

Throughout his career, Elliott has garnered 44 wins in the Cup series, including 2 victories in the Daytona 500, as well as one Busch Series win at Watkins Glen. Elliott is the current holder of the track qualifying record at Texas. Elliott also holds the track record at both Talladega and Daytona, neither of which is likely to be broken due to the current use of restrictor plates at both tracks. Also, he has won NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver Award a record 16 times, which he last won in 2002. He withdrew his name from the ballot after that and the award will be renamed after Elliott when he officially retires from the sport.