By Richard Tix
NASCAR Behind the Wall will take a short look at each 2015 NASCAR Hall of Fame Inductee. These articles will be spread out in time until the 2015 Hall of Fame induction (mostly depending on how much free time I find).
Previous Wendell Scott, Fred Lorenzen,
Joe Weatherly, and
Rex White
Last up on NASCAR Behind the Wall's look at the 2015 Hall of Fame Inductee's is Bill Elliott. I decided to leave Bill for last not because his accomplishments where any greater then the rest of these men, but because I actually got to enjoy some of his greatness myself.
I never saw Bill Elliott race in his prime in person, but he was part of a cast of drivers that were flying around the oval on TV when I first started to love NASCAR growing up. His career spanned from 1976 until 2012 but most of his full time work in Cup came from 1983-2003.
In Bill's first full season (raced 30 of 30 races) he didn't win until the final race of the season at Riverside (his first ever career win). However, he has 22 top 10's and 12 top 5's during those 30 races which launched him into a career of winning.
Just two years later (1985) Awesome Bill won a total of 11 races, 16 top 5's, 18, top 10's, an amazing 11 poles, all in 28 starts. He won and had the pole in just under 40% of the races that season. 7 different times in 1985 he won the pole and the race including the Daytona 500, Talladega, Darlington twice, and Michigan twice (Pocono was the other). Yet, in the end he finished the season 2nd in points to Darrell Waltrip but 101 points. DW had only 2 more top 5's and 3 more top 10's on the season (So when fans yell for the old days where the best driver always won, well look no further than 1985). To add to it, Bill had 8 more wins (11 to 3), 6 more poles (10 to 4), and lead almost 1000 more last (1920 to DW's 969).
But, Bill just went on doing his work year in and year out. That's how he was, he had a great demeanor about him and was always a cool behind the wheel and off the track. Which, is probably why he won a record 16 most popular driver awards during his career.
In 1988 "Awesome Bill from Dawsonville" finally got his break after his let down in 1985. Bill won 6 races, 15 top 5's, 22 top 10's, and 6 poles on his way to his first -and what would be his only- NASCAR Cup Championship. Only 24 points separated he and Rusty Wallace at the end of the season where Elliott led 1,598 laps during 29 races.
1988 was Bill's only Championship but he finished in the top 3 of the standings 5 times in his career. He ended his career running 828 races and winning 44 (sixteenth all time) races. He also ended with 175 top 5's, 320 top 10's, and 55 poles (eighth all time).
Million Dollar Bill seemed to either have a tast for the big race or get lucky. He was a skilled driver, so it definitely was not all lucky, but in his career he won two Daytona 500's (1985 and 87), the Brickyard (2002), three Southern 500's (1985, 1988, and 1994) and the Winston 500 twice (1985 and 1986). In 1985 he became "Million Dollar Bill" after winning the Daytona 500, the Southern 500, and the Winston 500 at Talledaga giving him the Winston Million.
What always strikes me when I think of Bill Elliott is that his career intersected with part of the major rise in NASCAR as a sport. He couldn't have become a star at a better time and he was the perfect star for NASCAR. He was humble and brought many novice fans into the sport that are still around today. If it were possible for fans to still vote for him in the Most Popular Driver Award, he might just still win, that's the kind of impact he had. ""You sit back and think, that's just crazy that people still support him even today," Chase Elliott (his son and NASCAR Nationwide rookie driver) said. "Even with how much things change, they're still rolling around with a No. 9 license plate on their cars. That's really cool. That makes you realize how many people supported him."
The impact the 2015 Hall of Fame Inductee's have made can still be seen in NASCAR today and for Bill it's two fold, his son Chase is a rising star himself. It's great for myself as a fan, because I started watching Bill and now get to see a humbled young kid (Chase) grow in the sport as well. Bill is such a humbled man that you might ask him what his greatest accomplishment was, and he would probably mention something about his family. That's just how awesome, Awesome Bill was and still is to this day.
Need more? Check out
Elliott's Path from Runny-Noised Kid to Hall of Famer on
NASCAR.com
Some Extra Bill Elliott Photos:
Congratulations Bill Elliott on your 2015 Hall of Fame Induction
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