Daytona 500
Daytona International Speedway

Daytona 500 Bill Elliott Press Conference
Elliott Post-Race Press Conference

Elliott Finishes Third at Daytona
February 20, 2000 - All in all, Bill Elliott had a great Speedweeks! First a solid third place effort in qualifying, then a huge win in the Gatorade 125, and finally, a nice third place finish in the Great American Race!

Elliott started the event third and on lap four, teamed with Dale Jarrett to move to second. Elliott ran second for much of the early part of the race. Jeff Gordon would bring out the day's first caution when he dropped oil on the track and Elliott would dive into the pits.

A less-than-perfect pit stop would regulate Elliott to the 13th position on the restart. Elliott's Ford would then start to overheat. Elliott would have to drop out of the draft and find some clean air to help cool down the high temperatures. This helped until Elliott could make a pit stop to remove some of the tape on the grill.

"I got a little bit tight and I was running a little bit of temperature and I could never catch back up," said Elliott. "We just worked on it as time went on and finally we got some cautions and were able to pull back up through the pack a little bit."

Once the overheating problem was corrected, Elliott was running mid-pack and was having to battle a somewhat tight race car. Once the crew fixed the handling on the car, they only had one problem - track position.

That problem was fixed on the final pit stop of the day for the Drive Thru Crew, as Elliott only changed right side tires and emerged third out of the pits.

"I finally got my car handling halfway decent and I felt really good about what I had," said Elliott of the two-tire stop. "I said, 'Guys, we can't take four tires, we've gotta do it with two.' Man, that thing could still run on the bottom, so that's what we needed to do. We were pretty short on time, so it worked out well."

Once the race returned to green-flag racing, Elliott passed Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the outside, going three-wide to make the pass, to take the second spot. Elliott would later get hung out to dry as all leaders ducked underneath him and left him all alone on the high side. He found his way back in line in the fifth position.

The front six cars were in a draft by themselves, lead by surprising Johnny Benson. The lead draft would then hang Mark Matin out and regulate him to the end of the line. Later the same would happen for Benson, this placed Elliott where he started the race, in third.

Elliott's car looked good at the end and appeared to have a shot at victory, until the caution flag flew when Jimmy Spencer hit the wall and the race ended under caution. Elliott would have to settle for a third place finish.

"I'm tickled to death. It was one of them days," said Elliott.

Elliott is now tied for second place in the Winston Cup point standings with Jeff Burton, 15 points behind the leader Dale Jarrett.

"I don't know," said Elliott when asked if he had anything for Jarrett and Burton if it stayed green. "It depended on who helped you. It was one of those situations that whoever went if they'd go with you you'd be OK, but if they didn't go with you you were dead. That's just like what we did to the 10 car. I was hoping to (move on Jeff Burton.) I was either gonna try to move on Jeff or help Jeff move on Dale, but it was one of them deals if somebody didn't go with you and help you, you couldn't do it by yourself. You just help the car in front of you just enough that you couldn't get by them, but I'm just tickled to death for where we ended up. This McDonald's crew worked late last night and re-did this car after getting into Dale in one and two and I'm just tickled to death to come home third today."

"It turned out great for us. I was tickled to death to come home third after about halfway in the race. I got behind. My car got pretty tight and I couldn't do anything and I got to running a good bit of temperature. I said, 'Man, I've gotta get out of this.' So, we made a stop and gained some spots. Then we came back in and changed two tires there at the end and that's what put me in position to run third."

Elliott Involved in Jarrett's Happy Hour Accident
Dale Jarrett and Jeff Gordon got together during Happy Hour on Saturday afternoon. Jarrett spun and caught the right rear of Bill Elliott's 94 Ford.

"I guess Gordon had a run and he tried to avoid me, but he caught me in the right rear and spun me down off the track and then I went back up the track," said Jarrett. "The worst damage was done when I came back off the track the last time. I was trying to keep it off the wall and when I let off the brake finally it shot down the track and (Bill) Elliott clipped the left-front of it. Then I came off the track and bent it up."

"The only time I hit anything was coming down off of the banking right at the end. As Bill Elliott came by on the inside I just clipped the right rear of his car and it caught the left front of my car."

The damage was minimal and the team should have the car back in race shape by the Daytona 500.

Elliott Returns to Victory Lane
Awesome Bill Elliott is awesome once again! Elliott returned Victory Lane on Thursday afternoon in race number one of the Gatorade Twin 125s. The win was Elliott's best showing since a fifth place finish at Louden last season.
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Elliott Wins 125!!
Bill Elliott led from wire-to-wire to win the first Gatorade 125. Elliott passed Dale Jarrett on lap one to take the lead that he would not relinquish. Elliott will start 3rd in the Daytona 500.

Gatorade 125 Bill Elliott Press Conference
Elliott Press Conference

Daytona 500 Wednesday Quotes
THERE ARE A LOT OF FORMER CHAMPIONS IN YOUR TWIN TOMORROW. WHAT'S YOUR TAKE ON THE FIELD? "You've gotta race against all of them on Sunday, so what does it matter? It's gonna be a good test." ARE YOU HAPPY WITH WHERE YOUR CAR IS AT RIGHT NOW? "I could be handling a little bit better, but we're gonna work on that more today. If we don't get it right for the 125, then we'll try to get it right for the 500."

Bill Elliott Daytona 500 Post-Qualifying Press Conference
Elliott Press Conference

Daytona 500 Qualifying Quotes
"I tell you what, it wasn't me, it was the guys on the team. They've worked all winter long and worked really hard. Here, you just sit there and hold it wide open and that's all you can do, but I'll tell you what, those guys put together a heck of an effort and I'm proud of every one of them. We went to Talladega and we were the worst car there the first part of January and they built this car over the month of January and came back down here at the end of that month for the second Ford test and we were among the best cars here. I tell you, they've worked even that much harder on the car." ARE YOU SURPRISED? "I am shocked. Tony (Santanacola, engine) has come aboard with Ernie to do the motors and with them together and the combination I believe we can put together, I think we'll be in pretty good shape. We've got some real good aerodynamic guys on the team and they've really worked hard on what they've put together."

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