CarsDirect.com 400
Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Elliott Finishes Fourth in the Rain at Vegas
March 5, 2000 - Although Bill Elliott missed out on the million dollar bonus and Ford's 500th win, the rain-shortened CarsDirect.com 400 was a success. Elliott finished a mere 35 spots higher than where he started.

After qualifying and early practices had Elliott near the bottom of the charts, Elliott started to make future testing plans. Sunday morning, the Drive Thru Crew made a few changes on the car that worked like a charm with the cool, damp weather.

Elliott started 39th and had worked up to the 25th position by the day's first caution. Elliott needed track position and gambled on a two-tire stop. Elliott would restart the race in the sixth position.

Before the race would return to green, the red flag would halt the race for rain. Once the green flag flew, Elliott's Ford Taurus would be the best car on the track. Elliott passed three cars to work his way into third, all the while, posting the fastest speeds on the track.

Tony Stewart would later pass Elliott on his way to second place and regulate Elliott to fourth.

The rain would come once again, this time for good. The race would be called with a solid fourth place finish for Elliott.

With the top-five effort, Elliott's McDonald's Ford will, once again, be painted with the day-glow orange numbers and spoiler at Charlotte. Elliott is elligible for the Winston No Bull Five million dollar bonus at Lowe's Motor Speedway.

From the 39th starting position, Elliott had a pretty good day. "That's an understatement I think," said Elliott. "I think it's excellent. We worked hard. The guys put a lot of effort in this car. We made some changes this morning and talked about it and I knew we would either be really good or really bad, so I was pleased. I couldn't believe the car was as good as what it was. The race started and I kind of just waited for things to get sorted out and then, all of a sudden, my car just never gave up while everybody else's seemed to a little bit. We've just gotta keep working."

"To have not tested any of our downforce or short track stuff... to come here and run with Mark and Jeff and some of those guys that have been so dominant at these places. I mean, I could get there but I just couldn't do anything with them but, still, just to be able to be right there with them, I think that's an accomplishment we need to savor. We need to keep working at it."

Elliott, now finds himself in sixth position in the Winston Cup point standings. Elliott's 418 points places him 72 points behind Bobby Labonte.

Next week, Bill heads home to Atlanta, where it is expected that Elliott will be named driver of Ray Evernham's Dodge effort in 2001. As Ray kept saying, it should be an 'Awesome' announcement!