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Elliott Set to Leave Ford BILL ELLIOTT --94-- McDonald's Taurus - CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH FORD? "I don't know that I've ever had any problems with Ford. I totally respect everybody there. They've been exceptionally good to me throughout the years and I've been proud to represent them the whole time… My dad (George) wouldn't have nothing but a Ford. He ran Fords and owned a lot of cars back when I was small and he raced on Saturday night, every night, whatever, and it was always a Ford. I mean, he was in the minority. Everybody else had Chevrolets and he'd be the only Ford there but that's what he raced. We had the Ford dealership. He acquired the Ford dealership in late '69 and prior to that we ran a building supply business. If you drove up driving a Chevrolet he'd insult you so bad that you must have really wanted to buy building material pretty bad to stay. It was embarrassing to me being a kid, but everybody knew where he stood. I mean, that's just kind of the way he was and when we got the Ford dealership he wouldn't even trade for a Chevrolet for a lot of years. He hated Chevrolet. I can remember this. There was a guy that came to the store in a Chevrolet truck. Well, daddy had a Ford truck out there that was loaded with materials and raced him down the road. I'm talking about a big six-wheeler truck and, I mean, it's like he was just so gung-ho and always Ford. He got a little more liberal as we got older, but he just loved Ford." HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE REGARDED AS ONE OF THE TOP ALL-TIME FORD DRIVERS? "I'm very proud of what I've done. In the era that we did it, we kind of did it our way and I think that's probably more satisfying than anything. We were the David and Goliath story of the whole bit. When I came here to race, I mean I didn't probably have a snowball's chance to make it in this sport. We fought some pretty hard odds to make it and to keep making it each and every week in order to make that next step. We worked hard enough that we opened a door and then shut it behind us, and then got to the next door." "We were able to keep making those steps and I think that's what's very important and very critical about this business because I'm gonna tell you what, I wasn't in this business for many years and I saw a lot of people come and go. And, throughout the time I've been here I've seen lots of people come and go in this sport." CAN YOU TALK ABOUT WINNING THE WINSTON MILLION AND YOUR CHAMPIONSHIP IN 1988? "Everything is very meaningful at its time. Everything was another step and another milestone in my career. From winning the first race at Riverside to coming back and winning the three races in '84, then sitting on the pole and winning the Daytona 500, then coming back and winning Talladega, then winning the Winston Million, then missing the championship and eventually coming back and not having a good year in '86 but coming back in '87 really strong and putting myself in a position to win the championship in '88. It was a lot of hard work. Ernie and I were the main backbone of what we did. He and I started racing together and as the sport grew and it got more out of your control, the harder it was to control everything around you. That's what's wrong, I think, with some of the aspects today. You need to have a key core of people who know how everything is gonna be and having the consistency week-in and week-out by having those people around you for a long period of time. To me, that chemistry is hard to gain. Like me, I've had a lot of instability within my team for the last number of years. I drove for Melling, drove for Junior, started my own deal and had a lot of people come and go. That's what really hurts because every time you get a little inconsistent, the guys that are stable and have good stability within their camp, they keep going up a notch. The broader you get that range, the harder it is to get back up and I think that's a lot of things that we deal with. We're a good race team. I still feel good and I still enjoy driving, but from what came in the eighties and the success we had there to where we're at today...when I look back, and that's the way my career started. It took me a long time to break into it and win and I just look back and say, 'Well, this is another trial. Just keep trying and trying and working and working.' It's just like when we went to Daytona this year, we worked really hard. I said the other day that we hadn't tested any downforce cars or short track cars. We did everything at Daytona and that's hurt us these last couple of races. I mean, it's nobody's fault, we just didn't have cars built, but that's because we went the extra mile on our superspeedway stuff." DAN DAVIS, director, Ford Racing Technology and head of Ford’s worldwide racing efforts – BASED ON EVERYONE’S ANTICIPATION OF FRIDAY’S ANNOUNCEMENT, IT LOOKS LIKE THIS SEASON MAY MARK THE END OF AN ERA FOR FORD. "At the end of the year, it may be. Bill and Ernie Elliott, their family, maybe more than anyone else in our program, put Ford Motor Company back on the NASCAR map as a winner. The Elliotts, the Woods, Bud Moore, and Junie (DONLAVEY) were our program. Their success, the Winston Million in 1985, the championship in 1988, was our springboard to credibility in this garage. We could never have grown our program without it. Think of all the teams and drivers that watched him win in that Coors Thunderbird and decided that Ford was the manufacturer to work with." DID THIS CATCH FORD BY SURPRISE? "We’ve known for quite some time that Bill was being pursued, and even before that we knew that Bill had some team issues that he needed to resolve for 2001. As a result, we were working hard to present options to Bill to keep him in a Taurus, and those efforts were on-going until as recently as the last few weeks. We just weren’t able to come up with something that made business-sense for him… and that’s disappointing to me. But we don’t blame Bill, and he certainly doesn’t blame us. Frankly, Bill doesn’t look at this as a manufacturer issue. He’s got a chance to work with one of the best crew chiefs in the business." HOW DOES FORD CONTINUE TO WORK WITH BILL ELLIOTT, KNOWING THAT NEXT YEAR HE’LL BE DRIVING SOMEONE ELSE’S CAR? "Let me be clear on this, Ford is committed to helping Bill Elliott win more races in the Taurus this year – that’s important to both of us. He has always been willing to go the extra-mile for Ford, for his fans, and for NASCAR. And just because he’s had to make, from our point of view, a difficult decision, doesn’t mean that he’s any less a part of Ford Motor Company’s efforts in NASCAR. So we’re going to keep working together to try to win races -- and we’ll see where the future leads from there. I think, if you ask Bill, he’d say that deep down, he’s a Ford man." MICHAEL KRANEFUSS, Owner --12-- Mobil 1 Taurus – (KRANEFUSS WAS THE DIRECTOR, FORD SPECIAL VEHICLE OPERATIONS, AND GLOBAL HEAD OF FORD’S RACING PROGRAM, 1981 – 1993.) HOW IMPORTANT WAS BILL ELLIOTT TO FORD WHEN YOU TOOK OVER FORD'S RACING PROGRAM IN THE EARLY EIGHTIES? "At the very beginning it was extremely important because he was a young driver. The Woods and Bud Moore, they worked with us, but they had established drivers. There was a certain amount of impatience because Ford had not been around and everybody was running out of hardware. We had no policy whatsoever. I tried to do something, but management at that point was not in support at all, so to find Bill Elliott, whom I thought…and turned out I was right at least that one time… was a huge talent and wanted to work with us. It meant a lot. Ernie was an excellent engine builder and that was one area where we needed a lot of help and he helped us a lot. That was at the beginning. And then in '85 when Bill had his runaway year, even though he didn't win the championship, he won every big race and those were the ones that were on television. Not every race was televised back then so the impression was that Ford was winning big-time in Winston Cup. It coincided with the company getting their stuff together and making a big turnaround with the new Thunderbird, which was based on the old platform but it was a very exciting looking car. I think he did more for the corporation and helping Ford Motor Company turn the corner and becoming a big player." WOULD FORD BE WHERE IT IS RIGHT NOW WITHOUT BILL ELLIOTT THOSE EARLY YEARS? "The biggest problem we had, but not just in Winston Cup racing, was that people just did not believe Ford was in it for the long run. I mean I knew that Ford did not have the best reputation here within NASCAR and the sanctioning body because of what they did in the sixties. You had to convince people, like Junior Johnson. He wanted to make a switch, but when he knew what was going on or he talked to people and saw no commitment, he could not afford (to switch). And if the hardware isn't there, you can't do anything." "Any reputable engine builder you were talking to they would all say, 'Well, let's wait and see.' So we couldn't get our foot into what then was Late Model or Sprint cars. It was all Chevy, Chevy, Chevy. They had a very good policy and that was our biggest problem. So, yes, to that extent, Bill started things and so did Junie Donlavey. The point was anybody who was interested or actually had a relationship with Ford, they wanted to see some form of commitment. If it wasn't for the commitment by Ernie and Bill and Dan and their dad to pull it all together, it wouldn't have happened. Then, later on in '88 we got Yates, who had a good engine and cylinder head so we did a deal there. Then we had Alan Kulwicki and Davey (Allison)." DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE BILL ELLIOTT STORY? "It took me about two years to figure out what the hell he was talking about. Sometimes I still have problems (laughing). Bill is a lot more shrewd than people think he is. Everybody thinks he's that wonderful, loving, southern shy person. He is a little shy but he knows what he wants. You can't be successful as a driver or anything anywhere in the world unless you sort of have this deadly determination and he has just been able to disguise it a little better. The first time I saw Bill Elliott I was between turns three and four at Daytona in '82. He drove that huge old Thunderbird and it was loose like hell, but the guy had such car control that I couldn't believe it. That was the very first time that I saw him. I had talked to him a couple of times, but I thought it was sensational what he could do with that huge piece of metal."
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