Dodge This Teleconference: Bill Elliott

Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2003 - Bill Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Intrepid, scored career victory number 44 this past weekend at Rockingham. Elliott, along with crew chief Mike Ford and team owner Ray Evernham, were this week's guests on the weekly Dodge This! Media Teleconference.

Bill Elliott

Bill Elliott (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Intrepid) -

"It was a great weekend for the whole crowd. I'm very proud of them. They did an excellent job on both Saturday and Sunday. Hopefully, we can go to Homestead and do just as well."

On meaning of victory... "I think they get better each and every year. You learn more to appreciate them better because they come less often. Sometimes back when you're going through it you don't realize how hard it is to win these things anymore. I'm just so proud of the team and the efforts that they've given, and how well we've come together in the last few races. Hopefully we can notch out what we need to do at Homestead."

On making a pass on the racetrack... "That just comes from experience. Right now you've just got to trust, hopefully, that you make the right decision. But you don't always do that. That's just the trust in the ability that you've got and the ability of the guy you're racing against, plus how well your car's handling."

"Tim Fedewa is my spotter, and he does an excellent job. He's been very good at what he does. I'm very proud of working with him. We kind of struggled a little bit in the Busch deal towards the latter part of the season, but he's a really good guy and a really good driver. It helps. To me it helps. He can kind of see things going on that everyone else might not can see and make suggestions or whatever."

"The main thing is just deciding what line he's using and figuring out what line you're going to use and be able make the pass. Sometimes if it takes you too long to make the pass it's hard to make a pass."

"I think it's great. The standpoint of what this team has grown to, it's pretty remarkable - not only myself, but how well Jeremy has been running here lately. They unloaded a Busch car for the first time over there this past weekend and ran real well with it. So, there's a lot of potential in this race team. Ray's dedicated to it. Mike Ford is dedicated to it, and those are the things that you've got to have to make a winning race team."

On announcing plans for 2004 "Yes, I've got a timetable, but I'm not saying what it is."

"No, I don't think I'd change a thing. Yeah, you look back and hindsight is 20/20, but you can't change things that you didn't know any differently at that point in time. But, looking back on my whole career I've been a very fortunate person. I've been in the right places at the right time, and not only myself but everybody I was involved with worked hard to get to the next level."

"Well, you don't know what Nextel is going to bring to the table, but you know what Winston has done for the sport. Looking back over the last, almost, 30 years that I've been racing I can say pretty safely that I've been around the sport just about ever since Winston became involved. The first race that I went to was at Atlanta in 1973. I was just a spectator in the infield at that time. My dad had a car that ran down there, but I never was around it that much because I was kind of doing my own racing on the shorter tracks. But, looking back on the years that they've built and grown the sport, and how involved they were, they had the foresight to go between Bill France Sr., and Bill France Jr., and bring it to the next level. It took a lot of work and a lot of sacrifice, but I've basically seen it every step of the way."

"You've got to look at the whole perspective. If you look at where we were at six months ago it's been a fantastic second-half of the season. That's what we've got to build and expand on. This sport is so apt to change, and so many things can happen. Like I said over there in the press box, it's hard to get everything aligned in the right direction. That's the key thing about this sport. If you can ever get it aligned and going in the right direction, you've done a good job. I feel like, from the standpoint of Ray, Mike Ford, the guys at the shop in Statesville, and the engine guys in Concord, they've been able to bring it all together. Ray is dedicated to the deal, and I think that's what makes it all work."

Does the demand all during the week get to be a grind at the end of the season? "Well, it does to some extent. This is about the time of the year that it all happens anyway. Everybody is on a pretty short stick. It's just to the point where we're all ready for a break. Regardless of how well or how bad you're running, it's about the time of the season where we all need a break."

On Homestead... "Well, we really don't know anything about Homestead. Once we get down there tonight and check it out we'll know more kind of what's going on. We're looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to the new change. Hopefully we put a good run together this weekend, and go from there."

Ford

MIKE FORD (Crew Chief, No. 9 Dodge Dealers Dodge Intrepid) -

"We've been close to winning some races lately. Our team has really come together strong, between our road crew and pit crew. Everything has really come together well here at about the > mark of the season. We've been knocking on the door to some victories. We've been doing a lot of testing. We actually spent some time at Rockingham testing a couple weeks ago, and we felt good about it going back. We were able to put the period at the end of the sentence, if you will."

"Those guys have really matured the last several weeks. We've had incredible pit stops. Those guys have done an excellent job on pit road, making sure that we either maintain or gain positions during each race. They've been excited, waiting for this competition because they feel like they've had a shot at it all year. They've been really anxious to get the opportunity to lay one down in front of the world. That time came and all of them rose to the occasion. They set a new world record. That momentum carried over on Sunday. Those guys were flawless on pit road. They gained spots there when we needed them. We had to start in the back of the field and work our way forward. They gained spots early in the race, and when we were leading they were able to maintain it and not give that up. They did play a huge roll in bringing home the victory."

Changes to 2005 Dodge model... "I know there are changes in the works. There's a lot of development stuff going on right now to figure out exactly what we would want to ask for. In the evolution of this, you have to continue to change, and there are works as far as new nosepieces and things of that nature. Nothing is completed yet. We're still in the development stages, but down the road there will be changes."

"Early in the year we had a lot of rules changes, and we pretty much had to build our cars from scratch again. Not only did we do that, but we had a lot of turnover on the team from last year to this year. To have to change the cars along with getting the people to work together, that was the largest burden of this year. Once the cars reached a certain point you'd go to work on the guys and opening the communication up amongst the guys and everyone getting an understanding of each other. It was a seesaw for a while. Up until about Charlotte, did we start to really click. We went through some things. Bill got hurt in The Winston. We had a few races there where we were searching a bit. We came to Sears Point and we felt like we could put all that behind and we could start showing the strength of our team. Instead of working on three to four things a week you could work on one or two things a week. Our performance started getting better when we were able to do that. We're able to work on speed rather than just systems, and that's been showing on the racetrack as of late."

"Obviously Bill is an extremely patient man. He does understand the things that we go through, not only on the team side but also on Ray's side, and he understands how difficult it is to get people to work together. He knows how difficult it is to be able to prepare baselining cars. He is extremely patient. I don't think there are many drivers that would work through it the way he has and be as patient as he has."

"I feel like I'm a young guy still coming in. I've been doing this for a long time, but as a crew chief my career is still young. I feel like I bring a little aggression to the table, being young. They've got patience and experience, and I've tried to learn from being around them. Bill is extremely easy to work with. He knows what he wants in the car. He explains things very well, and he can work through problems. On that end, for a young crew chief working with a veteran, I feel like that's helped my career a great deal. It's helped me become a little more patient being around him. Ray has undertaken the car owner role and he's faced with a whole different agenda than when he was a crew chief. When I get stuck I know that I've always got someone that I can bounce questions or ideas off of and get an educated answer in return. It's a comfortable position to be in when you have that kind of talent around you. I'm fortunate and grateful for that."

"It's been an issue for everyone, there's no doubt about that. Everyone is concerned with what's going on. What we've done is we've learned a lot this year. What we've tried to do is to preach continually, 'Let's race like there's no tomorrow.' That's what we've done. We'll take it one day at a time and make the most of that day. We're still competitors. We don't want to lay down. We can all wonder about the future and wonder what's going to happen, but the fact is that we've still got to race today. We have to set ourselves up for tomorrow. We've got a team full of competitors. They want to win and they want to win, now. I think that's the biggest reason we've been able to be successful as of late with all of the rumors flying."

"What do I like most about my job? I like the fact that we're doing things. We still work with the same equipment that we've worked with for awhile. We're venturing into areas that no one has ever gone before. We're on the forefront of technology. Every day that goes by we learn something. We've become a little smarter at what we do. We're doing things that no one has done before. The combinations that we use are different, and we're moving forward with technology. To me, that's the most fun and rewarding thing that we have in our sport. In my position I've got to make decisions. Sometimes you'll have three or four good things on the table, but you'll have to make a decision on one. The technology end is beginning to move forward. I feel like we, as racers, push that. That's probably the most rewarding thing of my job."

"We're behind Bill whatever he decides to do. There are a lot of competitive people here. No matter what happens we're going to fight for wins. Bill does bring a lot of experience to the table, and I feel like we've all learned from him. If he decides to move on, we'll miss him. But you do have to race each day and continue to move forward. If it is a younger driver, then we'll make the most of that situation. We do have a group together now that does have a lot of experience, and maybe that role can be reversed and they can learn from what we've got."

"Everyone's a little different. While adjusting our two race teams here in the shop with Bill and Jeremy, we have a lot similar racecars but we do tend to go down different paths and have good results from both at times. A lot of that depends on your driver. You have to be open-minded and create your own setups and create your own thought process as a group. Everyone has to be involved in that or it's not going to be successful. I think we are a strong enough race team where you could put a young driver in and be able to come together and be competitive."

"The F-1 guys are obviously very vested in the engineering side of things. We do have a lot of in-house engineers as well. We look at all divisions of racing to see where the sport is going. Ray has, on the engine side, looked into some technology there. I'm no engine guy by any means, but engineering is engineering and physics is physics. Those guys do have good equipment on the F-1 side. I know on the engine side where people are going, turning the RPM that they're turning, products do need to be of a higher quality that what they've been in the past. The F-1 guys are on the forefront of that. That area is more or less where the technology is, and that's where the focus has been in the past."

"Homestead's a new racetrack, so we're going in completely open-minded. All we have to go on are the rumors that have circulated about what the racetrack is, the surface texture and things of that nature. We'll take a baseline setup and figure the bank angles and corner radius. Then we'll go in and be open-minded. We have seven hours of track time on Wednesday, and I think that'll be enough time to get us in the ballpark. We have Thursday to review our data and come up with a starting point for Friday. I think it's plenty of time. NASCAR has done a good job of making sure everyone has the time to figure the racetrack out a little bit. I think it'll be a competitive race. I think the field will remain close. There will be guys that can figure it out faster than other, if you will. But I think we're going to see a good race down there. I hope it fits into our kind of racing. It seems like the racetrack will be faster and smoother, and that's generally when we're at our best."

Evernham

RAY EVERNHAM (Team Owner, Evernham Motorsports) -

"We're certainly proud of everybody. We don't look at it like (Bill's) in the twilight of his career. I think everybody on the team has had enough experience that we look at it that that's our job. Dodge has hired us to win races. I think for the first time in awhile things have aligned, where the cautions fell in our favor and the setups and things like that. I think it was just a good weekend to prove that Evernham Motorsports is a strong organization, and it's continuing to build. We brought in a Busch car and it ran well, along with both Cup cars and the pit crews. It was a good time to draw a line in the sand for us and say, 'Look, we really have built something good here, and we now have another stepping stone.' "

"We're looking at doing some Busch engine programs next year, because we've got to continue to grow our engine facility. So, we were testing to find out if we could build a good Busch engine. Plus, we felt like it would help our Winston Cup cars if we could be involved with Busch on Saturday, and it absolutely did at Rockingham. Hopefully we can do that some more next year."

"I feel happier for the guys, because I know that everybody works really hard and they all really want the same goal. It's like watching your kids now, as they grow up. Maybe they struggle in little leagues and things like that. But finally, they get to be starters and they get to be accomplished players. I feel really good about seeing some of the things that have happened in the engine shop and the car building shop and the way the teams are working together. It makes me really proud on a day like Sunday when you see the No. 19 guys celebrating as sincerely as the No. 9 guys did. We truly are one organization, one team that races two cars."

On Elliott's decision for 2004... "I try not to comment on any of those things. Bill and I have talked about a lot of things, and we've got a lot of options. We've both just agreed that for right now one of the things that was really important and was a major goal for this team was to put Bill Elliott up on the stage in New York once before he retired. That's all we're focusing on this week. I guess he and I are going to sit down after Homestead and talk about what our final plans are going to be."

"I think we've got to run either 28th or 29th with Bill at Homestead and he'll be in the top-10. I don't want to say that it's a turning point, but it'll be another rung on the ladder of somewhere that we were sure that we could get to. Certain things give teams confidence to be ahead. The No. 19 team has struggled sometimes during the race in pit stops. When they performed on Saturday and got fourth in the overall pit crew competition, for the first time in their history they took the lead on a pit stop. I think if we can complete the goal of getting a driver in the top-10, and now three straight years in the business we've got at least one win for a season, those things are the things that carry the momentum to get you to the next level."

"You try to be as honest with everybody as you can. Then you give them the information that you know. I like to keep the people up to date. I like to keep them informed. Sometimes, when you really don't know what's going on, all you've got to do is be honest with them. The rumors do hurt. They really do. A lot of the things that are written just aren't true. It's hard enough to hold a deal together. It's very, very hard to hold a good team together in a competitive environment like this. When people are worried about their jobs or worried about changes, all of a sudden they start looking or moving around. Sometimes some of those rumors and things can be very damaging. Especially when you don't have a set plan."

"I think I've learned the things that you always assume. Bill's kind of a private person. But, once you get to know him, you realize that he's just a good guy. He's a good guy to be friends with. He's a lot of fun. He's got really a good sense of humor, and he's very good to people behind the scenes. Bill Elliott does a lot of charity work, and he does a lot of things in his local town, and he helps a lot of friends of his that he never talks about. You'd never know those things unless you were close to him. I knew Bill Elliott was a great driver - that's why I hired him. But, honestly, I didn't understand how good he really was until I got to work closely with him. He's a very, very good racecar driver."

"If Bill does decide not to drive full-time next year, it's not like we're never going to speak again. Bill Elliott is going to remain a friend of mine no matter what he decides. When I hired Bill I knew he was on the later end of his career. We talked about that. We knew that some day he was going to have to make a decision, whether it's this year, next year or two years from now. We've also laid out a plan for Bill to be involved with me, helping me run the business, helping me train these new drivers and helping me keep these race teams going. I think Bill Elliott, as a friend and an asset, as long as I'm in business will probably be involved with me in some way, shape or form."

"I had hope, but we didn't really sit down and talk about it at that time. The reason I hired him was because I knew the guy who could help me build my team and win races right off the bat. He's been our anchor. He's kind of been the rock that we've built this team around. I've been racing a long time - 30 years - and it's been one of the best experiences of my life, having a guy like Bill Elliott."

On looking at F-1 technology... "There's technology out there. Certainly we have communication with the people at McLaren, but so do some of the other teams - Hendrick with BMW and Ferrari and things like that. As the racing gets more technical, I knew five years ago as a crew chief when I was getting towards the end of my crew chief days, that someday you're not going to be able to beat that black box. I felt like I was a good crew chief, but I'm still not smarter than a computer. I knew when we started this team, if we took a little step back - there were other people who came out of the box faster than us and we took a lot of criticism, everybody expected us to win 10 races right off the bat - well, I can't do all of those things by myself. I knew in the future it was going to be about simulation and CFD and a lot of the new technology that an older crew chief like myself - and I know that sounds funny, older crew chief - but really it's a night and day difference with what we're doing with the racecars now as compared to how we set them up five years ago. One of the things that I wanted to do was build Evernham Motorsports in the shape of a Formula 1 type organization. In some ways that's hurt us, and I really think that's starting to benefit us now, and five years from now it'll even be a bigger benefit because we'll have more of a head start on the technology."

"I feel good for the people at Dodge. They're second in the manufacturer's points right now. They've made a huge commitment to this sport. When they came back in they made a long-term commitment. They're here. They're real. I think it's great, and I'm proud to be able to have gotten into victory lane for the Dodge Dealers. Dodge as a manufacturer certainly sponsors and helps all of the other cars, but specifically the Dodge Dealers are involved in sponsoring our car along with the United Auto Workers, and I'm really proud to at least get their car into victory lane."

On running Busch in 2004... "There's obviously a lot of other things that have got to fall in line, again, what we're doing with the Winston Cup cars and whatnot. I want to be able to do a couple of Busch engine programs. I would love to be able to run my own Busch car, to enter 15 times next year with Jeremy driving it because I feel like it can help that team while they're still growing. But, again, a lot of that is going to be sponsorship driven. It was pretty much a one-off deal that we did at Rockingham, and we were hoping that something good would come out of it. So, we'll see if maybe Mountain Dew and some of the people that were involved in that would be interested in continuing."

"The end result is to win the game. In order for us to win the game, my goal is a Winston Cup Championship as a car owner. I have three goals. I want to win a Winston Cup Championship as a car owner, I want to win a Daytona 500 and a Brickyard 400. Now, we've already won the Brickyard 400, so we've got to win the Daytona 500 and a Winston Cup Championship. In order to do that, just like a Rubix cube, you've got to move those pieces around to get them lined up. Now, we've certainly got some of the cube lined up and a lot of the colors lined up, but as you know if you make one wrong move with a Rubix cube sometimes you've got to start over and make a lot of other moves. Right now, we're on the right path. I expect, certainly, some bumps in the road. But if you build a good, strong organization like a Junior Johnson did and like Rick Hendrick did, sometimes people will come and go, drivers will come and go, crew chiefs will pick crew members, but if you build a good strong organization you'll eventually get there. Our goal, obviously, is to win a driver's championship for the people at Dodge."

"Our engine people have confidence. We're starting to build our own chassis, our own bodies. Certainly, the No. 19 team is 100% intact for next year. Hopefully, whatever happens with the No. 9 team, we can not lose that momentum and keep going forward."