Bill Elliott Racing Team

After racing at Daytona and taking the next two races off, Bill Elliott is back on the track for the Atlanta NASCAR Sprint Cup race. Elliott qualified his No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion for the Kobalt Tools 500 in the 34th position, with a speed of 189.021 mph and a time of 29.330 seconds.

In spite of making the show, Elliott was not pleased with his car and shared his frustrations. “We were way off in practice,” Elliott said. “It’s just so tough when you don’t run a few races and then come back.”

“I feel like I’ve got a good car but just trying to put the little pieces together makes the difference,” Elliott continued. “A tenth here and a tenth there, but if you’re off a few tenths, it just makes it frustrating.”

This weekend not only marks the return of “Awesome Bill from Dawsonville” to the race series, but also the return of the FR9 engine. The Wood Brothers, who are running a limited schedule with Elliott behind the wheel, have committed to run this engine in all of their races this season.

“There may have been an opportunity to get the new engine in our car last year, but we looked at it and saw there would have been several changes and it would have been quite expensive to go run a race or two,” Len Wood, one of the Wood Brothers, said. “That’s why it worked out better for us to just wait until this year.”

“I didn’t want to go buy headers or radiators that would become obsolete after one race,” Wood continued. “I didn’t really want to do that, so we decided to wait until this year to run it and we won’t look back.”

While driver Elliott may feel somewhat frustrated by the gap in racing, team owner Wood had a different take on racing at Daytona and then taking a break from the California and Las Vegas races.

“It’ll be good to get back to Atlanta and an unrestricted track,” Wood said. “We’re taking a car that we built last fall for Homestead.”
“They’ve massaged on that car this winter and they’re building another one just like that to go to Texas,” Wood continued. “I actually think it will run at the Charlotte test March 23rd and 24th.”

Elliott has been using his off time wisely. He has continued to coach his developmental drivers, including his son Chase, as well as seventeen year old Casey Roderick.

Like his mentor and team owner “Awesome Bill”, Roderick is running a limited ARCA schedule this year. At the most recent ARCA race, rookie Roderick made history by posting the fastest speed in practice and scoring the pole in the Tire Kingdom 150 at Palm Beach Raceway.

This was only Roderick’s second ARCA race and his first time at the road course. The car that Roderick took to the pole was one of Kasey Kahne’s road course cars that Elliott had purchased from Ray Evernham.

Roderick impressed many with his start on the pole and led 21 laps of the race. Unfortunately, he suffered mechanical problems when an axle failed and finished in the 21st position in his No. 51 Monolith Hospitality Dodge.

“It was an awesome weekend,” Roderick said. “I learned a tremendous amount; from racing on rain tires to restarts on the track.”
“Mentally there is a lot to think about during a road race,” Roderick continued. “I learned a lot of good information to take with me to the next race.”

Team owner Elliott was equally pleased for his young rookie protégé. “I am proud of what everyone did,” Elliott said. “We did everything we could except win the race. The boy (Roderick) did a good job and he had a lot of opportunities not to.”

Roderick will next race on April 13th in the CRA Super Series at Gresham Motorsports Park. His mentor “Awesome Bill” will race on Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Mary Jo Buchanan, LCSW, MPA