Eager Elliott Perseveres Despite All of the Bumps and Bruises

FONTANA —  Those who saw Bill Elliott’s car whack the wall last Sunday at Talladega and then slide along on its roof, flames spurting from underneath, may want to rub their eyes when they see the lanky redhead climb through the window of his Ford for Sunday’s California 500.

“It was a lick all right, as hard a lick as I’ve ever taken in all my [23] years racing,” Elliott said Thursday during a lull in shooting a TV commercial.

“I’m a little sore still--real sore, in fact--but I’m ready to race. I’m just glad I didn’t break anything like I did two years ago at Talladega. That wasn’t as hard a lick, but a worse ordeal.”

In the 1996 accident, although it was not as violent as last Sunday’s, Elliott broke his left thigh bone. He had to undergo a three-hour operation and missed seven races.

“I was so relieved to be able to move around and actually walk to the ambulance,” he said. “When I got home Sunday and it was hurting to take a breath, I kept thinking, ‘This is a piece of cake, compared to two years ago.’ ”

He was recovered enough Thursday to run through take after take on the Speedway parking lot, simulating a pit stop, during which a crewman hands him a sack of French fries.

Elliott blames restricter-plate racing as the primary cause of the accident, which was triggered when Ward Burton’s car tapped Dale Earnhardt’s Chevrolet, sending it spinning into the rear of Elliott’s car. That turned Elliott sideways, straight into the outside wall.

“As long as all the cars are pitting under the green, the racing’s fine because the cars sort themselves out,” Elliott said. “But when they threw that yellow [caution flag] for debris, it brought everyone back together and that’s when it gets dangerous.

“If you notice, the accident occurred after only a few [nine] laps after we resumed racing. When we’re all bunched up, anything can happen. And usually does. What you don’t know is if it’s going to be in the front of the back. I obviously was at the wrong place, at the wrong time.

“I don’t like restricter-plate racing at all.”

Talladega and Daytona, the two fastest Winston Cup tracks, are the only two where NASCAR has such a carburetor rule, designed to reduce speeds.

Fortunately, Elliott’s crew had installed extra safety features in his car before the Talladega race--an extra window net and extra padding on the left side of his seat.

“I never saw it coming,” he said of the accident. “But that extra padding came in handy. I couldn’t believe what was happening, I was actually in front of the accident until Dale’s front end caught me in the back. One minute we’re going through the tri-oval and the next I’m turned sideways, going toward the fence.

“There was nothing I could do except hang on.”

Elliott had led two laps and was running fourth at the time, but all he got for the day were aches and pain and 39th place. It was the first time this year he has finished outside of the top 15.

After nine races, Elliott is eighth in points, 213 behind leader Rusty Wallace. He has not finished better than eighth since 1992, when he was second to the late Alan Kulwicki.

And it has been 10 years since he won his only championship. His greatest year, however, was in 1985, when he won the Winston Million and became known as Million Dollar Bill from Dawsonville.”

The Georgia driver holds a warm spot in his heart for Southern California. It was at Riverside’s road course that he won his first Winston Cup race in 1983. Since then, he has won 39 more, but none since Darlington in 1994.

“I just hope we have a better time here [at the California Speedway] than we did last year. We had a carburetor problem, we didn’t qualify very well [17th] and didn’t do much of anything very well.

“We hope we get a better handle on it this year. We’ll get a better idea tomorrow morning when we get on the track. We haven’t seen the track since last year, but not testing on a track like this doesn’t make a lot of difference.”

Practice opens today at 9:30 a.m. with qualifying at 1 p.m. The first 25 positions will be set today, with the rest determined in a second qualifying session Saturday at 11 a.m.

Elliott will be concerned with more than just his No. 94 Taurus today, as his protege-teammate, Jerry Nadeau, will be trying to qualify the No. 13 car that Elliott co-owns with Miami Dolphin quarterback Dan Marino.

Notes

Ken Schrader, who made it look easy in winning last year’s Auto Club 200 for Winston West cars, made it look even easier Thursday in qualifying for this year’s race, Saturday, on the two-mile D-shaped California Speedway.

The Winston Cup veteran, who will also race in Sunday’s California 500, ran a lap in his Chevrolet Monte Carlo at a record 179.623 mph. The old mark was 179.520, set last year by David Green, who is not entered this year.

The race will start at noon Saturday.

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California 500 Schedule

* Today: Winston West practice, 8:30 a.m., qualifying, noon, for positions 26-38; Winston Cup practice, 9:30 a.m., qualifying, 1 p.m., for positions 1-25.

* Saturday: Winston Cup practice, 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., qualifying, 11 a.m., for positions 26-36; Auto Club 200 Winston West race (100 laps), noon; Pontiac True Value IROC race (50 laps), 2:30 p.m.

* Sunday: California 500 (250 laps), 12:30 p.m.