In this long-awaited autobiography, the legendary Bill Elliott details his childhood in rural North Georgia, building cars from scratch, struggling on the anonymous small-time tracks of the South to his against-the-odds rise to the pinnacle of NASCAR stardom: Winston Cup Champion.
From Daytona to Talladega, from Bristol to Sonoma, ride shoulder to shoulder with Elliott as he battles Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip, Ricky Rudd, Rusty Wallace, and Alan Kulwicki for NASCAR's ultimate prize. Through Elliott's eyes we meet the colorful cast of old-school characters who built NASCAR: Cale Yarborough, Junior Johnson, the Allisons, Carl Kiekhaefer, and, of course, the France family. We join Bill in the car (and under it) as he sets the all-time record for the fastest official speed ever recorded in a stock car (a record he still holds today).
Learn the secret—revealed for the first time—behind the Elliott family's unquestioned mastery of the sport's super speedways. Watch NASCAR grow from a southern diversion into a national phenomenon, and see Bill Elliott grow with it, ultimately becoming one of the sport's most popular heroes. In 1985 Elliott captured the inaugural Winston Million and became the first NASCAR driver ever to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Three years later he captured the Winston Cup Championship. He went on to be voted NASCAR Driver of the Decade for the 1980s by NASCAR fans. He was also voted Most Popular Driver sixteen times.
Elliott also shares his thoughts on the dark side of the racing life: the stresses it can place on relationships, the ever-present physical risks, and the weight of fame. He addresses the racing-related deaths of competitors and friends. He is candid and critical in discussing the intense rivalry between him and the late Dale Earnhardt, and he sheds new light on their storied relationship as well as on Earnhardt's shocking death. Elliott discusses the future of NASCAR with critiques of its management and restrictor plates, and he takes on the controversial issues of track and driver safety.
A window into the compelling personality of Bill Elliott, as well as a primer on the ascent of America's fastestgrowing sport, this is the definitive insider's view of the rising NASCAR nation.
For a rocky patch of Earth, Dawson County, Georgia, sure does grow good roots. Elliotts have been calling this hilly section of rural north Georgia home for a long time—as long as I can remember, anyway. Our little corner of the county is just outside "downtown" Dawsonville on Route 183. When I was growing up, if you counted parents, spouses, kids, and "Mama" Reece, there were twelve members of the Elliott clan living in four brick houses alongside this winding, wooded country road.
While both Mother's and Daddy's families go back several generations here, I only really knew the last generation or two. I never knew my father's father, Ervin Elliott. He died well before I was born. I do know that he was into farming, as was just about everybody back in those days. Daddy's mom was a different story. I knew her quite well and loved her. Ruby Elliott lived into her nineties. In fact, up into her late eighties she was actually still driving a car. I guess that was a pretty good omen.
My daddy was born in nearby Lumpkin Campground in 1924. The Campground was a settlement that sprung from an old Methodist meeting ground. If you've ever seen one of those revival meetings in the movies, that's what the place looked like: as country as it gets. George Elliott was the second of four children born to Ervin and Ruby. He and his siblings all came up the old-fashioned way: hard work, independence, and family. My aunt Louise was the oldest. She is about eighty years old now, but we rarely get to see her. Sadly, she lost her husband to suicide in the 1970s, and she's been a bit of a recluse ever since. Then there was Daddy, one of the biggest influences on my life; much more about him in a moment.
After Daddy came my uncle Ralph. You want to talk about a tough guy. As a young man, Uncle Ralph worked in a rock quarry down in Cumming, Georgia. One day he was trying to clean out the bin where they store the rocks before they dump them into the truck. Well, he was in the bin when someone accidentally dumped the rocks. The load buried him alive. He just about died from that, but now in his eighties, he's getting along reasonably well.
The youngest is Ethel Mae. If you ever go down to Gordon Pirkle's Pool Room, the center of Dawsonville's social scene, you'll see three things. On the walls you'll see all kinds of press clippings from my racing career. On the ceiling you'll see the grill from a Thunderbird I wrecked at Martinsville a few years back, and across the room you might very well see Ethel Mae. She's in her seventies now and she's still a piece of work. A great lady.
Through military service and education, Dad traveled more than his parents or any of his siblings. By contrast, my mother, Mildred Reece Elliott, spent virtually her entire life in the Dawsonville area. Records show her childhood address simply as "Route 2, Dawsonville." Mom was fiercely intelligent. She completed high school at the ripe old age of fourteen and was valedictorian to boot. We still have the original and meticulously handwritten manuscript of her valedictory speech. Here's an excerpt taken from a section where she's talking about graduation as the beginning of a voyage.
"Whether that voyage will be prosperous or disastrous . . . God knoweth. But this we know: It will depend on ourselves—upon the use we make of the gifts and powers we've been given—upon the ends toward which we choose to work."
I happen to believe those words are universally true, but they would turn out to be particularly prophetic as far as her children were concerned. Mother was really a pioneer.
Bill Elliott and his wife, Cindy, split their time between Georgia and Colorado.Chris Millard has authored and coauthored several books, including Golf's 100 Toughest Holes and Nicklaus by Design. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.www.billelliott.com
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