Bill Elliott Q&A

"This is a little more special. Each year you come back and achieve a new goal, it's a little more special. To come back here and sit on the pole, I think it's more deserved by the boys back at the shop than it is by me. Ray (Evernham) coming in and supplying the belief was important too."



"I was thinking about it earlier this morning when I ran 210 here. Of all the things that have ever impressed me, I think that did it more than anything else, running at 210 in '87. The thing about running those speeds on this track back then, when you left pit road you didn't know if you were coming back. Now, you've got an idea you're coming back. It's just how long is it going to take you to get around before you get back...? Now, you sit out there and hold the cars wide open and it skips across the race track. It's uncomfortable, but you just hang on. Back then, you had to really drive the car."



"Yeah, this stuff can consume you week in and week out from the car owners' side. I look back on my career and it's consisted of a lot of inconsistencies. We've had some awful strong runs in the past few years, but we've been so inconsistent. Now, I'm trying to focus more and if we get some consistency, that will be more important than anything. If you can put yourself in a consistent mode every week, then you can compete with the Yates deal and the Hendrick deal and you can win races."



"I've always said in the past that if you run well at Daytona - not necessarily win, but just run well - it can set the stage for the rest of the season. Last year, we came down here and qualified third and I felt like we'd won it. This time around, it's a good start, but we're going to have to keep chipping away at it. Regardless of what happens in the 500 itself, we need to continue to focus when we get to Rockingham and Vegas and Atlanta and places like that."