Bill Elliott is probably the most popular NASCAR driver, having won the NASCAR Most Popular Driver Award sixteen times. This is a record for the nomination which started on 1956 and invites fans throughout the United States to vote for their favourite driver. Bill decided to withdraw his name for nomination in 2003 after winning the award in 2002.

Bill Elliott 1985 NASCAR Champion (Courtsey of Ted Van Pelt via Wiki Commons)

Born William Clyde Elliott on the 8th October 1955 in Dawsonville, Georgia he is the youngest of thee sons, Ernie, Dan and himself. The family have lived in the town for many generations and his father, George, ran a lumber business. His father loved racing and cars, particularly Fords, and created a speed shop and a Ford dealership in the town. George Elliott encouraged his three sons to accompany him to the race track saying “I got my boys into racing because I wanted them to stay away from the back roads. If they were going to be driving fact, I wanted them to do it in the right place. Before too long the boys were behind the wheel, driving at local events. Bills parents recognised that he had a natural talent for the sport as he could be seen driving around the track at high speed with confidence and competence so they encouraged him to enter more races and in 1976 on 29th February Bill entered his first Winston Cup race at the North Carolina Speedway. Sometimes it was difficult to find the entry fee but the family always managed it and it paid off when Bill won his first pole on 10th April 1981 at Darlington Raceway. In 1982 Harry Melling, a business man, offered to sponsor him so that he could continue racing and in 1983 Bill started his first full season finding victory at the Riverside International Raceway in his 117th Winston Race Cup. As time passed his success grew and in 1985 he won 11 races, together with 11 poles before winning the first Winston Million in NASCAR history. His victory in winning the Daytona 500, the Winston 500 at Talladega (with a record average speed of 186.288MPH) and the Southern 500 at Darlington gave him the million dollar prize bonus and one of his nicknames “Million Dollar Bill”, the other being "Awesome Bill from Dawsonville". With this victory he was to become the second NASCAR driver to be featured on the cover of the Sports Illustrated.

In 1995 Bill started his own team while being sponsored by McDonalds. Bill fielded his own team for the Winston Cup for five years, from 1995 to 2000 and although he failed to win a race during this time he managed to get two top ten finishes in the championship standings. He sold his team in 2000 to Ray Evernham and began to drive #9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Intrepid in 2001,winning the pole for the 2001 Dayton 500, finishing in the top 5 in fifth place.

In 2005 Bill went into semi retirement having a reduced schedule of races. He has been able to devote more time to his fans by scheduling a variety of fan events for them. He has created the Bill Elliott Driver Development programme that operates from the Bill Elliott Racing shop in Dawsonville. GA to guide young drivers through the highs and lows of life in auto racing based on the principles of teamwork, strong work ethic and positive attitude. He is also able to spend more time with his family. It is said of Bill that although he is quiet and unpretentious he has amazed his fans with his brilliant ability through three cracking decades. Bills autobiography "Awesome Bill from Dawsonville" was published by Harper Entertainment in 2006.

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