Q&A: Bill Elliott.

When Evernham Motorsports announced its line-up for the 2004 NASCAR season, it was revealed that veteran Bill Elliott was finally taking the first step towards retirement.

The NASCAR legend will run a reduced race schedule in the #9 Dodge Dealers/UAW entry, running alongside Busch Series standout Kasey Kahne, who will eventually succeed Elliott as the driver of the #9 car on a permanent basis. Jeremy Mayfield will continue as driver of the second Evernham entry - the #19 Dodge.

Elliott speaks here about his plans for the 2004 season and beyond, and explains the thinking behind his decisions...

Q:
What exactly was announced in New York?
Bill Elliott:
I plan to cut back and not run a full schedule next season, running 12-15 races instead. We're still looking at our sponsorship package and what we're going to do as far as the total number of events we're going to run next year. Fifteen will probably be our key number depending on how things come together. I'm looking forward to it. Kasey Kahne will be the driver of the #9 car, and I will be kinda like the driver coach for him. As good as he's been, he probably won't need much help, but still, if I
can contribute to any part of that, I'll definitely be 100 per cent.

I feel like Ray has built a great organisation. Right now, we're trying to help grow that organisation and I feel like this will be what we need to do. Right now, when I run, I'll run the #9. Otherwise, Kasey will run the #9 when I'm not racing. I know I'll run the Bud Shootout, but I probably won't run the 500. Vegas will be our first real event. We've got a plan, but we're still trying to put it all together.

Q:
Is this the first step towards getting out of the car for good?
BE:
I think that's going to be several years down the road but, eventually, yes. The way I look at it, I might get in a Busch car next year. I might run a truck some next year. I'm going to run the dirt car some next year. I'm going to run these Cup cars some next year. I'm going to do quite a bit of R&D work for Ray, developing the new chassis for him. I don't foresee myself slowing down a lot other than not just having the hectic schedule of running week in and week out as far as the Cup schedule is concerned.

We had a lot of fun the last third of the season. If we could have kept everything the same it would have probably been okay to run another full season but, realistically, I'm at a point in my life, I'm getting close to 50, and I need to slow down. I need to be able to start doing some of the things my family and Bill Elliott needs to do and this is a perfect place that I help Ray Evernham and help the new generation drivers, help look for drivers, help Ray develop his new R&D and develop his new cars, for me to take care of the fans and have some fan events over the next several years, some different kind of deals. For me, it's a great deal. I don't know that I could totally walk away, but for me this kind of leads toward a new era of what goes on in this sport. I've been in it since the mid 70s, and I've seen a lot of things happen over the
last 30 years.

Q:
What can you do to help Kasey?
BE:
I think the main thing is helping him get through the learning curve. You see a lot of guys come from the Busch side to the Cup side and it's a whole different deal. He may fall into it and may need no help. If I can just knock a few of the rough edges off now and then, and help him test and maybe suggest things, that'll be something. I don't know what it could be at this point in time, but I still like that's an area where I can help a lot. Maybe I can go and help him troubleshoot, or if he's having a little bit
of problems here and there, maybe I could step in the car and suggest some things here and there. Maybe he can teach me some things. I've had that happen also.

Q:
What was behind your decision not to run the Daytona 500?
BE:
I don't want to take their focus away from the 500. All this stuff came together. I might not run it this year and I might run it next year, I'm talking about 2005. The way everything fell together, we didn't get everything in place like we wanted to. We've got a good outline, but yet the main key that I don't want to do, I don't want to take Ray's focus off the 500 with Kasey and Jeremy. I would like to go in and run the Bud Shootout because I'm qualified for it and Kasey's not. Maybe I can help them get a jump start on the 500. Who knows? If things work out, you might end up running it or not. Right now, we don't know.

Q:
What can you say to your fans who don't want to see you get out of the car?
BE:
The way I look at it, there's got to be a time when you've got to step back. Let's say, for example, you started the season and got hurt and couldn't run anymore. You've seen that so much in the past. We don't live forever. We don't drive forever. We don't do a lot of things forever. It would be nice to do it, but I feel like this is an opportunity for the fans where I can still run some events. I may run the Busch car somewhere, I may run the dirt car, I may run the truck. This might give me an
opportunity to be somewhere where that fan would not normally get to see me. We'll probably do some specialty fan events that's a little different from what's been done in the past. To me, it's an era where I won't be there every week, but I'm still going to have a presence. I'll still run some, and I think it's a good opportunity.

Q:
How good is Kasey? Can he be the next Ryan Newman or Jimmie Johnson?
BE:
I don't see why not. He ended up winning his Busch race at Homestead. It seems like he's got a pretty good handle on what he wants. If Ray and all of us find out exactly what he needs quick enough, I don't see why not. Ray's got some great equipment right now. We'll get the chemistry of the driver and the team together as quick as we can, and I think that's going to be a key part.

Q:
What are the speciality events for the fans?
BE:
We're thinking about doing some large events at some races over the next several years to get the fans involved. We'll be more specific. We've got an outline of what we're going to do, but we'll give you more specifics probably in early January.

Q:
What tracks are you thinking about for your races?
BE:
I'll probably go to all the races at the first of the year, even when I'm not racing, and probably miss a few of them toward the end of the year. The races I'd love to run would be the Michigans, California, maybe Pocono, Indy and go from there. We've got to put a lot of things in place yet.

Q:
Would you spot for Kasey?
BE:
Whatever it takes.