Bill Elliott

His parents were Erving "George" Elliott Jr. (1924-1998) and Mildred Reece (1921-1991) His father George created a lumber company and loved racing, and later created a speed shop where Bill's brothers, Ernie (born 1947) and Dan (born 1951), worked.

His father was also a Ford person and later created a Ford dealership as there were none in the area.

Elliott has two daughters, Starr and Brittany, and one son, William Clyde II (nicknamed "Chase").

He qualified 34th in a field of 36 cars, and finished 33rd; Elliott only lasted 32 laps that day before the oil pump failed in his Ford Torino.

Elliott toiled for five years in the Winston Cup Series without corporate sponsorship, and along the way showed flashes that he could compete with the established veterans of the sport.

William Clyde Elliott Sr. (born October 8, 1955), also known as "Awesome Bill from Dawsonville", "Million Dollar Bill", or "Wild Bill" is an American former professional stock car racing driver.

He last competed in the Camping World Superstar Racing Experience part-time in 2022.

William Clyde Elliott was born in Dawsonville, Georgia on October 8, 1955.

According to his autobiography, many generations of Elliotts resided there.

He was named after two relatives and is the youngest of three boys.

Driving a car owned by his father, George Elliott, Elliott made his first Winston Cup Series start at Rockingham in 1976.

After 115 starts beginning in 1976, and eight 2nd-place finishes between 1979 and 1983, Elliott finally broke through and won his first Winston Cup race in the final race of the 1983 season — the Winston Western 500 at Riverside.

In mid-1977, Elliott bought a Mercury Montego from Bobby Allison after his split from Penske Racing to replace the inferior Torino, and the move paid off.

In the fall of 1980, Elliott gained his first major sponsor in the form of $500 from Harry Melling of Melling Racing in the 1980 National 500 at Charlotte.

Melling would extend his contract and give the team enough sponsorship to run a 12 race schedule in 1981.

In the 1981 season, he had one Top 5 and seven Top 10 finishes in 13 races, including the team's first pole in the spring race at Darlington.

On December 1, 1981, Melling bought the team from Elliott's father George.

In 1982, Elliott continued to show more and more flashes, and continued to flirt with victory lane more and more, as he finished the season with eight Top 5 finishes, and nine Top 10 finishes which included three runner-up finishes in the World 600 at Charlotte to Neil Bonnett, the Firecracker 400 at Daytona to Bobby Allison, and the fall race at Charlotte to Harry Gant.

In 1983, Elliott picked up four more 2nd place finishes in the season, which included finishing runner-up in the Daytona 500 to Cale Yarborough, runner-up at Rockingham to Richard Petty, runner-up to Ricky Rudd in the summer race at the road course Riverside, and runner-up to Bobby Allison in the Southern 500 at Darlington.

With his first win to go along with 12 Top 5s and 22 Top 10 finishes, Elliott finished the season in 3rd place in the final championship point standings of 1983.

Elliott won NASCAR's Most Popular Driver Award a record 16 times (1984-1988, 1991–2000, 2002).

Elliott gained full sponsorship from Coors in 1984 to the tune of $400,000 and won three races – the Michigan 400 at Michigan, the Miller High Life 500 at Charlotte, and the American 500 at Rockingham.

He also collected four poles and finished 3rd in the final points standings for the second year in a row.

The 1984 season also brought Elliott his first season of winning NASCAR's Most Popular Driver Award, and would begin a stretch of five consecutive years, from 1984 to 1988, where he would win that award.

Elliott also holds the distinction of recording a track record at Talladega Superspeedway of 6 consecutive pole positions from 1985 to 1987.

In 1985, Elliott made NASCAR history by winning the first-ever Winston Million, a million-dollar bonus to any driver that could win three out of the four crown jewel races of NASCAR in a single season: The Daytona 500 at Daytona, the Winston 500 at Talladega, the World 600 at Charlotte, and the Southern 500 at Darlington.

In a year dominated by Elliott, Bill went on to win a "NASCAR modern-era single season record" of 11 superspeedway races (with 4 "season sweeps": Atlanta, Pocono, Michigan, and Darlington) and 11 poles, with three of those 11 wins being in the Daytona 500, the Winston 500, and the Southern 500, earning Bill the "Winston Million Dollar Bonus" and earning him the nickname "Million Dollar Bill".

Elliott holds the track record for fastest qualifying speed at Talladega at 212.809 mph and Daytona International Speedway at 210.364 mph, both of which were set in 1987; the mark at Talladega is the fastest qualifying speed for any NASCAR race ever.

His accolades include the 1988 Winston Cup Championship and garnering 44 wins in that series, including two Daytona 500 victories in 1985 and 1987, three Southern 500 victories in 1985, 1988, and 1994, one Winston 500 victory in 1985, one Brickyard 400 victory in 2002, one "The Winston All-Star Race" (non-points race) win in 1986, and a record four consecutive wins at Michigan International Speedway between 1985 and 1986 (7 wins overall at Michigan, the most at any one racetrack in his career).

With the usage of restrictor plates at Daytona and Talladega since 1988, it is highly unlikely that these two qualifying speed records will ever be topped.

Elliott was named one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998, and has been inducted into numerous racing and motorsports Halls of Fame, including being inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 1998, and being an inaugural inductee into the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame in 2002.

He withdrew his name from the ballot for that award after winning it in 2002.

In 2005, the Georgia State Legislature declared October 8 as Bill Elliott Day in the state of Georgia.

He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America on August 15, 2007, inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame at Darlington in 2015, and into the 2015 class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Elliott has also been honored by the state legislature with a stretch of roadway (the entirety of Georgia State Route 183) in his native Dawson County renamed Elliott Family Parkway.

He soon earned his first Top 10 finish in the Southern 500 (10th), and his first top-5 finish 2 years later in the same race, finishing 2nd to race winner (and Elliott's boyhood hero) David Pearson.

The 2014 NASCAR Nationwide Series champion and the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion, Chase Elliott currently competes in the NASCAR Cup Series for Hendrick Motorsports in the No. 9 Chevrolet.

Brittany Elliott joined the US Air Force Security Forces.

Elliott's son Chase was the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion.

The Elliotts became the third father-son NASCAR champions in history, along with Lee and Richard Petty, and Ned and Dale Jarrett.