Bill Elliott ran McDonald's colors from 1994-2000, when he raced for himself under the Ford banner. Credit: Autostock

Elliott hopes to increase schedule in 2005

Veteran surprises with third-place starting spot

FONTANA, Calif., -- The "old man" of NASCAR nearly pulled off the run of the day Friday at California Speedway.

Bill Elliott, back in McDonald's colors for the first time this season, surprised nearly everyone -- including himself -- with a lap of 186.307 mph around the two-mile California Speedway oval, a speed that was surpassed only by polesitter Brian Vickers and Elliott's teammate, Jeremy Mayfield.

Bill Elliott

It would have been Elliott's 100th front-row start in his 736th career NASCAR event, except that Mayfield was told by his crew, "Don't that let old man beat you."

"We unloaded and we were really bad and you ask yourself what's wrong," Elliott said. "Then you go out and qualify and run decent and it puts it all in perspective.

"I kinda of surprised myself. I asked (team director Sammy Johns) what we ran and he told me and I thought he was kidding."

In actuality, Elliott had no thoughts of winning the Bud Pole. He was just trying to make sure the No. 98 Dodge made Sunday's Pop Secret 500 as one of the top 38 qualifiers.

"For me not having any points and everything you've got to struggle through each and every week, especially when you come back on a limited deal," he said. "It was good. I was really impressed. These guys do a heck of a job. To go from so far back to so far forward ...."

Elliott said running only a handful of races this season after so many years of being full-time driver has its ups and downs.

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"I think you've got to look at it as a two-fold deal," said Elliott, ninth on NASCAR's all-time list with 44 career victories. "We stay fresher by running a limited deal, but you lose a little sharpness from not running every week.

"On the other side, you've got Jeremy and Kasey (Kahne) running every week and you can keep up with what's going on. This stuff don't change that much from the standpoint of week-in and week-out."

Elliott said the key to running part-time is getting enough seat time to stay familiar with what the car can do.

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"I just get maybe a little bit rusty, but I've been trying to run a lot," he said. "We've been testing a lot and that's kinda gotten me back where I need to be.

"It may take me a little time to figure out the particulars, like coming here and not running here in the spring trying to see where I am as far as the setup goes for (Saturday morning)."

Knowing what he now knows about being "partially retired," Elliott said he'd like to increase the number of races on his 2005 calendar.

"Ten to 12 races is still what my goal is," he said. "I don't know that I want to do any more than that. For this year, I've not really done enough. We've tested a good bit the last few weeks and I've got comfortable with the car."

With McDonald's on board for California and Atlanta, that put a little more pressure on Elliott to perform -- especially knowing that the No. 98 had no provisionals.

"This is my first race back with McDonald's in a number of years and having them on the car, I'm really proud of that association," said Elliott, named NASCAR's most popular driver 16 times. "I wanted to do them some good.

"I didn't want to get in the position where we didn't make the race or had to do something else. I just went out there and said, 'I've got to go.' That's what we ended up with, and I don't know what we could have done to be any better."

It doesn't sound like Elliott is trading a steering wheel for shuffleboard equipment any time soon, and that bodes poorly for all those "young guns" on the Nextel Cup circuit.

"I'm just proud for all the guys and for McDonald's to be back for this race and Atlanta in about six weeks," he said. "I'm looking forward to doing them some good. Hopefully we can turn things around and put things better in sight for next year."